South African Grasslands (GSSA) Congress Pulls Researchers Together

Observer comments ... I've just come back from Kruger and took an interest in the areas that had been burned during this winter season. Until recently I never gave much thought to the influence of fires on the well being of grassland savannah especially. The grasslands and savannahs are highly complex systems which even today are poorly understood.

Grasslands are the ecosystem most affected by biodiversity loss in southern Africa, but only a tiny fraction are formally conserved and they are under a major threat from climate change.

With this in mind, it is encouraging that the 41st annual congress of the Grassland Society of South Africa (GSSA) was well attended and that there was a lively vibe among the participants.

The congress was held from 17-20 July, 2006 in Bela-Bela, and was complemented by two special sessions on invasive plant management and long-tem ecological monitoring being run in parallel with the congress.

Several of Kruger’s top scientific staff attended the meeting, and gave presentations on a variety of issues.

Sanparks and the South African Environmental Observation Network (Saeon) helped organise the special session on long-term monitoring. Dr Harry Biggs, head of systems ecology research in Kruger, was positive about the future of long-term ecological observation in South Africa, saying that it was clear that the concept is gaining momentum, although there are always times when people wish to shut down observation stations.

He was also positive about the subject of the keynote address, which talked about the benefits of heterogeneity, or patchiness in the landscape, and how it relates to agriculture and wildlife.

Dr Biggs says that the concept of heterogeneity is a strong undercurrent in Kruger’s management, and has been for a decade now, and that it was good to see the keynote address setting this tone for the GSSA congress.

Kruger’s northern plains and plant-animal Grassland congress pulls researchers together interaction expert, Dr Rina Grant, is a member of the council of the Grassland Society.

She says that for her one of the highlights of the meeting was how it integrated people from all aspects of grassland research ranging from farmers to wildlife managers to administrators to conservationists. According to Dr Dave Balfour, manager of the Ndlovu node of Saeon located at Phalaborwa, the congress also provided Saeon with the opportunity to meet with many of the grassland scientists to discuss the establishment of a grassland node which will monitor long-term environmental variables in a grassland setting.

He echoed Dr Biggs’ sentiments regarding the growing recognition of the importance of long-term scientific monitoring, and that the establishment of Saeon has proved to be timeous in helping consolidate the issues involved in long-term observations.

The invasive plant management symposium, organised in collaboration with the Weed Science Society, also brought many role players together. Alien plants are recognised as a major threat to grasslands around the country.

Kruger’s programme manager for invasive species, Llewellyn Foxcroft, commented that the mingling of the weed scientists and the grassland scientists served to get new people excited about the battle with alien plants. Altogether, about 200 people registered for the congress, and those attending report that most of the presentations were so interesting that more time was spent listening to the presentations than in discussions with colleagues, as sometimes occurs at conferences.