Working areas

• Ecology of grazing and browsing systems
• Large mammals and ecosystem functioning
• Large herbivore ecology
• Community ecology
• Plant-animal interactions
• Consumer-resource feedbacks
• Role of spatial scale and heterogeneity
• Experimental ecology
• Savanna ecology
• Behavioral ecology
  

Research group

Wildlife ecology

Research interest

          My broad interest in ecology tends to focus on the functioning of grazing and browsing systems. Mammalian herbivores are major drivers of terrestrial ecosystems worldwide and changes in their abundance can have strong ecological and socio-economic consequences. With my research program I aim to provide governments, industries and NGO’s with the necessary scientific basis to deal with these consequences. I study the mechanisms that drive herbivore abundance, community assemblages and their role in ecosystem functioning. Changes in herbivore numbers are often mediated by changes in their food resource. This relation between herbivores and their resources is not passive, but includes a range of positive as well as negative feedback interactions at individual, population and community scale. I study these interactions and the factors that modify them, specifically the role of top-down (herbivores, carnivores) versus bottom-up (abiotic) factors. Hence, my work includes herbivore-plant, herbivore-herbivore and herbivore-carnivore interactions within the abiotic setting of the ecosystem. I am currently exploring the (dis)similarities between herbivore-resource interactions in browsing and grazing systems in Africa and Europe, including Swedish boreal and temperate forests. Moreover, I recently started studying how predation risk affects the impact of herbivores on the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems.


Research approach

          My research is based on two continents; Africa and Europe. I strongly believe that searching for general patterns and mechanisms in ecology will increase our insights in urgent ecological questions. An important way of finding such generalities is the comparison of systems across continents. As such, I compare mammalian herbivores and their role in European boreal and temperate forests and African savannas. I also believe in the experimental approach to increase the predictive power of a science that informs society. My work is characterised by a combination of field experiments and observational studies, from the feeding plot scale to landscape ecological analyses. I use the latest technological advances, including automated camera traps and GPS-GSM collars and combine a variety of techniques to analyze the data, such as GIS techniques and advanced statistical modelling using R. 

Research projects

Wildlife & Forestry

Scientific publications

Te Beest M., J.P.G.M. Cromsigt, J. Ngobesi, H. Olff. 2011. Managing invasions at the cost of native habitat? An experimental test of the impact of fire on the invasion of Chromolaena odorata in a South African savanna. Biological Invasions. In press.

Kerley, G.I.H., R. Kowalczyk, J.P.G.M. Cromsigt. 2011. Conservation implications of the refugee species concept and the European bison: king of the forest or refugee in a marginal habitat? Ecography. In press.

Cromsigt J.P.G.M., and Kuijper D.P.J. 2011. Revisiting the browsing lawn concept: evolutionary interactions or pruning herbivores? Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 13: 207-215.

Kuijper D.P.J., J.P.G.M. Cromsigt, B. Jędrzejewska, S. Miscicki, M. Churski,  W. Jędrzejewski, and I. Kweczlich. 2010. Bottom-up versus top-down control of tree regeneration in the Bialowieza Primeval Forest, Poland. Journal of Ecology 98: 888-899.

Kuijper D.P.J., J.P.G.M. Cromsigt, M. Churski, B. Adam, B. Jędrzejewska, and W. Jędrzejewski. 2009. Do ungulates preferentially feed in forest gaps in European temperate forest? Forest Ecology and Management 258: 1528-1535.

Cromsigt J.P.G.M., H.H.T. Prins, and H. Olff. 2009. Habitat heterogeneity as a driver of ungulate diversity and distribution patterns: interaction of body mass and digestive strategy. Diversity and Distributions 15: 513-522.

Harris G., S. Thirgood, J.G.C. Hopcraft, J.P.G.M. Cromsigt, and J. Berger. 2009. Global decline in aggregated migrations of large terrestrial mammals. Endangered Species Research 7: 55-76.

Cromsigt J.P.G.M., S.J. van Rensburg, R.S. Etienne, and H. Olff. 2009. Monitoring large herbivore diversity at different scales: comparing direct and indirect methods. Biodiversity and Conservation 18: 1219-1231.

Cromsigt J.P.G.M., and H. Olff. 2008. Dynamics of grazing lawn formation: an experimental test of the role of scale-dependent processes. Oikos 117: 1444-1452.

Cromsigt J.P.G.M. 2008. The evolution of artiodactyls. Acta Theriologica 53(3): 287-288. (Book review).

Cromsigt, J.P.G.M., and H. Olff. 2006. Resource partitioning amongst large savanna grazers mediated by local heterogeneity: an experimental approach. Ecology 87: 1532- 1541.

Cromsigt, J.P.G.M., J. Hearne, I.M.A. Heitkönig, and H.H.T. Prins. 2002. Using models in the management of Black rhino populations. Ecological Modelling 149: 203-211.

Popular publications

Kivit, H. and J.P.G.M. Cromsigt. 2009. Poolse werknemers in Hollandse Duinen. Tussen Duin & Dijk 1: 20-22 (in Dutch).

Cromsigt J.P.G.M. 2009. Wisenten in het Kraansvlak. Zoogdier 20(2): 3-6 (in Dutch).

Smit C., J. Dekker, and J.P.G.M. Cromsigt. 2008. Space for European Bison in the Netherlands and Belgium. De Levende Natuur 109(1): 32-33 (in Dutch).

Cromsigt J.P.G.M., L. Linnartz, R. Verdonschot, H. Esselink, and H. Olff. 2007. The Kraansvlak pilot: wild Bison in a Dutch context. De Levende Natuur 108(5): 206-208 (in Dutch).

Kivit H., J. Cromsigt and H. van Kleef. 2006. Searching for the role of the Bison: the Bison research in the Kraansvlak. Nieuwe Wildernis 11: 17-20 (in Dutch).


Professional reports

Cromsigt J.P.G.M. 2006. Large herbivores in space; resource partitioning among savanna grazers in a heterogeneous environment. PhD dissertation, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands.

Cromsigt J.P.G.M. 2003. Large herbivores on the move..... A ghost from the past or an indispensable element of the future Eurasian landscape? WWF International, Geneva, Switzerland .

Cromsigt J.P.G.M., V.A.A. Dijkstra, D. Wansink, and S.E. van Wieren. 2001. Estimating the quality of Dutch mammal populations. A study within the framework of the Dutch Natural Capital Index. Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands.

Cromsigt J.P.G.M., and S.E. van Wieren. 2000. Estimating the natural densities of seven Dutch mammal species. Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands.

Cromsigt J.P.G.M. 2000. The large herbivores of the Eurasian continent: a reference guide. WWF International, Geneva, Switzerland.

Cromsigt J.P.G.M. 1999. Recommendations for guidelines to evaluate whether trophy hunting schemes contribute positively to conservation. A case study on trophy-hunting on wild sheep in central Asia. TRAFFIC Europe, Brussels, Belgium