Functional diversity of macroinvertebrates on abandoned cattle enclosures in a semi‐arid African savannah

Zimbabwe is experiencing a shift in land‐use, away from livestock farming and towards wildlife conservation. The abandonment of livestock farming may have unforeseen consequences on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, as cattle kraals create valuable nutrient‐rich patches across the semi‐arid savannah. It is unclear how macroinvertebrates functionally respond to such nutrient‐rich patches in semi‐arid savannahs. We analysed functional diversity of both aboveground and belowground taxa on abandoned cattle kraals and savannah control plots in Save valley Conservancy ( SVC ). We used distance‐based multivariate techniques to estimate indices of functional diversity. Our results indicated that after two decades of abandonment, kraals had higher functional richness ( FR ic), functional divergence ( FD iv) and functional dispersion ( FD is) of macroinvertebrates when both aboveground and belowground species are combined. When aboveground macroinvertebrates were considered alone, no difference was observed for all the considered functional indices. However, only FR ic was higher on kraals when belowground macroinvertebrates were separately considered. Our results suggest that two‐decade‐old abandoned kraals may have recovered enough for aboveground species to match the surrounding savannah plot and even surpassed the savannah control for belowground species functional diversity.