Hippo dung drives savannah silicon cycle
Eating silicon-rich grass on land and spreading dung in rivers provides vital nutrients for microscopic diatoms
The unique lifestyle of the hippo – which involves feeding on land and defecating in rivers – could play an important role in shuffling silicon nutrients from land to water, ecologists have shown.
Up to 76% of silicon flux along the Mara river could be due to large numbers of hippos and their dung. Previous studies have shown how the animals’ behaviour can alter entire ecosystems by transferring organic matter into rivers and changing their chemistry.