We intend to play an active role in sharing our findings, knowledge and experience of fynbos ecohydrology with both the scientific community and public at large.
In 2006, in collaboration with Custodians of Rare and Endangered Wildflowers (CREW) project of the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) we initiated Plant Monitoring Day.
Plant Monitoring Day is an annual regional educational exercise aimed at making students and teachers aware of the rich diversity of plants in their local surroundings, develop skills in field botany as well as scientific inquiry. Furthermore, the exercise is important not only as an educational experience but also as a source of gathering useful data for conservationists.
Plant Monitoring Day is conducted in the first week of September each year, which coincides with Arbor Week. CREW coordinates the activity through provision of experts and involves its extensive volunteer network .
The project started with 6 schools from the three provinces of the Cape (Western, Eastern and Northern) in 2006. As of 2008, Plant Monitoring Day has been launched nationally.
We aim to disseminate our work via printed and online media.
Click the microphone to hear Dr. Araya describe the project.
A popular science article "Understanding how water resources shape our flora" has been published in Veld and Flora, 95(2):96-97(Journal of the South African Botanical Society).
We have undertaken interview with local Cape Town Afrikaans daily broadsheet: Die Burger. This will be available shortly.
We also share our work on the BBC/Open University partnership website (www.open2.net). A most recent article was "Can bushfire be good for nature?" Link given below.
We also are working on a number of scientific papers. Published papers include:
"Variation in delta 13-C among species and sexes in the family Restionaceae along a fine-scale hydrological gradients". Austral Ecology.DOI: 10.1111/j.1442-9993.2009.02089.x
"A fundamental, eco-hydrological basis for niche segregation in plant communities". New Phytologist. DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8137.2010.03475.x
Silvertown, J. Y. Araya, P. Linder, and D. Gowing (in press) Experimental investigation of the origin of fynbos plant community structure after fire. Annals of Botany
James Ayuk, our SANBI based PhD student has given a seminar entitled "Water needs and the likely response to hydrological change of fynbos plants" at the Student Conference for Conservation Science, University of Cambridge in March 2011.
Prof. Jonathan Silvertown
Prof. David Gowing
Dr. Yoseph Araya
Prof. Edward Youngs
https://www.open.ac.uk
Dr. Guy Midgley
Dr. Nick Walker (2008)
James Ayuk
Deryck De Witt
http://www.sanbi.org
Dr. Ernst Baard
http://www.capenature.co.za
Prof. Peter Linder
http://www.unizh.ch
Els Dorratt Haaksma
Prof. Jonathan Silvertown
Department of Life Sciences
The Open University, Walton Hall
Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA
United Kingdom
Prof. Jonathan Silvertown's website