Research

Research

In our research we have recently discovered that different fynbos species require different amounts of soil moisture. This means that the diversity of the fynbos flora crucially depends upon hydrological processes. Because of proposals to abstract water from beneath fynbos habitats in the Western Cape, there is now a pressing need to quantify precisely how species of the fynbos flora respond to fine-scale hydrological gradients. Also of interest is knowledge into the potential impact of environmental change. Such knowledge then needs to be disseminated among nature-conservation managers and understood by all stakeholders, such as water abstractors, involved in the management of the unique fynbos habitat.

Our team's previous relevant publications include:

Silvertown, J., Dodd, M.E., Gowing, D.J.G. and Mountford J.O. (1999). Hydrologically-defined niches reveal a basis for species richness in plant communities. Nature, 400, 61-63.

Gowing, D.J.G., Lawson, C.S., Youngs, E.G., Barber, K.R., Prosser, M.V., Wallace, H., Rodwell, J.S., Mountford, J.O. and Spoor, G. (2002). The water-regime requirements and the response to hydrological change of grassland plant communities . Final report to DEFRA (Conservation Management Division,) London. Project BD1310

Outputs from the project are:

PhD Thesis:

James Ayuk - Water regime requirements and possible climate change effects on Fynbos Biome Restionaceae (uwc.ac.za).

Journal Papers:

New Phytologist: A fundamental, eco-hydrological basis for niche segregation in plant communities - Open Research Online

Current Advances in Geography, Environment and Earth Science: Determination of Hydrological Niche of Restionaceae Species in Silvermine, South Africa - Open Research Online

Current Advances in Geography, Environment and Earth Science: Study on Climate Change Impacts on Restionaceae Species in Jonkershoek, South Africa - Open Research Online

Journal of Water Resource & Hydraulic Engineering: Climate Change Impacts on Hydrological Niches of Restionaceae Species in Jonkershoek, South Africa - Open Research Online

Journal of Ecology: Do niche-structured plant communities exhibit phylogenetic conservatism? A test case in an endemic clade - Open Research Online

Annals of Botany: Experimental investigation of the origin of fynbos plant community structure after fire - Open Research Online

Austral Ecology: Variation in δ13C among species and sexes in the family Restionaceae along a fine-scale hydrological gradient - Open Research Online

Book Section:

Frontiers of Vegetation Science - an evolutionary angle: Evolution of hydrological niches in Restionaceae: a project update - Open Research Online

Research sites

We currently have 10 research sites, located within Cape Nature and South African National Parks reserves. In each of the sites, we are actively monitoring hydrology and as a one-off conduct vegetation and topographic survey.

Although we are generally interested in all fynbos plants, our test species belong to family Restionaceae. Restionaceae are endemic plants of the Cape Floristic Region and one of the main constituents of fynbos. Approximately 350 species of restionaceae occur in CFR.

Prof. Peter Linder is our lead expert on Restionaceae.

Fynbos plant community structure after fire

This is a recent second research project, we started as a response to bushfire(s) we had at our sites (funded by the NERC, UK).

Fynbos bushfires occur in the S Hemisphere summer (Nov to Apr) with a periodicity of 15 to 50 years, but are unpredictable. Fire and smoke are primers of seed germination in many fynbos species. We took advantage of such unpredicted fire events in our sites to set-up an experiment that will enable us to examine how segregation among species develops after fire. We had already mapped the distribution of species and the hydrology of the field sites before burning, giving us uniquely detailed reference points for what happens after fire. We then set up reciprocal translocation experiment with soil monoliths and will be monitoring seedling establishment in them, using DNA barcoding to check identity of seedlings. We intend to construct a spatial model to determine whether the effects measured in the experiment are sufficient to generate the patterns of species distribution observed ate in post-fire succession.