{"id":7627,"date":"2025-12-02T08:59:29","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T06:59:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/?p=7627"},"modified":"2025-12-02T09:36:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T07:36:07","slug":"scs-c%c2%b7i%c2%b7b-annual-research-meeting-where-climate-futures-and-ecological-disruption-converge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/scs-c%c2%b7i%c2%b7b-annual-research-meeting-where-climate-futures-and-ecological-disruption-converge\/","title":{"rendered":"SCS-C\u00b7I\u00b7B Annual Research Meeting – Where climate futures and ecological disruption converge"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 13 and 14 November 2025, the 2nd Combined Annual Research Meeting (ARM) was held for the SU School for Climate Studies and the Centre for Invasion Biology.\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Under the theme ‘Climate Overshoot \u2013 Impacts on Invasives and Biodiversity’,\u00a0this year\u2019s annual\u00a0research meeting\u00a0(ARM)\u00a0featured keynote addresses from experts\u00a0from across the world,\u00a0showing the extensive interconnection between climate and invasion science. The ARM also\u00a0showcased\u00a0the work of the MSc and PhD students supervised and supported under the\u00a0SCS and C\u00b7I\u00b7B, or the ‘hot and hostiles species collective’\u00a0–\u00a0a term coined by MC, Nicola van Wilgen-Bredenkamp.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The ARM opened with an insightful welcome address by Prof Francesco Petruccione\u00a0–\u00a0Director of the National Institute for Theoretical and Computational Sciences (NITheCS)<\/a> – who kicked off with the notion that the world is moving away from the binary way of thinking, and thus we should see the Anthropocene instead as the ‘Polycene’ \u2013 a collective of multiple issues cascading simultaneously. He also argued that we ought to “put problem solving at the centre of what we do.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0audience\u00a0was then introduced to and addressed by\u00a0Prof Tatenda Dalu, the incoming Director of the C\u00b7I\u00b7B. In a talk that brought excitement around the future of the C\u00b7I\u00b7B, he said, \u201cOvershoot is not the end, but a signal of transformation<\/em>.\u201d He emphasized that invasions compel us to reimagine biodiversity futures \u2013 turning understanding to foresight and foresight into renewal. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The PhD and MSc presentations that followed were held under the theme of Climate Change and Species Adaptation – Investigating how species\u2019 physiology, behaviour, and genetic traits mediate their responses to temperature variation and climate change. Their work revolved around ladybeetles, rodents and lizards, and the audience was introduced to Thermal Performance Curves, Melanisation and Plasticity.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The next batch of student presentations was grouped as Terrestrial invasions and Ecosystem Resilience – Patterns, drivers, and\u00a0impacts of terrestrial invasive species and biodiversity responses. Their talks entailed tree\u00a0ferns, ladybeetles,\u00a0iNaturalist\u00a0and ecosystem degradation trends.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Prof Jaco Le Roux, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University, Australia gave a keynote address around biotic interactions of invasive plants. His talk showed that interaction ecologies of invasive plants provide\u00a0fascinating opportunities to answer fundamental questions in biogeography,\u00a0ecology\u00a0and evolution \u2013 and novel ways to manage and restore ecosystems.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Next in the line of student presentations was Marine Invasions and Ecosystem Change – Understanding patterns, processes, and ecological consequences of marine invasions and biodiversity change in southern African coastal ecosystems. Marine alien species in the Langebaan and Knysna estuaries and kelp forests were the main topics.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The audience then heard from students grouped Restoration, Conservation and Citizen Science – Applied restoration, conservation planning, and participatory monitoring, which included restoration on Robben Island, secondary data from\u00a0iNaturalist\u00a0and fynbos proteas.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Day 1\u00a0came to an end as Prof Neville\u00a0Sweijd – Director, ACCESS<\/a> and professor, SU School for Climate Studies – gave a final keynote presentation. He highlighted that climate science is no longer concerned with \u201cif, what and when\u201d,\u00a0nut now focusses on \u201cwhere, how and whom\u201d,\u00a0giving important examples of wind at Cape Town Harbour and heat extremes liked to deaths in South African communities.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The second day began with a keynote address from Prof Marc Cadotte – Department of Biological Sciences, University of Toronto, Scarborough \u2013 who spoke of the trends of invasives seen between rural-urban contexts, highlighting the importance of large databases being used to track species.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The final pod of student presentations took place under the title Climate, Hydrology, and Environmental Modelling – Quantitative and predictive modelling of environmental and hydrological systems. Work done in the Berg river catchment and the Southern Ocean as well as work on remote sensing and seagrass was presented.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The best MSc presentations were awarded to Tiaan Engelbrecht and Miranda Anderson, and the best PhD presentations to\u00a0Kurtley\u00a0Tonkin and Sarah Jane Ackland.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe School for Climate Studies\u00a0and C\u00b7I\u00b7B\u00a0is at a point of acceleration. This is\u00a0evident\u00a0in the spread and depth of the work that we are doing<\/em>,\u201d said Professor Guy Midgley in the closing address, \u201cwe are building towards being the southern hemisphere node of excellence in climate, invasives and beyond<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Photo credit: Ignus Dreyer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCS-C\u00b7I\u00b7B Annual Research Meeting – Where climate futures and ecological disruption converge<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11009,"featured_media":7629,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"0","ocean_second_sidebar":"0","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"0","ocean_custom_header_template":"0","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"0","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[85986,3256],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-85986","category-news","entry","has-media"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11009"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7627"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7653,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7627\/revisions\/7653"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}