• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Friday, October 31, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Biology

Human activity disrupting iconic African ecosystem, Syracuse biologist finds

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
April 1, 2019
in Biology
Reading Time: 2 mins read
0
IMAGE
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

Syracuse University professor notes up to 75-percent drop in larger wildlife species populations in parts of Serengeti-Mara ecosystem

IMAGE

Credit: Syracuse University

A researcher at Syracuse University’s College of Arts and Sciences has confirmed that Africa’s Serengeti-Mara ecosystem–one of the largest, most protected on Earth–may be imperiled, due to increased human activity at its border.

Biology professor Mark Ritchie is part of an international study monitoring human activity, wildlife populations, vegetation and soils in and around the iconic ecosystem, which covers more than 40,000 square miles and includes the Serengeti National Park in northern Tanzania and the Maasai Mara National Reserve in East Africa.

Drawing on more than 40 years of data from the area, he and the team have observed a 400-percent spike in the human population in some areas and up to a 75-percent drop in larger wildlife species populations, particularly on the Kenyan side.

Their findings are the subject of an article in the journal Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2019).

“The human toll on plants, animals and soils near the borders is large,” says co-author Ritchie, who specializes in biodiversity and environmental science in A&S. “Human agriculture and livestock-keeping is squeezing the wildlife into the core [protected areas] by damaging habitat outside the protected areas and disrupting the migration routes of wildebeest, zebra and gazelle.”

Every year, approximately a million wildebeest, half a million gazelle and 200,000 zebra make the perilous trek from the Serengeti park to the Maasai Mara reserve in Kenya in search of water and grazing land.

Research shows that the shift in land-use by wildlife has produced detrimental changes in vegetation and soils deep inside protected borders, and could make the ecosystem less resilient to future shocks, such as drought or further climate change.

“Keeping people out of an area to protect biodiversity is not enough. We need to integrate human activities and conservation outside the reserves, as well,” says Ritchie, stressing the interdependence of land both inside and outside the protected areas.

He maintains that even for reasonably well-patrolled reserves, such as the Serengeti and Mara, alternative strategies are needed to sustain the coexistence of local people and wildlife in the surrounding landscapes.

The current strategy seems to produce a “human fence” of increasingly hard boundaries, which poses a major risk to people and wildlife, Ritchie adds.

“This study highlights the importance of long-term data to understanding environmental change,” said Matt Kane, a program director at the National Science Foundation, which helps fund the research. “Insights gained from these studies reveal that human expansion along the boundaries of protected conservation areas are still impacting wildlife, with cascading effects on plants and soil-microbes. This, in turn, results in a less resilient environment with potentially negative consequences for the increasing local human population.”

###

Media Contact
Daryl Lovell
[email protected]

Original Source

http://thecollege.syr.edu/news/2019/mark-ritchie-serengeti.html

Tags: BiologyEarth ScienceEcology/EnvironmentGeology/SoilPlant SciencesPollution/Remediation
Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

blank

Flaviviridae Family Undergoes Major Taxonomic Overhaul

October 31, 2025
From Nutrients to Power: How Leucine Boosts Mitochondrial Energy Production

From Nutrients to Power: How Leucine Boosts Mitochondrial Energy Production

October 31, 2025

Inside the Nuclear Pore of Arabidopsis thaliana

October 31, 2025

Prefusion Structure and Neutralization of HSV-1 Glycoprotein B

October 31, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • Sperm MicroRNAs: Crucial Mediators of Paternal Exercise Capacity Transmission

    1293 shares
    Share 516 Tweet 323
  • Stinkbug Leg Organ Hosts Symbiotic Fungi That Protect Eggs from Parasitic Wasps

    312 shares
    Share 125 Tweet 78
  • ESMO 2025: mRNA COVID Vaccines Enhance Efficacy of Cancer Immunotherapy

    202 shares
    Share 81 Tweet 51
  • New Study Suggests ALS and MS May Stem from Common Environmental Factor

    136 shares
    Share 54 Tweet 34

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Penetrance of Key Genetic Variants Analyzed in 800,000+

Flaviviridae Family Undergoes Major Taxonomic Overhaul

Dendritome Mapping Unveils Striatal Neuron Structure

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 67 other subscribers
  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.