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Dual‐Locus Metabarcoding Reveals Dry‐Season Dietary Differentiation Between Elephants and Impalas in a South African Savanna

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: ABSTRACT Large herbivores in African savannas experience intense nutritional constraints during the dry season when declining forage quality intensifies competition for limited resources. Sympatric mixed feeders are therefore expected to differ in their use of forage resources, yet specific plant taxa underlying these dietary differences remain poorly resolved. Here, we used dual‐locus DNA metabarcoding ( rbc L and trn L) to characterise and compare dry‐season diets of African elephants ( Loxodonta africana ) and impalas ( Aepyceros melampus ) in a semi‐arid savanna ecosystem in South Africa. Despite substantial differences in body size and digestive physiology, dietary alpha diversity did not differ significantly between herbivores for either marker. In contrast, FOO‐based Jaccard beta‐diversity analyses revealed significant differences in dietary composition between species for both markers, with the strongest differentiation detected using trn L. Pianka's niche overlap index and relative read abundance analyses supported these patterns, showing lower overlap between species than within‐species. Both herbivores relied heavily on woody taxa during the dry season. Elephants consumed a narrower assemblage dominated by browse genera such as Grewia , Dichrostachys and Vachellia , whereas impalas incorporated a more compositionally diverse mixture of woody, graminoid and forb taxa. Our findings demonstrate that dry‐season dietary differentiation between these mixed feeders is associated less with differences in overall dietary breadth than with fine‐scale taxonomic differences and contrasting use of woody, graminoid and forb resources. These results highlight the potential importance of maintaining taxonomic and growth‐form heterogeneity in forage resources to support savanna herbivore assemblages under increasingly variable environmental conditions.

Source: Ecology and Evolution

DOI: 10.1002/ece3.74487

Authors: Kyle R. van Wyk, Danielle Botha, Sandra Barnard, Frances Siebert

Institution: North-West University

Language: English

Topic: Environmental DNA in Biodiversity Studies

Subfield: Ecology

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: Life on land, Zero hunger

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,570