Ground-layer diversity in the miombo savannas and ‘underground forests’ of Bicuar National Park, Angola

FEFA Project Update

Our understanding of savanna dynamics typically focus on trees and grasses. However, there is much still to be learned about the diversity, environmental determinants and functional ecology of other life forms. Across the miombo savanna ecoregion of south and central Africa, forbs (herbaceous flowering plants) comprise a large proportion of old-growth savanna ground-layer diversity but have typically received less attention in research and land management…..

Towards an African Food system of the Future

FEFA Project Update

Imagine that the year is 2200, you are sitting outside your favourite restaurant in Braamfontein. You just ordered a meal of your liking. Through an inclusive, healthy and sustainably informed dietary choice, based on your meal, briefly engage the following questions. As a sustainability scientist, these are all questions I contend with, through my work on using indigenous African food knowledge, as a transformative pathway towards a sustainable food system of the future ….

Resprouting habits of cyclone damaged trees of the Miombo

FEFA Project Update

Cyclone Idai made landfall in Mozambique, March 2019. Cyclones of Idai’s proportion (greater than category 3) are notorious for causing considerable damage to vegetation, often felling large trees (>10 cm diameter and with the potential to grow beyond 40 cm diameter) in their path. As part of the FEFA research program working to quantify the resilience of African woodlands through understanding the recovery dynamics of these woodlands, we are studying how ….

Roots, Rain, and Resilience: Sampling shenanigans in the grasslands of South Africa

Global Grassy Group Update 

Two budding researchers Elaine Slooten and Eulalia Jordaan, from NWU in South Africa embarked on a two-month sampling journey to gather soil and floristic data. This expedition was part of the FEFA program for their MSc’s, supported by Oppenheimer Generations Research and Conservation, Frances Siebert (NWU), and Sally Archibald.

The aim of this research is to determine to which degree the floristic and functional diversity, as well as the carbon stocks (including soil – and plant organic carbon), of Highveld grasslands in South Africa can recover after being ploughed.