Projected increases in the frequency and severity of drought events are expected to impose changes in the ecology of native forb communities in semi-arid ecosystems. We examined the state of forb communities during, and directly after an extreme drought event across two contrasting land-use types, which included a protected area (high diversity of free roaming wild herbivores) and communal rangeland (long history of intensive cattle grazing) in a semi-arid Lowveld savanna of the Gazankulu area, South Africa. Forb floristic data were collected towards the end of the drought and repeated after the drought release a few months later. Forb community composition was significantly different among land-use types. Community changes were not induced by annual forb emergence alone, but through species-specific dominance shifts, which differed among land-use types. Forb richness, diversity and biomass were equally low at both land-use types and increased significantly after the drought release, although the magnitude of response was much stronger in the protected area, whereas drought contributed to a directional change in the protected area with a complete post-drought turnover in both annual and perennial forb species, much less variability was observed in the communal rangeland, which may suggest long-term effects imposed by land-use history.

Background: Increased frequency and intensity of droughts related to climate change are predicted to induce pressure on herbaceous communities. Considering that forbs contribute significantly to savanna ecosystem resilience, we investigated forb communities of a protected semi-arid savanna during an extensive drought.Objective: We identified drought-tolerant species with their related functional traits.Results: Drought-tolerant forb flora comprised of several plant families and species with overlapping traits, of which the ability to resprout was related to perennials, whereas succulence and prostrate growth form were typical annual forb dominance traits.Conclusion: Results highlight the functional importance of forbs and their resilience to drought events in protected areas.

Birds of the genus Cisticola occur over most of Southern Africa in varying habitats ranging from low to high altitudes and wet to dry areas causing species to have unique distributions. In order to determine if Cisticolas have evolved species‐specific water repellency and resistance to water penetration compatible with their habitats, we have measured the barb diameter and spacing of abdominal, breast and throat feathers of six cisticola species and related the results to mean annual rainfall and altitudes in five different locations. Water repellency was not significantly associated with altitude or maximum mean summer temperatures. However, water repellency increased markedly with annual rainfall in the 550 to 600 mm/year range for abdominal and breast feathers, but not for throat feathers. This increase was evident both among species occurring at multiple sites and among different species occurring at single sites. However, the two species occurring at the wettest sites showed low water repellency, but increased resistance to water penetration. These findings suggest that water repellency and resistance to water penetration are part of the evolutionary forces that shape the microstructure of Cisticola contour feathers.