...furthering our knowledge, understanding and management of the interactions between humans and their social, biological and physical life-support systems

Welcome to the EGS Department

A research project currently underway in the Department of Environmental and Geographical Science:
Peninsula Shale Renosterveld: Growing an Ecological Understanding Towards Informed Environmental Management

With its proximity to the City of Cape Town and fertile shale soils, the Peninsula Shale Renosterveld would have been one of the first vegetation types transformed for agricultural purposes by early European settlers. Over the last three hundred years this vegetation type has been dramatically altered through human activity. 77% of this endemic vegetation type has now been lost to urban expansion and agriculture. The little remaining area is degraded primarily due to incorrect burning regimes, alien invasion and fragmentation.

This project saw the training of 20 people in the art of seed collection. Here Carly Cowell of SANPARKS' Cape Research Centre contributes her expertise and time in leading volunteers through seed collection protocols in the field.

As the conservation target for this vegetation type (25% of its original extent) is unattainable due to transformation, its successful conservation is entirely dependent upon effective management. This research project aims to better understand the dynamics and drivers of this vegetation type, with a view to using this information towards its successful restoration. This would improve its ecological functioning, expand its footprint and generate lessons on how to effectively re-establish this vegetation type to be applied elsewhere in the Peninsula chain. The research work is being carried out on the lower slopes of Devil's Peak within the Groote Schuur Estate, which has the added interest of being heritage conservation area. This means management must meet multiple social and ecological ends.

This research project, which started in 2011, is funded by the Table Mountain Fund of WWF. Work underway includes detailed phytosociological surveys, seedbank trials, establishing an ecological historical of the site, a passive restoration recovery survey, an analysis of the small mammal community, seed viability trials of 35 species, and a series of trial interventions to test restoration triggers. This current scope of work is being carried out by two MSc and two Honours students in the Department of Environmental and Geographical Science.

Fire, a regeneration cue for most of the flora in the Cape, is a critical factor to include in exploring restoration triggers. SANPARKS generously managed a burn for us in March this year in the game camp of Groote Schuur Estate as part of the restoration field trials that are being set up.

These projects will all contribute to emerging theory in the realm of restoration ecology and towards growing a local knowledge of this particular endemic vegetation type. This project has seen exceptional support from numerous parties involved in the contribution of expertise, time, kind and money. Contributors and collaborators to date include the Table Mountain Fund, SANPARKS, SAEON, the City of Cape Town's Environmental Management Branch, Kirstenbosch, SANBI, the CSIR, CREW, and KEW Garden's Millennium Seedbank. This involvement has given students the additional benefit of being exposed to the work of these environmental, conservation and governance entities. There are plans to grow the project in the future to include ecosystem services research, the more socio-ecological aspects of restoration, seed biology experiments, and plant competition dynamics.