Mountain Watch: How LT(S)ER Is Safeguarding Southern Africa’s People and Biodiversity for a Sustainable Mountain Future

Abstract

Southern Africa is an exceptionally diverse region with an ancient geologic and climatic history. Its mountains are located in the southern hemisphere mid-latitudes at a tropical–temperate interface, offering a rare opportunity to contextualise and frame our research from an austral perspective so as to balance the global narrative around sustainable mountain futures for people and biodiversity. Limited Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) was initiated more than a century ago in South Africa to optimise catchment management through sound water policy. The South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON) has resurrected many government LTER programmes and added observatories representative of the country’s heterogeneous zonobiomes, including its mountain regions. LTER in other southern African mountains is largely absent. The current rollout of the Expanded Freshwater and Terrestrial Environmental Observation Network (EFTEON) and the Southern African chapters of international programmes such as the Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments (GLORIA), RangeX, and the Global Soil Biodiversity Observation Network (Soil BON), as well as the expansion of the Mountain Invasion Research Network (MIREN), is ushering in a renaissance period of global change research in the region, which takes greater cognisance of its social context. This diversity of initiatives will generate a more robust knowledge base from which to draw conclusions about how to better safeguard the well-being of people and biodiversity in the region and to balance livelihoods and environmental sustainability in our complex, third-world socio-ecological mountain systems.

Plant diversity in secondary, montane grasslands – a case study of the abandoned plantations of Mariepskop Mountain, South Africa

“…These losses have serious implications for conservation, as montane grasslands typically have high biodiversity, including many species with small ranges and endemic distributions which are vulnerable to transformation (Srinivasan et al, 2015;Clark et al, 2022). These ecosystems are also important for a range of ecosystem services, such as the provision of medicinal plants (Davenport and Ndangalasi, 2003), production of forage for livestock (Boval and Dixon, 2012), carbon sequestration (Bai and Cotrufo, 2022) and regulation of freshwater supplies (Carbutt and Thompson, 2021).…”

A Decision-Support Tool to Augment Global Mountain Protection and Conservation, including a Case Study from Western Himalaya

“…Global change threats (including climate change) necessitate adequate conservation measures that build ecological resilience in mountains [1]. Mountains, however, are not only biophysical entities; they are integrated and often complex socioecological systems [32]. Therefore, establishing more protected and conserved areas in mountains may be vital for ensuring the sustainable use of mountain natural resources in partnership with local communities and could better safeguard the most biodiverse mountains on the planet.…”

The Alien Plants That Threaten South Africa’s Mountain Ecosystems

“…South Africa has relatively good records on the extent of alien plant invasions compared to many other countries, partly due to investment into large nation-wide initiatives such as the Working for Water programme (WfW) [24]. Yet, as in most areas of the world, this research has largely not been extended into higher-elevation mountain areas [25,26]. There is, however, growing evidence that alien plants are becoming more prevalent in the country's mountains.…”

“…Within the same mountain range, Turner [15] found that the number of alien plants along the Sani Pass more than doubled during a decade (2007 to 2017). Road networks extending into montane areas are facilitating the establishment of alien plants beyond their elevational barriers and present sustained propagule pressure [26,29]. This threat has not been matched with appropriate expansion of mountain research and alien plant management interventions in South Africa.…”