South African Biomes and Their Changes Over Time

Finch, Jemma; Meadows, Michael E.

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-94974-1_7

Cited by 7 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 45 publications

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“…As expected, high mean maximum temperatures are observed during austral summer (December to February (DJF)), ranging from 22 to 38 • C while the winter period (June to August (JJA)) has a range from 13 to 27 • C. The western interior, particularly the northern parts of the Northern Cape province, experiences high maximum temperatures in all seasons. This region of persistently high temperatures corresponds with the semiarid Kalahari Desert, which supports a savanna vegetation biome [69]. This was also found to be the case in the northeastern lowveld region, whose altitude lies below 500 m. High-lying areas along the Drakensberg mountains experience generally low temperatures throughout the year, particularly in midwinter.…”

Section: Mean Maximum Temperaturesupporting

confidence: 66%

Heatwave Variability and Structure in South Africa during Summer Drought

Mbokodo

Bopape

Ndarana

et al. 2023

Climate

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Pronounced subsidence leading to summer drought over southern Africa causes warmer than average surface air temperatures or even heatwave (HW) conditions. We investigated the occurrence of HWs during the summer drought over South Africa based on station data and the ECMWF ERA5 reanalyses. Temperature observations from the South African Weather Service were analyzed for seasonality and long-term trends (1981–2020) as background to the occurrence and variability of HWs. We focused on three severe El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO)-induced drought seasons, i.e., 1982/83, 1991/92, and 2015/16, to investigate HW characteristics. While 1997/98 was among the strongest El Niño seasons, the impacts were not as severe because it coincided with an intense Angola low, which allowed for rain-bearing cloud bands to form. Results showed that the hottest months were spread across the austral summer season from December to February. Regions experiencing high mean maximum temperatures and high HW frequencies exhibited a strong ENSO signal, with record HWs occurring during 2015/16. The establishment and persistence of a middle-level high-pressure system over Botswana/Namibia (Botswana High) appears to trigger the longest-lasting HWs during drought seasons. The Botswana high is usually coupled with a near-surface continental heat low and/or tropical warm air advection towards the affected region. It was also found that intense ENSO-induced drought events coincided with high HW frequency over South Africa, such as during 1982/83, 1991/92, and the recent 2015/16 events. The results of this study contribute to understanding drought and heat wave dynamics in a region experiencing rapid warming as a result of climate change.

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Section: Mean Maximum Temperaturesupporting

confidence: 66%

Heatwave Variability and Structure in South Africa during Summer Drought

Mbokodo

Bopape

Ndarana

et al. 2023

Climate

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Effectiveness of South Africa's network of protected areas: Unassessed vascular plants predicted to be threatened using deep neural networks are all located in protected areas

Kandolo,

Yessoufou,

Kganyago

2024

Ecology and Evolution

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Globally, we are in the midst of a biodiversity crisis and megadiverse countries become key targets for conservation. South Africa, the only country in the world hosting three biodiversity hotspots within its borders, harbours a tremendous diversity of at‐risk species deserving to be protected. However, the lengthy risk assessment process and the lack of required data to complete assessments is a serious limitation to conservation since several species may slide into extinction while awaiting risk assessment. Here, we employed a deep neural network model integrating species climatic and geographic features to predict the conservation status of 116 unassessed plant species. Our analysis involved in total of 1072 plant species and 96,938 occurrence points. The best‐performing model exhibits high accuracy, reaching up to 83.6% at the binary classification and 56.8% at the detailed classification. Our best‐performing model at the binary classification predicts that 32% (25 species) and 8% (3 species) of Data Deficient and Not‐Evaluated species respectively, are likely threatened, amounting to a proportion of 24.1% of unassessed species facing a risk of extinction. Interestingly, all unassessed species predicted to be threatened are in protected areas, revealing the effectiveness of South Africa's network of protected areas in conservation, although these likely threatened species are more abundant outside protected areas. Considering the limitation in assessing only species with available data, there remains a possibility of a higher proportion of unassessed species being imperilled.

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Agricultural Land Degradation in South Africa

Huyssteen

Preez

2022

The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry

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South African Biomes and Their Changes Over Time

Cited by 7 publications

References 45 publications

Heatwave Variability and Structure in South Africa during Summer Drought

Heatwave Variability and Structure in South Africa during Summer Drought

Effectiveness of South Africa's network of protected areas: Unassessed vascular plants predicted to be threatened using deep neural networks are all located in protected areas

Agricultural Land Degradation in South Africa

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