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SAEON assists South Africa in gearing up for the blue (or oceans) economy

A study conducted by Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University on the value of SA's oceans, revealed that the coastlines had the potential to contribute up to R177bn to the economy by 2033 and create 800 000 to a million jobs.

The Lowveld’s worst drought in 33 years? Understanding the long-term impacts...

SAEON is well positioned to document the impacts of a severe drought and provide the type of data needed to understand the long-term role of climate - and climate change - in controlling natural and semi-natural ecosystems.

Call for abstracts: ILTER Open Science Meeting

The Science Committee of ILTER is inviting abstracts for platform and poster papers under the conference theme - "Long-Term Ecosystem Research for sustainability under global changes: Findings and challenges of ILTER from local to global scales".

Investigating the role of currents and waves in securing freshwater for Nelson Mandela Bay Metro

SAEON is assisting the consulting and marine engineers appointed by the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality in probing the feasibility of establishing a desalination plant on the southern coast of the metro.

How effective is the De Hoop MPA in protecting offshore reef fish populations?

SAEON and Rhodes University are assessing the effectiveness of the De Hoop Marine Protected Area. The long-term aim is to generate a bathymetric map and establish annual monitoring of fish communities within the MPA.

Art and science: Win-win for SAEON and its vacation volunteer

Student Jessica Eggers applied her in-depth knowledge of marine invertebrates and her artistic talent to sprucing up SAEON’s Offshore Demersal Invertebrate Identification Guide.

Trees get frosty reception in Karoo

Eighteen months ago, a freak cold spell gripped the eastern Karoo. The results were only too visible at the onset of summer when frost-burnt trees failed to green. SAEON was on the spot to investigate...

Growing… going… gone?

SAEON MD Johan Pauw reflects on the limits to SAEON’s growth, and argues that these can only be alleviated by an increase in SAEON’s core funding, ideally from a cohort of government departments.

Integrating species distribution models and remote sensing to study fynbos

SAEON PhD student Nyasha Magadzire uses species distribution models in combination with remotely sensed data to investigate drivers behind the distribution of fynbos species in the Cape Floristic Region.

Cosmic-Ray probe at Cathedral Peak provides important validation data for flood forecasting model

Until the development of the Cosmic-Ray probe, there was no suitable technology that could measure soil water at the appropriate scales to validate the models.

A week of mooring activities at the SAEON Egagasini Node

The second ASCA cruise will take place in April. To ensure a successful cruise and continuation of the collaboration between the participating institutions, SAEON and DEA hosted a cruise planning meeting, technical workshop and science day.

The art of reading a scientific paper

Reading and understanding research papers is a skill seldom taught at tertiary level. SAEON’s Egagasini Node has initiated regular paper discussion sessions for its postgraduates to teach them how to read and evaluate research papers.

The road travelled so far...

Thami Shezi reports on the wide variety of learning experiences he gained as a botanical intern at SAEON’s Grasslands-Forests-Wetlands Node.

Internship programme a win-win situation

According to former DST-NRF intern Kyle Cooper, the time he spent at the SAEON Egagasini Node has springboarded his career forward.

Sharing best practices in bringing the oceans into the classroom

The aim of the Marine and Coastal Educators Network is to add to the pool of knowledge available to educators… to support them in raising awareness about our oceans and the creatures that inhabit them.