The Western Cape has a lot to boast about when it comes to biodiversity, and who better to inform than the youth who will be protecting it one day! In support of this, the Iimbovane Outreach Project hosted a “Big on Biodiversity” workshop at the C·I·B, Stellenbosch University.
Three C·I·B researchers, Mark Robertson, Cang Hui and Vernon Visser developed a new R package that can be used for assessing and improving the quality of datasets consisting of occurrence records.
Soils are integral to agricultural productivity, biodiversity and the maintenance of ecosystem services. However, soil ecosystem research depends on foundational biological knowledge that is often missing.
A recent study by C·I·B and University of Liverpool student Tom Bishop and supervisors Mark Robsertson, Berndt Janse van Rensburg and Catherine Parr has asked how the composition of ant groupings changes across environmental gradients.
It may no longer make economic or environmental sense to pursue forestry endeavours using conifers in the Western Cape. If local plantations are to be maintained, invasive pine trees will continue to spread, the Cape’s water supply will continue to dwindle and the unique natural diversity of the fynbos region will be changed forever.
