Plant Conservation Unit

05/08/2022

The Plant Conservation Unit commemorates the passing of Richard Dean on 3 August 2022, a brilliant South African naturalist, ornithologist, and an inspiring mentor to many generations of ecologists. It was a great pleasure to work with him and he will be greatly missed by many. Our thoughts and condolences are with Sue Milton, family, and colleagues during this time.

http://www.pcu.uct.ac.za/news/pcu-commemorates-passing-richard-dean

07/07/2022

Some exciting and hopeful news! 😃🌿💻

We are in the process of preserving and showcasing our historical photographic collections, in collaboration with UCT Libraries. The rePhotoSA website is currently still online and the collections can still be browsed, but will be migrated and updated, with the photographic collections greatly expanded.

We thank our citizen science community for their continued participation in our repeat photography project. As we migrate the rePhotoSA website, we ask that future repeat uploads make use of the Google Form link on the updated uploads page, as the usual upload function on the existing website has been deactivated. The updated upload page contains the relevant information: http://rephotosa.adu.org.za/upload_repeat.php

We will be in touch with all citizen scientists who have uploaded to rePhotoSA once our new site is live.

If you have any questions or comments, please email us at [email protected]. Thank you in advance for your patience.

Thank you for your participation in rePhotoSA! We are in the process of migrating and updating our website, and would appreciate it if you would use the Google Form link below to capture the metadata and upload your repeats. We will be in touch with all citizen scientists who have uploaded to rePhot...

07/03/2022

An article published in The Conversation this morning outlines the history and utility of repeat photography, and describes the rePhotoSA project and its successes.

READ HERE:

Repeat photography has been used to document vegetation change in Africa since the 1950s; in the last 30 years there’s been an explosion of interest.

19/11/2021

Deputy director of the PCU, Prof. Lindsey Gillson, has produced a bumper crop of new work with the recent publication of the 35th volume of Paleoecology of Africa, titled 'Quaternary Vegetation Dynamics – The African Pollen Database' 🌿 The book has 24 chapters detailing research across two broad themes: (1) the present is the key to the past, and (2) the past is the key to the future. This new volume also celebrates the relaunch of the African Pollen Database, providing open access to modern and ancient pollen data from sub-Saharan Africa, which is an important tool in paleoecological research, enhancing our understanding of past vegetation dynamics.

Other contributing authors from the PCU include Tsilavo Razafimanantsoa (PhD candidate), Dr Estelle Razanatsoa (post-doc), and Drs Adele Julier and Saul Manzano, both of whom were post-doctoral researchers with the PCU.


Open Access: https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003162766

Congratulations to Lindsey and her team! 👏

This book celebrates the relaunch of the African Pollen Database, presents state-of-the-art of modern and ancient pollen data from sub-Saharan

19/11/2021

PCU Director, Prof. Timm Hoffman, recently appeared in UCT News for his work using repeat photography to understand changing landscapes in southern Africa. The article contains a brief explanation of repeat photography, and chronicles how Prof. Hoffman has used this method to provide evidence of land use change in a global biodiversity hotspot, how the rePhotoSA project involves citizen scientists to help obtain more repeats, and what a post-UCT fire future looks like for the PCU's repeat photography research.



Read the full article here:

Professor Timm Hoffman, who started the southern African citizen science repeat photography project, rePhotoSA, has been working with historical photographs of landscapes since he was a postdoctoral researcher in 1989.

27/10/2021

A very informative and inspiring article titled 'Building back nature is more complicated than just planting trees' appeared in the Daily Maverick on 25 October. The article features the PCU's Prof. Lindsey Gillson, in which she explains the role of paleoecological research in guiding forest restoration.

"Using the example of Grootbos, Gillson explains that while restoration of former forest patches would be ecologically valuable, expansion into former fynbos areas could threaten unique plants and is likely to be unsustainable because of the fire and water sensitivities. [...] By identifying the past forest extent and composition, as well as which open landscapes were ancient or man-made, can help guide conservation and restoration that includes a wider range of ecosystem types and is better for biodiversity and ecosystem services."

Read the full article here:

The UN officially launched the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration programme, but planting trees anywhere and everywhere is not a silver bullet to combat climate change.

15/09/2021

A wonderful article on Prof. Timm Hoffman and repeat photography, written by Assoc. Prof. Hedley Twidle of the UCT English Lit Studies department, appeared in yesterday's Business Day 'Life' section. The article is online here: https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/life/2021-09-14-big-read-the-fine-art-of-planting-yourself-in-a-mirror-spot-and-reading-the-shadows/

And can be downloaded from our website: http://www.pcu.uct.ac.za/news/business-day-article-the-fine-art-of-planting-yourself-in-a-mirror-spot-and-reading-the-shadows

When UCT’s Plant Conservation Unit went up in flames earlier in 2021, images that are used to understand environmental change were lost

15/09/2021

A new paper by PCU researchers Dr Estelle Razanatsoa and Prof. Lindsey Gillson and colleagues, titled ‘Synergy between climate and human land-use maintained open vegetation in southwest Madagascar over the last millennium’ was published on 31 August 2021 in The Holocene.

The article provides new evidence on the environmental changes
that occurred in Madagascar during the Late-Holocene and explores some of the interacting effects of climate and human activities on the tropical dry forest of southwest Madagascar.

Well done to Estelle and Prof. Gillson!

A new article by several PCU researchers, including Dr Estelle Razanatsoa and Prof. Lindsey Gillson, titled ‘Synergy between climate and human land-use maintained open vegetation in southwest Madagascar over the last millennium’ was published on 31 August 2021 in The Holocene. The article is ...

28/07/2021

PCU PhD candidate Gina Arena recently wrote an enlightening article for the SAEON newsletter highlighting the value of historical photographs to the long-term ecological research (LTER) network.

The article is well-placed, in the wake of the sudden loss of the historical landscape photograph collection (among others) in the fire that destroyed large portions of old buildings housing invaluable archival material on UCT's upper campus in April this year. The article makes a compelling case advocating for the increased use of repeat photography in supplementing existing long-term ecological data sets. Read the full article here:

This article is dedicated to the late Dr Piet Roux, whose contribution to arid lands research in South Africa has been exceptional. Furthermore, his donation of historical data and photograph collections to the Plant Conservation Unit will continue to serve as irreplaceable baselines of data for ong...

25/06/2021

PCU Director, Prof. Timm Hoffman, was interviewed by The Guardian about the losses incurred by the UCT fire in April. Read the full article here:

Table Mountain blaze destroyed university’s plant conservation archives, but digitised ‘then-and-now’ images continue to shed light on changes in South Africa’s landscape

23/04/2021

Research associate Dr Zander Venter, who is currently based in Norway, has developed a sliding tool using Google Earth Engine (https://zandersamuel.users.earthengine.app/view/capetown-fire-2021) to visualise the extent of the uncontrolled Table Mountain fire that began on 18 April 2021. The map uses satellite imagery to map the burn scar (area) and the fire intensity over the affected area, which was approximately 6 square kilometres.

Zooming into the map one can fully appreciate how the fire encroached on urban areas and destroyed buildings, including the Plant Conservation Unit in the HW Pearson building at UCT.

Mapping tools such as these are important for assessing the extent and severity of uncontrolled fires, and will be instrumental in future environmental planning.

21/04/2021

Statement from the UCT Biological Sciences Department HOD:

Statement by Head of Department, Assoc. Prof. Tony Verboom:
The Department of Biological Sciences has been severely impacted by Sunday’s fire. Besides the evacuation of students and the implications this has for the teaching program, the destruction of two turrets on the HW Pearson Building, one housing the Plant Conservation Unit (PCU) and the second housing the Institute for Communities and Wildlife in Africa (iCWild) has had devastating consequences for research staff and students working there. In the PCU, the loss of an irreplaceable collection of historical landscape photographs, used by Prof Timm Hoffman to study landscape and vegetation change is particularly tragic. However, the loss of offices and equipment in both turrets, and the damage to surrounding areas will also be keenly felt, with students and staff occupying these spaces needing to be accommodated elsewhere while the building is repaired.
Beyond direct damage to the PCU and iCWild, water seeping into the Bolus Herbarium, situated immediately below iCWild, threatens to damage the irreplaceable specimen collections housed there. While this globally important resource survived the fire, there is now a race against time to drain the Herbarium of any residual water (result of extinguishing the blaze), cover the roof to protect against the possibility of rain, and drop the humidity in this usually climate controlled plant library and museum. Fortunately, the Bolus Library is accommodated in a part of the HW Pearson Building which did not burn.
In addition to the PCU and iCWild, fire resulted in the loss of postgraduate and honours offices situated immediately next to the PCU. At this point, biological staff are anxious to return to the building in order to take stock of damage incurred and to start moving things forward. The initial structural assessment of the building has occurred together with the insurance assessment and more details will be posted in the coming days.
On behalf of the department, we thank you for all your kind words and offers of support at this time.
Photo. Ashraf Hendricks
Source: https://www.groundup.org.za/article/photos-cape-town-fire-destroys-exquisite-buildings-and-knowledge/