Boma Occupation Time (BOT) data archive

In sub-Saharan African, mobile overnight livestock corrals (“bomas”) can be used by managers to precipitate ecological transitions from areas dominated by bare ground to productive ecosystem hotspots (“glades”) that are attractive to wild herbivores. In Kenya, East Africa, we asked how long bomas must be occupied by cattle before undergoing a state change to glade ecosystem hotspots. We tested five durations of boma occupation: zero, four, seven, fourteen and twenty-eight days. Each treatment was replicated five times, and we assessed vegetation as well as herbivore dung (as a proxy of use) at multiple time points over three years following boma abandonment. See Veblen, K.E. and L.M. Porensky. Thresholds are in the eye of the beholder: plants and wildlife respond differently to short-term cattle corrals. Ecological Applications,for further details.