DOI: 10.5061/dryad.z612jm6kc
title: Small-scale fires interact with herbivore feedbacks to create persistent grazing lawn environments

description: Fire-herbivory feedbacks strongly influence the formation of grazing lawns
 in savanna ecosystems. Preliminary findings suggest that small-scale
 (&lt; 25 ha) fires can engineer grazing lawns by concentrating
 herbivores on the post-burn green flush; however, the persistence of such
 grazing lawns over the longer term and without repeated fire is unknown.
 We used high-resolution Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) to investigate
 the long-term effects of fire manipulation on short grass structure
 (height, cover, volume, and spatial continuity) and grazing lawn
 establishment in Kruger National Park, South Africa. We analysed the
 effects of fire exclusion and experimental burns applied over a 7-year
 period (2013-2019) followed by a one-year cessation of burning at varying
 spatial scales during the early and late dry seasons. Fires contributed a
 fourfold increase in short grass cover, regardless of fire season or size.
 The distribution of grass height differed significantly between
 fire-induced grazing lawns and recently unburnt parts of the landscape
 where controlled fires were excluded over the experimental period. The
 volume (corresponding to bulk density) of short grass on the landscape
 responded strongly to fires, with grass volume &lt;20 cm in height
 increasing with both early and late dry season fires. Early dry season
 fires caused larger and more homogeneous short grass patches. Furthermore,
 early dry season fires were more influential in increasing the cover of
 the shortest grass height class (1-5 cm). Synthesis and applications. Our
 results demonstrate that fire-induced grazing lawns can persist over the
 longer-term, even when fires are no longer applied, leading to the
 creation of vertical and horizontal heterogeneity in the grass layer.
 Small-scale fires, therefore, represent a feasible management approach to
 expanding grazing lawn extent, potentially benefiting grazer coexistence
 and diversity.
description: The dataset consists of short grass vegetation metrics (height,
 cover, volume, patch sizes) derived from drone-based LiDAR.
description: # Small-scale fires interact with herbivore feedbacks to create persistent
 grazing lawn environments This dataset contains two tabular files that
 contain UAV-LiDAR derived grass metrics across the fire treatments: 1.
 GrassHeight.csv 2. GrassMetrics - GrassMetrics Excel file has 4
 spreadsheets (GrassCover, GrassVolume, GrassPatchSize and
 GrassHeight-semivariance). #### EXCEL FILE -"GrassHeight" |
 Column name | Full column name | Description | | :---------- |
 :--------------- |
 :--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Height | Grass Height (m) | Grass height, measured in meters, for every pixel | | Treatment | Treatment | Fire season (Early dry and Late dry season) | | LiDAR\_data | LiDAR\_data | Replicate fire treatment plot (satara\_east, satara\_west and satara\_south) | | Plot\_size | Plot\_size | Fire treatment size (0.25, 5, and 25ha) | #### EXCEL FILE -"GrassMetrics" 1\. Column names and description for GrassCover Spreadsheet: | Spreadsheet column name | Full column name | Description | | :---------------------- | :------------------------ | :--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | ID |                        ID | A variable used to give a unique identifier to 20 m x 20 m grid cells | | left\_coordinate | left\_coordinate | Left X coordinate (UTM) of the 20 m x 20 m grid cell | | top\_coordinate | top\_coordinate | Top Y coordinate (UTM) of the 20 m x 20 m grid cell | | right\_coordinate | right\_coordinate | Right X coordinate (UTM) of the 20 m x 20 m grid cell | | bottom\_coordinate | bottom\_coordinate | Bottom Y coordinate (UTM) of the 20 m x 20 m grid cell | | Treatment | Treatment | Fire season (Early dry and Late dry season) | | Plot\_size | Plot\_size | Fire treatment size (0.25, 5 and 25ha) | | LiDAR\_data | LiDAR\_data | Replicate fire treatment plot (satara\_east, satara\_west and satara\_south) | | Area | Area | Area of the 20 m x 20 m grid cell | | X5cm | 5cm height threshold | Grass cover estimate at 5cm height threshold/cutoff | | X10cm | 10cm height threshold | Grass cover estimate at 10cm height threshold/cutoff | | X20cm | 20cm height threshold | Grass cover estimate at 20cm height threshold/cutoff | | X30cm | 30cm height threshold | Grass cover estimate at 30cm height threshold/cutoff | | X40cm | 40cm height threshold | Grass cover estimate at 40cm height threshold/cutoff | | X50cm | 50cm height threshold | Grass cover estimate at 50cm height threshold/cutoff | 2\. Column names and description for GrassVolume Spreadsheet: | Spreadsheet column name | Full column name | Description | | :---------------------- | :---------------- | :--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | ID | ID | A variable used to give a unique identifier to 20 m x 20 m grid cells | | Height\_class | Height\_class | Height bins (1-5,5-10,10-20,20-30,30-40 and 40-50 cm) | | Treatment | Treatment | Fire season (Early dry and Late dry season) | | Plot\_size | Plot\_size | Fire treatment size (0.25, 5 and 25ha) | | LiDAR\_data | LiDAR\_data | Replicate fire treatment plot (satara\_east, satara\_west and satara\_south) | | Volume\_proportion | Volume proportion | Proportion of volume at 20 x 20 m grid scale at different Height bins | 3\. Column names and description for GrassPatchSize Spreadsheet: | Spreadsheet column name | Full column name | Description | | :---------------------- | :--------------- | :--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | ID | ID | A variable used to give a unique identifier to each grass patch | | total.area | Total area  | Area of short grass (upto 5cm height) patch (m2) | | Treatment | Treatment | Fire season (Early dry and Late dry season) | | Plot\_size | Plot\_size | Fire treatment size (0.25, 5 and 25ha) | | LiDAR\_data | LiDAR\_data | Replicate fire treatment plot (satara\_east, satara\_west and satara\_south) | 4\. Column names and description for GrassHeight-semivariance Spreadsheet: | Spreadsheet column name | Full column name | Description | | :---------------------- | :--------------- | :--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | ID | ID | A variable used to give a unique identifier to pixels up to 5 cm height | | distance | distance | Spatial separation (m) between pairs of grass heights within the fire treatment | | gamma | gamma | Semi-variance which quantifies the spatial variability or dissimilarity of the grass heights as a function of distance | | Treatment | Treatment | Fire season (Early dry and Late dry season) | | Plot\_size | Plot\_size | Fire treatment size (0.25, 5 and 25ha) | | LiDAR\_data | LiDAR\_data | Replicate fire treatment plot (satara\_east, satara\_west and satara\_south) |