A social-ecological investigation into urban domestic gardens and avifauna in medium-sized towns of the Eastern Cape, South Africa
- Authors: Tricam, Shayla
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Urban ecology (Biology) -- South Africa , Biotic communites -- South Africa , Gardens -- South Africa -- Managemenet , Birds – Ecology – South Africa , Gardening to attract birds -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/145314 , vital:38427
- Description: Urban domestic gardens are an often overlooked component of urban green infrastructure, despite their potential to contribute to the preservation of urban biodiversity. As opposed to public greenspaces, private gardens are individually owned and managed, thus act as social-ecological systems, where the cumulative actions of urban residents can scale up to influence ecological patterns and processes on a larger scale. The diversity of fauna and flora within urban gardens provide a range of ecosystem goods and services, as well as less tangible benefits in the form of recreation, education and culture. However, little is known about the contribution of urban domestic gardens to urban biodiversity and its potential conservation value in South Africa. This study investigated urban domestic gardens along a socio-economic gradient in two medium-sized towns, Grahamstown and Port Alfred in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. This study found distinct differences among urban resident garden management practices as well as the avifauna which were seen within the gardens across the socio-economic gradient. The Garden Management Intensity index was higher within affluent households compared to other socio-economic levels, with subsequent management scores not differing statistically along the gradient. While there was variation within garden management practices, as well as the number of residents who participated in supplementary bird feeding, little variation was seen in the activities which were enjoyed by the residents, indicating numerous benefits the garden environment provides for all urban residents. The bird community composition along the socio-economic gradient displayed patterns directly reflecting the “luxury effect”, where households with a higher socio-economic status had harbour gardens with greater levels of biodiversity. This study showed that affluent gardens displayed far greater diversity, richness and abundance of urban birds. Multivariate analyses confirmed the patterns by highlighting a distinct bird community in the affluent zone, compared to other two socio-economic zones, which housed a second bird community. Furthermore, the main driver of the bird community composition was dominated by vegetation complexity, most notably tree cover within the gardens. Therefore, this study highlighted that patterns of ecological inequality are highly evident in medium-sized towns in South Africa, where older, affluent suburbs households display greater diversity and abundance of birdlife, compared to subsequent socio-economic zones within the study. Prioritisation with regards to the benefits a garden environment brings to urban residents in terms of a connection to nature, access to urban greenery, and relationship to urban wildlife is vital and should be promoted and planned for across all socio-economic zones.
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- Date Issued: 2020
Assessing community structure and trophic interrelationships in three differently impacted headwater streams in the AmatholeWinterberg freshwater ecoregion, South Africa
- Authors: Matomela, Nonjabulo Happy
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Stream ecology -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Freshwater animals -- Ecology -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Kat River (South Africa) -- , Lushington River (South Africa) , Elands River (South Africa) , Eyre River (South Africa) , Food chains (Ecology) -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Water quality -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Land use -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/147653 , vital:38658
- Description: Afromontane regions represent some of the highly threatened ecosystems on the planet as they harbour endemic and often relic freshwater fauna. These ecologically sensitive ecosystems have been altered by multiple impacts, including invasion by non-native fishes, replacement of diverse indigenous vegetation with monoculture plantations, agricultural and mining activities, hydrological modifications, and degradation of instream habitats, with potential detrimental effects on aquatic community structures and food web dynamics. The aim of the present study was to compare spatio-temporal patterns of macroinvertebrate and fish communities as well as food web dynamics in three differently impacted headwater tributaries of the Kat River in the Amathole-Winterberg freshwater ecoregion in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The upper Kat River catchment was the ideal model for purposes of the present study as it contains streams with varying degrees of human impact. The streams considered in the present study were (i) the Eyre River which was considered to closely represent near-natural conditions as it is the least impacted stream in this catchment, with the riparian zone dominated by relatively intact and diverse native woody vegetation, (ii) the Elands River whose catchment has been altered by agricultural activities, and (iii) the Lushington River, whose riparian zone has been heavily invaded by black wattle. The three headwater streams were generally distinguished based on the physical-chemical variables. The Elands River was characterised by high conductivity and total dissolved solids (TDS). In addition, the Elands River was more alkaline and relatively warmer than the other two rivers. This suggested the negative influence of agriculture activities on the water quality in the Elands River. In general, the Lushington and Eyre rivers had comparable physical and chemical variables. However, the Lushington River was generally characterised by low streamflow, likely as a consequent of black wattle which is known for altering hydrological regimes of streams .The Eyre River and Lushington River were comparable in terms of macroinvertebrate richness and diversity, whereas the Elands River was characterised by low macroinvertebrate diversity and richness. Redundancy analysis indicated that the macroinvertebrate communities were mostly influenced by seasonality, with land-use accounting for a small but significant difference in community composition. In comparison, the generalised linear mixed-effects models (GLMMs) showed that chubbyhead barb abundance was significantly influenced by land-use patterns. Evaluation of food web dynamics using stable isotope analysis revealed that the food web structure in the three rivers differed substantially as a result of land-use. Specifically, the Eyre River was characterised by less variation in stable isotope values of basal food sources and consequently, the consumer groups had a narrow isotopic breadth. In contrast, the Elands River was characterised by a wide variation in basal food sources and therefore, a wider isotopic breadth for consumers. The Lushington River was spatially variable in terms of basal sources and isotopic breadth for consumers. The study concluded that food webs and trophic interrelationships were a more informative indicator of land-use than community structure was in evaluating the impact of land-use patterns on aquatic communities. In addition, future studies should seek to investigate food webs interrelationships in addition to community structure to infer a more conclusive river assessment.
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- Date Issued: 2020
Now that we have the land: analysing the experiences of land reform beneficiaries in the Makana Municipal District of the Eastern Cape, South Africa
- Authors: Msuthu, Simela Thuleka
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Land reform , Sustainable development , Land reform -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Land tenure -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Land settlement -- Government policy -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Restitution -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Local government -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Municipal government -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Rural development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/167551 , vital:41491
- Description: The “land question” in South Africa goes back more than a century to the 1913 Natives Land Act which facilitated the dispossession of African people from fertile land to arid homelands and congested townships. This mass dispossession of Africans from their land was accompanied by an array of legislation aimed at restricting their upward mobility, thus laying the foundations of structural inequality in South Africa. The advent of democracy in 1994 brought about a number of legislative reforms aimed at addressing the injustices that were imposed by the colonial and apartheid governments on the African people. At the forefront of these legislative efforts was the restoration of land to the original inhabitants of the country. Research indicates that, since 1994, the South African government has issued out land to different individuals and communities around the country in an attempt to address structural unemployment and poverty that plague the country. Using the Sustainable Livelihoods Theoretical framework, this study sought to examine the experiences of land reform beneficiaries in the Makana Municipal district of the Eastern Cape, in order to determine the extent to which the transfer of land to landless people has met the governments’ agenda to alleviate poverty and unemployment in the rural regions of South Africa. The findings in this study show that, successful land reform in South Africa is hindered mostly by two factors. Firstly, the inability of land beneficiaries to access quality education, skills training, finances and formal agricultural value chains. Secondly, land beneficiaries are further placed at a disadvantage by the poor quality of public services in their local municipalities and inconsistent post-settlement support from the state. The conclusion made in this study, is that the government has to be cognizant of the aforementioned structural barriers, when designing and rolling out land reform projects throughout the country. Failure to address these glaring structural barriers, will result in the creation of a peasant class of people living on underutilized land.
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- Date Issued: 2020