General texts
F. Bourliere (ed.), Tropical savannas: ecosystems of the world, vol. 13 (Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1983). A comprehensive overview of the savanna biome.
M.J. Hill and N.P. Hanan (eds), Ecosystem function in savannas: measurement and modelling at landscape to global scale (Boca Raton, FL: C.R.C. Press, 2011). Chapters dealing with a number of general concepts as well as processes and technical issues, including gas and water fluxes, remote sensing, and modelling.
B.J. Huntley and B.H. Walker (eds), Ecology of tropical savannas (New York: Springer-Verlag, 1982). General overview of the biological aspects of savannas.
P.L. Osborne, Tropical ecosystems and ecological concepts (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012, 2nd edn). Useful introduction to the place of savannas within the tropical biomes.
J. Mistry, World savannas (Edinburgh: Pearson, 2000). A readable introductory volume covering both the ecological and the human use of savannas.
Specific references and texts
Chapter 1: Savanna landscapes
C.E.R. Lehmann, S.A. Archibald, W.A. Hoffman, and W.J. Bond, Deciphering the distribution of the savanna biome. New phytologist 191, 197–209 (2011).
C.E.R. Lehmann, J. Ratnam, and L.B. Hutley, Which of these continents is not like the other? Comparisons of tropical savanna systems: key questions and challenges. New phytologist 181, 508–11 (2009).
J. Ratnam, W.J. Bond, R.J. Fensham, W.A. Hoffman, S. Archibald, C.E.R. Lehmann, M.T. Anderson, S.I. Higgins, and M. Sankaran, When is a ‘forest’ a savanna, and why does it matter? Global ecology and biogeography 20, 653–60 (2011).
Chapter 2: Shaping the savannas
A.N. Andersen, G.D. Cook, and R.J. Williams (eds), Fire in tropical savannas: the Kapalga experiment (London: Springer, 2003).
D.E. Bignell, Y. Roisin, and N. Lo (eds), Biology of termites: a modern synthesis (Dordrecht: Springer, 2010).
M.A. Cochrane, Tropical fire ecology: climate changes, land use and ecosystem dynamics (Berlin: Springer/Praxis, 2009).
P.A. Furley, R.M. Rees, C.M. Ryan, and G. Saiz (2008), Savanna burning and the assessment of long-term fire experiments with particular reference to Zimbabwe. Progress in physical geography 32, 611–34.
J. Mistry, The ecosystem dynamics of tropical savannas, in A. Millington, M. Blumer, and U. Schikoff (eds), The Sage handbook of biogeography (London: Sage, 2011), pp. 281–302.
F.M.S. Moreira, E. Moreira, H. Huising, and D.E. Bignell, A handbook of tropical soil biology (London: Earthscan, 2008).
O.T. Solbrig, E. Medina, and J.F. Silva, Biodiversity and savannah ecosystem processes (New York: Springer, 1996).
B.H. Walker (ed.), Determinants of tropical savannas (Oxford: IRL Press, 1987).
Chapter 3: Savanna vegetation
B. Campbell (ed.), The miombo in transition: woodlands and welfare in Africa (Bogor, Indonesia: Center for International Forestry Research, CIFOR, 1996).
E.N. Chidumayo, Miombo ecology and management: an introduction (Stockholm: Stockholm Environment Institute, 1997).
R.M. Cowling, D.M. Richardson, and P.M. Pierce (eds), Vegetation of southern Africa (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997).
P.A. Furley, J. Proctor, and J.A. Ratter (eds), Nature and dynamics of forest-savanna boundaries (London: Chapman & Hall, 1992).
J. Grace, J. San Jose, P. Meir, H. Miranda, and R. Montes, Productivity and carbon fluxes of tropical savannas. Journal of biogeography, 387–400 (2006).
C.E.R. Lehmann and others (21), Savanna vegetation-fire-climate relationships differ among continents. Science, 343, 548–52 (2014).
R.T. Pennington, J.A. Ratter, and G.P. Lewis (eds), Neotropical savannas and seasonally dry forests: plant diversity, biogeography and conservation (Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2006).
P.S. Oliveira and R.J. Marquis (eds), The cerrados of Brazil: ecology and natural history of a neotropical savanna (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002).
G. Sarmiento, The ecology of tropical savannas (trans. O. Solbrig; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984).
Chapter 4: Wildlife and microbes
D.E. Bignell, Y. Roisin, and N. Lo (eds), Biology of termites: a modern synthesis (Dordrect: Springer, 2010).
R.D. Estes, The gnu’s world (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014).
R.T. Corlett, The ecology of tropical East Asia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014, 2nd edn).
P.S. Oliveira and R.J. Marquis (eds), The cerrados of Brazil: ecology and natural history of a neotropical savanna (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002).
R.J. Scholes and B. H. Walker, An African savannah—Nylsvley (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997).
B. Shorrocks and W. Bates, The biology of African savanna (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015, 2nd edn).
A.R.R. Sinclair, Serengeti story (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012).
Chapter 5: Savannas and human evolution
R. Boyd and R.B. Silk, How humans evolved (New York: W.W. Norton, 2015, 7th edn).
S. Cane, First footprints: the epic story of the first Australians (London: Allen & Unwin, 2013).
W.M. Denevan, Cultivated landscapes of native Amazonia and the Andes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001).
C. Higham, Early mainland south East Asia: from first humans to Ankor (Bangkok: River Books, 2014).
M. Jobling, E. Hollox, M. Hurles, T. Kivisild, and E. Tyler-Smith, Human evolutionary genetics (London: Garland Science/Taylor & Francis, 2014, 2nd edn).
T. M. Whitmore and B.L. Turner, Cultivated landscapes of Middle America on the eve of conquest (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001).
K.J. Willis and J.C. McElwain, The evolution of plants (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014).
Chapter 6: Changing patterns in the landscape
C.J.R. Alho and E de S. Martins (eds), Bit by bit the cerrado loses space (Brasília: WWF. PRO-CER, 1995).
T.J. Bassett and D. Crummey (eds), African savannas: global narratives and local knowledge of environmental change (Oxford: James Currey, 2003).
C.A. Klink and R. B. Machado (2005), Conservation of the Brazilian cerrado. Conservation biology, 19, 707–13.
P.K.R. Nair, An introduction to agroforestry (Dordrect: Kluwer, 1993), particularly section IV: Soil productivity and protections.
P. Werner, (ed.) Savanna ecology and management: Australian perspectives and intercontinental comparison (Oxford: Blackwell, 1991).
M.D. Young and O.T. Solbrig (eds), The world’s savannas: economic driving forces, ecological constraints and policy options for sustainable land use. Man and the Biosphere, vol. 12 (Paris: UNESCO/Parthenon Press, 1990).
Chapter 7: Savanna futures
J. Mistry and A. Berardi (eds), Savannas and dry forests: linking people with nature (London: Ashgate, 2006).
R.S. Reid, Savannas of our birth: people. Wildlife and change in East Africa (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012).