Department of Conservation Ecology and Entomology

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Browsing Department of Conservation Ecology and Entomology by Author "Allsopp, Nicky"

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    Fynbos Proteaceae as model organisms for biodiversity research and conservation
    (Academy of Science of South Africa, 2012) Schurr, Frank M.; Esler, Karen J.; Slingsby, Jasper A.; Allsopp, Nicky
    Woody plants of the Proteaceae family are a symbol of fynbos. Of the approximately 360 southern African species, over 330 are restricted to the Fynbos biome1 and form an important part of this biome’s exceptional plant diversity.2 Proteaceae dominate the overstorey of fynbos vegetation, play a key role for water, carbon and nutrient cycling, and provide resources for many species of pollinators and herbivores.1,3 Moreover, Proteaceae are responsible for the bulk of the economic value generated by the fynbos wildflower industry4 and serve as flagship species for conservation.
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    Identifying research questions for the conservation of the Cape Floristic Region
    (Academy of Science of South Africa, 2019-09-26) Allsopp, Nicky; Slingsby, Jasper A.; Esler, Karen J.
    We conducted a survey among people working in the nature conservation community in an implementation, research or policy capacity to identify research questions that they felt were important for ensuring the conservation of the Cape Floristic Region. Following an inductive process, 361 submitted questions were narrowed to 34 questions in seven themes: (1) effective conservation management; (2) detecting and understanding change: monitoring, indicators and thresholds; (3) improving governance and action for effective conservation; (4) making the case that biodiversity supports critical ecosystem services; (5) making biodiversity a shared concern; (6) securing sustainable funding for biodiversity conservation; and (7) prioritising research. The final questions were evaluated against the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Conceptual Framework to test whether the questions addressed elements identified by this Framework as those essential to ensure that conservation contributes to a positive future for the Cape Floristic Region. We found that all elements in this Framework received attention from the collective group of questions. This finding suggests that the conservation community we approached recognises implicitly that research in multiple disciplines as well as interdisciplinary approaches are required to address societal, governance and biological issues in a changing environment in order to secure the conservation of the Cape Floristic Region. Because the majority of people responding to this survey had a background in the natural sciences, a challenge to tackling some of the questions lies in developing integrative approaches that will accommodate different disciplines and their epistemologies.
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    The use of fynbos fragments by birds : stepping-stone habitats and resource refugia
    (AOSIS Publishing, 2016-03) Sandberg, Rory N.; Allsopp, Nicky; Esler, Karen J.
    Fynbos habitats are threatened by fragmentation through land use and anthropogenic changes in fire regimes, leading to a loss of suitable habitat for birds. We investigated the response of fynbos-typical avifauna to fragmentation and postfire vegetation age in order to better understand the consequences of these processes for bird communities. Vegetation composition and bird inventory data were collected along wandering transects in three South Outeniqua Sandstone Fynbos habitat configurations: fragmented patches (associated with anthropogenically driven habitat loss < 150 years ago), naturally isolated fynbos islands (formed through climate-driven forest expansion in the Holocene) and extensive areas of relatively pristine habitat known as ‘mainland’. The latter configurations served as references against which to investigate bird and vegetation responses to more recent habitat fragmentation. Linear regressions were used to compare the relationships of a number of bird and plant species to areas between each habitat configuration. Bird attribute frequency data were compared between habitat configurations using chi-square tests. Birds and plants showed significant species–area relationships in natural island and mainland sites, but no such relationship occurred in artificial fragments for birds, where the surrounding anthropogenic land uses are likely to have contributed generalist or colonist species. Avifaunal migratory groups were not affected by isolation distances of > 10 km in this study and their frequencies were the same across the three habitat configurations. Certain feeding guilds did, however, respond to postfire vegetation age, with nectarivore species twice as likely to occur in oldgrowth mainland fynbos. Fragmentation can alter fire disturbance regimes, which in turn alter the availability of resources in a habitat, so the impacts of fragmentation on birds are probably indirect through changes in the vegetation component. Conservation implications: Fragments of South Outeniqua Sandstone Fynbos have value as resource refugia and ‘stepping-stone’ reserves for avifauna. Fragments should be managed for vegetation age to ensure that at least some patches sustain high levels of nectarproducing plant species. Fire management should, however, factor in both plant and bird requirements.