About

The SAEON Fynbos Node forms part of the South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON), a business unit within the National Research Foundation. The Department of Science and Innovation established SAEON to conduct long term environmental observation and promote an informed and timely response to global change.

SAEON is countrywide, with “Nodes” encompassing the major terrestrial, coastal and oceanic environments. Its activities cover the entire research-development-innovation value chain ranging from collecting, processing, archiving and interpreting data; developing data products and services; and interfacing with end users that include policy makers and environmental managers.

SAEON works in collaboration with government agencies, universities, research institutions, industrial partners and civil society.

Our Team

Staff

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Abri de Buys

Technician

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Elvirena Coetzee

Administrator

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Glenn Moncrieff

Data Scientist

Postdocs, Associates and Fellows

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Jasper Slingsby

Research Associate

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Julia Glenday

Research Fellow

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Martina Treurnicht

Postdoctoral Fellow

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Rob Skelton

Research Fellow

Students

Dashboards

Global Renosterveld Watch

An application for monitoring the loss of critically endangered Renosterveld shrubland - updated every 10 days

Catchment Monitor

Rainfall and streamflow from the catchments that feed Cape Town’s major dams

EFTEON Landscapes

A map of existing meteorological, hydrological and ecological datasets and infrastructure to assist with EFTEON proposals.

Streamflow reduction estimator

Demonstration app showing estimates of the impacts of invasive alien plants on stream flow in the Fynbos Biome (as of 2008)

Research Sites and Data

Core study sites

Satellite study sites

Datasets

Current Projects

These are projects linked to current grants. See ‘Sites and Datasets’ for long term projects.

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FLAIR

Developing robust mechanistic frameworks of plant response to the environment

HydroMIP

A South African hydrological model inter-comparison project

Protea demography

Exploring drought impacts on the demography of serotinous Proteaceae

EMSAfrica

A South Africa - Germany collaboration to understand the impacts of land-use and climate change on South African terrestrial ecosystems

RReTool

Developing remote-sensing tools for natural resource management

News

Events

Upcoming events (conferences, etc)

Other news

Conferences, awards, new students or staff

Outreach

News on recent outreach and training events

Science

Recent fieldwork, new research projects or publications

Recent Publications

Quickly discover relevant content by filtering publications.

Assessing the threat of landscape transformation and habitat fragmentation in a global biodiversity hotspot

Abstract Habitat loss and habitat fragmentation are amongst the major drivers of biodiversity loss globally. Although habitat …

Propagating uncertainty from catchment experiments to estimates of streamflow reduction by invasive alien plants in southwestern South Africa

Abstract Long-term catchment experiments from South Africa have demonstrated that afforestation of grasslands and shrublands …

Range‐wide population viability analyses reveal high sensitivity to wildflower harvesting in extreme environments

Abstract 1. The ecological effects of harvesting from wild populations are often uncertain, especially since the sensitivity of …

Changes in pastoral mobility in a semi-arid montane region of South Africa: The role of policy and legislation

Access the paper here. Legislation and policy are key tools used by governments to change the socio-economic and political landscape of …

Contact

  • 021 799 8657
  • Centre for Biodiversity Conservation, Kirstenbosch Gardens, Cape Town, Postal: Private Bag X7, Claremont 7735, South Africa,
  • Enter the main gate to Kirstenbosch Gardens. Turn right, sign in at security, and proceed through the booms. At the circle, proceed slight left and continue up the hill, past the greenhouses, until you see two office buildings. We’re on the ground floor of the building on the right.
  • 8:00 to 16:30 Monday to Friday