Refinement of the Soutpansberg Geomorphic Province, Limpopo, South Africa

Hahn, Norbert

doi:10.1080/0035919x.2011.566422

Cited by 18 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Land use in the western Soutpansberg consists of a patchwork of private cattle and game farms, ecotourism properties, conservancies and communal farm land. Uncontrolled hunting during the 19 th century and the destruction of habitat from cattle farming led to the extinction of mammals such as the African elephant ( Loxodonta africana ) and the black rhinoceros ( Dicero bicornis ) [ 26 , 27 ]. The only large carnivore species that remain resident in the western part of the mountain range are leopards, brown hyaena ( Parahyaena brunnea ) and spotted hyaena ( Crocuta crocuta ) [ 28 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence of a High Density Population of Harvested Leopards in a Montane Environment

2013

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Populations of large carnivores can persist in mountainous environments following extensive land use change and the conversion of suitable habitat for agriculture and human habitation in lower lying areas of their range. The significance of these populations is poorly understood, however, and little attention has focussed on why certain mountainous areas can hold high densities of large carnivores and what the conservation implications of such populations might be. Here we use the leopard (Panthera pardus) population in the western Soutpansberg Mountains, South Africa, as a model system and show that montane habitats can support high numbers of leopards. Spatially explicit capture-recapture (SECR) analysis recorded the highest density of leopards reported outside of state-protected areas in sub-Saharan Africa. This density represents a temporally high local abundance of leopards and we explore the explanations for this alongside some of the potential conservation implications.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence of a High Density Population of Harvested Leopards in a Montane Environment

2013

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“…1). The station is situated on the Soutpansberg mountain, a quartzitic inselberg in the northern parts of the Limpopo province (Hahn, 2011). The Soutpansberg is characterized by extreme variation in climate and topography resulting in a strong north-south climatic dichotomy (Mostert et al, 2008).…”

Section: Study Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Surrogates of spider diversity, leveraging the conservation of a poorly known group in the Savanna Biome of South Africa

Foord

Dippenaar-Schoeman

Stam

2013

Biological Conservation

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The inclusion of spiders in conservation planning initiatives is confounded by several factors. Surrogates could facilitate their incorporation. In this paper we investigate the performance of a number of surrogate measures, such as higher taxa (genus, family), cross-taxon surrogates that are subsets of the spider assemblages (certain spider families) or non-overlapping groups (woody vegetation and birds), and the use of morphospecies. Birds and woody vegetation were included because they often form the focus of conservation planning initiatives. We assessed the surrogate measures based on their predictive power for species richness and extent to which conservation planning that maximizes representation of the surrogate is effective in representing spider diversity. A measure for the latter is the Species Accumulation Index (SAI). Generic richness as a higher taxon surrogate and the combined richness of the families Thomisidae and Salticidae were the best estimators of total species richness. Based on the surrogacy efficiency criterion, genera and the family Salticidae had species accumulation indices (SAIs) that were significantly larger than 95% confidence intervals of a random curve, while woody vegetation and birds turned out to be poor surrogates for spider diversity. The use of morphospecies as estimators is cautiously supported (adjusted R 2 = 0.85, for species richness, SAI = 0.73). The surrogates identified here provide a viable alternative to whole assemblage analysis but should be used with caution. The use of genera is confounded by unstable taxonomy and the difficulty of identifying specimens up to genus level. Geographic location and varying sampling effort between surveys did not have an effect on the surrogate performance of the two spider families, viz. Salticidae and Thomisidae. The former family has seen a flood of recent systematic work, whereas the latter's taxonomy is fairly well developed. These two families comprise ca. 20% of spider species observed in the Savanna Biome of South Africa and could provide a viable handle on spider diversity in this region.

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“…In the Soutpansberg, in tropical north-eastern South Africa, the impact of aspect is considerable: climate differs markedly between the north and southern aspects, owing to the mountain’s East–North–East to West–South–West orientation, resulting in arid slopes on the northern aspect characterised by open dry savanna, and thicket or forest on the mesic southern aspect, with herbaceous habitats at the highest elevations 18 , 29 . The region is vulnerable to global change, currently experiencing reduced summer rainfall, elevated surface temperatures, and widespread, more frequent droughts 23 , 30 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Repeated surveying over 6 years reveals that fine-scale habitat variables are key to tropical mountain ant assemblage composition and functional diversity

Muluvhahothe

Joseph

Seymour

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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High-altitude-adapted ectotherms can escape competition from dominant species by tolerating low temperatures at cooler elevations, but climate change is eroding such advantages. Studies evaluating broad-scale impacts of global change for high-altitude organisms often overlook the mitigating role of biotic factors. Yet, at fine spatial-scales, vegetation-associated microclimates provide refuges from climatic extremes. Using one of the largest standardised data sets collected to date, we tested how ant species composition and functional diversity (i.e., the range and value of species traits found within assemblages) respond to large-scale abiotic factors (altitude, aspect), and fine-scale factors (vegetation, soil structure) along an elevational gradient in tropical Africa. Altitude emerged as the principal factor explaining species composition. Analysis of nestedness and turnover components of beta diversity indicated that ant assemblages are specific to each elevation, so species are not filtered out but replaced with new species as elevation increases. Similarity of assemblages over time (assessed using beta decay) did not change significantly at low and mid elevations but declined at the highest elevations. Assemblages also differed between northern and southern mountain aspects, although at highest elevations, composition was restricted to a set of species found on both aspects. Functional diversity was not explained by large scale variables like elevation, but by factors associated with elevation that operate at fine scales (i.e., temperature and habitat structure). Our findings highlight the significance of fine-scale variables in predicting organisms’ responses to changing temperature, offering management possibilities that might dilute climate change impacts, and caution when predicting assemblage responses using climate models, alone.

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Refinement of the Soutpansberg Geomorphic Province, Limpopo, South Africa

Cited by 18 publications

References 6 publications

Evidence of a High Density Population of Harvested Leopards in a Montane Environment

Evidence of a High Density Population of Harvested Leopards in a Montane Environment

Surrogates of spider diversity, leveraging the conservation of a poorly known group in the Savanna Biome of South Africa

Repeated surveying over 6 years reveals that fine-scale habitat variables are key to tropical mountain ant assemblage composition and functional diversity

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