The influence of African elephants on litter and soil nitrogen attributes in mopane woodland in Hwange National Park, northwest Zimbabwe

Little is known about modification of nutrient fluxes through elephant-induced woodland change. We assessed litter quality, soil N attributes, and N transformations in five 20 × 20 m plots each established on sites of low, medium, and high elephant utilization categorized using dung-count surveys in three mopane woodland patches in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe. Litter standing crop significantly declined but litter N, lignin, lignin:N, condensed tannins, and total phenols increased with increasing elephant utilization, peaking at intermediate levels of elephant utilization. Medium elephant utilization sites had more than twice the nitrate pools in low and high elephant utilization sites (p