Arid Zone Ecology Forum 2015: Spotlight on changes in the arid lands

By Marco Pauw and Joh Henschel, SAEON Arid Lands Node Tweet

An original oil painting by Steinkopf artist Pierre Cloete was auctioned to fund student sponsorship for AZEF 2016 At the pre-conference excursion to Leliefontein, this seasoned shepherd (centre) explained the daily challenges of his job to AZEF delegates View larger version

As a platform for scientific discussion, the Arid Zone Ecology Forum (AZEF) is becoming increasingly important in view of the challenges that the arid region of South Africa is facing. These include climate change, large-scale developments and poverty.

AZEF 2015 was held at Goegap Nature Reserve near Springbok in the Northern Cape in October 2015. The beautiful views from the recently finished conference centre combined with the large attendance (110 delegates), especially of students (21) and young researchers, created an electric atmosphere. The popularity that AZEF is enjoying underlines its growing importance as a forum for scientific discussion on the arid lands.

Keynote addresses provided context on the current state and future of conservation (through parks, reserves and stewardships) and climate change monitoring and adaptation in the arid region. There were many interesting talks and the special session on renewable and non-renewable energy (shale gas) developments provided for some lively discussion, including from social scientists.

A baseline for measuring change

In conjunction, these developments will likely cause large parts of the previously undeveloped arid region to undergo vast changes. Unfortunately, the lack of development of the region also meant low research effort in the past. This means that there is too little information available to use as baseline when changes are measured. This is an issue that SAEON (with the help of partner organisations) is planning to address.

The SAEON Arid Lands Node played a big part in the forum. Joh Henschel (manager), Helga van der Merwe and Simon Todd (scientists), Tshililo Ramaswiela and Marco Pauw (field technicians), Kayleigh Muller (research assistant), and Gabolwelwe Mosina and Juan Swanepoel (interns) all contributed paper presentations or posters, listed below.

SAEON delegates chaired several sessions and led numerous discussions. The Arid Lands Node also contributed to the conference financially, enabling the sponsorship of students and keynote speakers and adding value to student prizes.

The Node is looking forward to contribute even more to AZEF, especially now that Marco Pauw and Simon Todd participate on the AZEF committee as chair and vice chair (and scientific programme planner), respectively.

The next generation make their voices heard

Many of the experienced researchers expressed their opinion that this year’s student presentations and posters were of an extremely high quality, resulting in strong competition for prizes. Storme Viljoen (University of Cape Town) won the award for best paper presentation and Kristine Teichman (University of British Columbia) was the runner up. First prize for posters went to Aviwe Homani (University of the Western Cape) and second prize to Gabriela Fluery (University of Cape Town).

The SAEON Arid Lands Node team at AZEF 2015. Front, from left to right: Juan Swanepoel, Gabolwelwe Mosina, Kayleigh Muller, Helga van der Merwe, Joh Henschel, Tshililo Ramaswiela and Simon Todd. Back: Marco Pauw

AZEF 2016

The 2016 conference will be held in Prince Albert in the Western Cape, where SAEON has two long-term monitoring sites - at Tierberg LTER and Wolwekraal Nature Reserve. With the 1st ILTER Open Science Meeting happening in Kruger National Park only a week later, we are hoping for an increased international presence at AZEF 2016.