The new ‘African dinosaurs’ exhibit at the Iziko South African Museum in Cape Town capitalises on a fascination that almost every person – old and (especially) young – has with dinosaurs. A highway into the human ...

In the past few years, African medicinal plants have received considerable attention, and it has been lamented that the documentation of the continent’s species that are used in traditional medicine lags behind China and ...

Biological invasions are widely acknowledged as a major threat to global biodiversity. Species from all major taxonomic groups have become invasive. The range of impacts of invasive taxa and the overall magnitude of the ...

Biological invasions are a growing problem in South Africa. Many alien species have been introduced for various reasons and through multiple pathways over the past few centuries. Invasive alien reptiles and amphibians ...

Invasive alien species (IAS) are one of the major threats to biodiversity in protected areas and pose a significant management challenge (see Allen, Brown & Stohlgren 2009; Pyšek, Jarošík & Kučera 2002). One of the first ...

The diversity of many marine benthic groups is unlike that of most other taxa. Rather than declining from the tropics to the poles, much of the benthos shows high diversity in the Southern Ocean. Moreover, many species are ...

Abstract Background This study evaluated, using in vitro assays, the antibacterial, antioxidant, and tyrosinase-inhibition activities of methanolic extracts from peels of seven ...

Invasive alien species require co-ordinated strategic management if negative impacts are to be effectively avoided. Here we describe a strategy for the management of Parthenium hysterophorus L. (Asteraceae) in South Africa. ...

The effect of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) colonisation on the alleviation of transplantation shock in young grapevines was investigated. One-year-old grapevines (Sauvignon blanc on Richter 99), colonised with Glomus ...

Background: Concern has been expressed about the effectiveness of invasive alien plant (IAP) control operations carried out by Working for Water (WfW). South African legislation now also requires reporting on the ...

Climatic changes have had profound impacts on species distributions throughout time. In response, species have shifted ranges, adapted genetically and behaviourally or become extinct. Using species distribution models, ...

Background: Biological control of invasive alien plants (IAPs) using introduced natural enemies contributes significantly to sustained, cost-effective management of natural resources in South Africa. The status of, and ...

Background: In June 2017, wildfires burned 15 000 ha around the town of Knysna in the Western Cape, destroying > 800 buildings, > 5000 ha of forest plantations, and claiming the lives of seven people. We examined the ...

National alien species databases indicate the state of a country’s biodiversity and provide useful data for research on invasion biology and the management of invasions. In South Africa there are several different published ...

Background: Alien organisms are not only introduced from one biogeographical region to another but also spread within regions. As South Africa shares land borders with six countries, multiple opportunities exist for the ...

Metabolic rate is a fundamental characteristic of all organisms. It covaries most significantly with activity, body mass, seasonality, and temperature. Nonetheless, substantial additional variation in metabolic rate, ...

Environmental variability occurring at different timescales can significantly reduce performance, resulting in evolutionary fitness costs. Shifts in thermoregulatory behavior, metabolism, and water loss via phenotypic ...

Background: The Argentine ant, Linepithema humile, is a widespread invasive ant species that has successfully established in nearly all continents across the globe. Argentine ants are characterised by a social structure ...

Abstract: Background: The Argentine ant, Linepithema humile, is a widespread invasive ant species that has successfully established in nearly all continents across the globe. Argentine ants are characterised by a social ...

We analysed avian diversity in 8 similar-sized regions of Africa, and in an additional 16 regions spread across the world; half of these 24 regions were tropical and the other half were temperate. For each region, counts ...