Elephants Play a Key Role in Maintaining Biodiversity in Africa, Mitigating Climate [Study]

Elephants are significant in the survival of the Earth. A new study discovered how they play a significant role in creating forests.

African Elephants Helps Fight Global Warming

Elephants, the largest living animals, are popular for their size. But unknown to many, they also have a massive contribution to the sustenance of the biodiversity of forests in Africa. Without them, the rainforest of central and west Africa would lose between 6 and 9% of their ability to capture atmospheric carbon, which would worsen global warming.

Stephen Blake, Ph.D., senior author of the paper and assistant professor of biology at Saint Louis University, who dedicated his career to studying elephants, said elephants had been hunted for millennia, so they are already critically endangered, EurekAlert! reported.

Although many love these loving and gentle animals, it doesn't stop the killing of elephants. The shift of argument from elephant conversation to focusing on their roles in forest conservation and biodiversity doesn't work as well.

Blake noted that when forest elephants become extinct, it will be a global disservice to the efforts to mitigate climate change. He added that it is high time to acknowledge the significance of elephants for climate mitigation to generate support for elephant conservation.

The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

How Elephants Help Biodiversity in Africa

Trees with a low carbon density grow faster than trees with a higher carbon density, outcompeting other plants and trees to reach the sunlight. Meanwhile, trees with a high carbon density grow more slowly but require less sunlight and can flourish in the shade.

Elephants and other megaherbivores affect the abundance of these trees because they feed more heavily on the low-carbon-density trees, which are more appetizing and nutritious than the high-carbon-density species. This has a knock-on effect on the population of these trees.

It "thins" the forest in much the same way that a forester would do it to encourage the growth of the species that they prefer. The thinning helps the high-carbon trees thrive by reducing their competition from other trees and providing them with more light, space, and soil nutrients.

Also, elephants do a lot of damage when they eat by stripping leaves from trees, ripping off a whole branch or uprooting a tree. In this way, they eliminate high carbon density trees' competitors.

They also help disperse the seeds of high carbon density trees that often produce large nutritious fruits. Blake even called them the "gardeners of the forest." Elephants reportedly feed on high carbon density trees and eliminate the weeds or the low carbon density trees. In general, they work hard to maintain the diversity in the forest.

Elephant Conservation

Blake said the illegal killing of elephants and illegal trade remains active despite elephants being protected under national and international law. There used to be 10 million elephants in Africa, but there are less than 500,000 at present.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is an international treaty developed in 1973 to regulate trade in wildlife species, including elephants, according to Seaworld Parks & Entertainment.

The African Elephant Conservation Act was passed in 1988. This law allows the U.S. government to take strict action against illegal ivory imports and authorizes government funding for elephant field conservation projects. The provisions established by the law banned elephant ivory imports in the United States. However, buying, selling, and transporting African elephant ivory purchased before the ban is legal.

African elephants were listed in Appendix I in 1990. The populations of elephants in Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia grew, so they were listed in Appendix II in 1997.

Blake said humans have the choice - to hunt these highly social and intelligent animals and watch them extinct or stop the illegal activity, save the elephants and save the planet.

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