Browsing by Author "Dayaram, Anisha"

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    Advancing coastal cross-realm integration for planning and assessment
    (NMU; Stellenbosch University; SANBI; DEA; Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife; CSIR, 2018-06-20) Harris, Linda; Bessinger, Mariel; Holness, Stephen; Kirkman, Stephen; Livingstone, Tamsyn; Amanda, Lombard; Luck-Vogel, Melanie; van Niekerk, Lara
    The coast is one of South Africa’s most valuable national assets but has been poorly included in biodiversity plans because the realm has been split into its “land” and “sea” components. Even if planners intended to include the coast meaningfully, this has been impossible because the terrestrial and marine ecosystem type maps don’t align along the shore. Thus, a key step in progressing cross-realm integration for both planning and assessment is to generate a fine-scale coastal ecosystem-type map that is seamless among realms. We explicitly avoided controversial boundaries, rather choosing the most stable boundaries available that divide the ecotone into ecologically meaningful zones. We defined and mapped (at <1:3000) the “seashore” as the land-sea interface between the dune scrub/thicket break and the back of the surf zone. The seashore is divided at the dune base into a landward “backshore” (which replaces the seashore vegetation type) and seaward “shore”. Given the dynamic nature of the coast, temporal aspects were included in the boundary delineation and ecosystem type classification, where appropriate. The estuary delineation from the National Biodiversity Assessment 2018 was also embedded in the map. South Africa is now the first country with a wall-to-wall ecosystem type map for its territory and Exclusive Economic Zone.
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    Conserving cross-realm coastal biodiversity when real-world planning and implementation processes split the land and sea
    (2025-02-07) Harris, L.R; van Nierkerk, L; Holness, S.D; Sink, K.J; Skowno, A.L; Dayaram, A; van Deventer, H; Job, N; Lamberth, S.J; Adams, J.B; Raw, J.L; Riddin, T; MacKay, C.F
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    Contribute to the National Vegetation Map 2021!
    (South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), 2020-05-05) Dayaram, Anisha; Skowno , Andrew
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    Contribute to the National Vegetation Map 2021!
    (South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), 2020)
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    Contribute to the National Vegetation Map 2021!
    (South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), 2020)
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    Cross-realm biodiversity profile of the South African coastal zone
    (2025-04-17) Harris, Linda. R; Adams, Janine. B; Dayaram, Anisha; Dunga, Loyiso V; Job, Nancy; Kirkman, Stephen P; Lamberth, Stephen J; Pfaff, Maya C; Raw, JL; Rishworth, GM; Robbins, A; Sink, Kerry J; Skowno, Andrew L; Van Deventer, Heidi; Van Niekerk, Lara
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    A description of South Africa’s Estuarine Ecosystems. Summary of ecosystem description, threat status and protection levels
    (Report produced by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), 2022-03-31) Van Niekerk, Lara; Adams, Janine, B.; Lamberth, Stephen, J.; Dayaram, Anisha
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    Digitisation of herbarium specimens to the benefit of research: An African perspective focusing on South Africa and Western Indian Ocean Island states
    (2025-10-24) Klopper, R. Ronell; Steyn, Hester M.; Baider, Cláudia; Bytebier, Benny; Dayaram, Anisha; Florens, F.B. Vincent; Rakotonirina, Nivohenintsoa; Raimondo, Domitilla; Sosef, Marc; Le Roux, M. Marianne
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    Exploring functional vegetation groups for the National Vegetation Map
    (South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), 2019-06) Desmet, Phillip; Todd, Simon; Geldenhys, Coert; Lotter, Mervyn; Hoare, David; Grobler, Adriaan; Slingsby, Jasper; Moncrieff, Glenn; Forsythe, Katherine
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    Feedback loops between the VEGMAP and biodiversity plans
    (South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), 2017-06-21)
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    Feedback loops between the VEGMAP and provincial and fine-scale biodiversity plans
    (2017-06-21)
    The relationship between the National Vegetation Map (VEGMAP) and national, provincial and fine-scale biodiversity plans has been highlighted as important. However, while we often emphasise the importance of the VEGMAP as foundational information in these biodiversity plans, less often do we explicitly indicate the importance of these plans in influencing the VEGMAP. The VEGMAP has gone through several iterative changes and the sources of these changes have varied. Many of the changes in KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape and Mpumalanga were drawn from provincial and fine-scale biodiversity plans. We discuss which of these plans have been included over time, how much of each plan was incorporated into the map, and how much of the map has in turn influenced the next version of the biodiversity plan. However, several biodiversity plans have valuable information that was not included in the map for various reasons. We explore some of these reasons and how these blind spots can be avoided in future biodiversity plans to allow for greater integration with the VEGMAP. This discussion will help highlight the importance of alignment with the classification and mapping system of the VEGMAP when undertaking provincial and fine-scale planning work.
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    The following preview has been approved for all audiences by the VEGMAP Team of South Africa
    (South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), 2018-01)
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    Fynbos
    (Elsevier Inc, 2021-09) Dayaram, Anisha; Skowno, Andrew Luke; Van der Colff, Dewidine; Monyeki, Maphale Stella; Rebelo, Anthony; Von Staden, Lize; Raimondo, Domitilla Claudia
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    Guidelines for mapping wetlands in South Africa
    (2018) Job, Nancy; Mbona, Namhla; Dayaram, Anisha; Kotze, Donovan
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    Integrating STEP in the Thicket biome for VEGMAP 2017
    (South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), 2018-06-12) Grobler, Adriaan
    Aim. The national vegetation map of South Africa (VEGMAP) has been updated on two previous occasions to improve the representation of ecosystems in the map. The third update of the VEGMAP coincided with the 2018 National Biodiversity Assessment (NBA). Several changes to the classification and polygon boundaries were made to vegetation types in Namaqualand, Bushmanland, West Coast, City of Cape Town, at the coastal edge, to forests in the Eastern Cape and Limpopo, wetlands and the Thicket Biome. Location. Namaqualand, Bushmanland, West Coast, City of Cape Town, coast, forests in the Eastern Cape and Limpopo, wetlands across the country and the Thicket Biome. Activities. Changes to the national vegetation map were obtained from various sources and incorporated into the map. A modification of the Subtropical Thicket Ecosystem Project (STEP) map was used to update the Thicket Biome in the VEGMAP in a collaborative effort between SANBI and thicket experts who developed STEP. The focus of this phase of the project was to review all solid thicket STEP vegetation types that could be integrated into the national vegetation map. During this process many STEP types were merged, and portions were split to form a slightly different configuration of types. Over 10% of the total area of the national vegetation map was refined in this update. Three percent of this area emerged from refinements to the Thicket Biome. Furthermore, the Thicket Biome now contributes to 10 percent (43 types) of the number of types in the VEGMAP compared to three percent (14 types) in 2012. Main Conclusions. Overall the map for the Thicket Biome no longer has types stretching across multiple soil and climate gradients. It is likely to be a better representation of vegetation for this biome. Management Implications. These refinements will improve decision-making in this area and the updated version will be included in the 2018 NBA assessment.
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    The integration of the South African vegetation map with adjacent environments: changes and lessons learned
    (2018-06-21)
    Under the National Biodiversity Assessment 2018 the latest update of the National Vegetation Map (VEGMAP) was developed in conjunction with the freshwater, coastal and estuarine maps and classification systems in a co-ordinated effort to resolve gaps and overlaps. A review of the terrestrial vegetation types revealed potential non-terrestrial and nonlandscape scale types. These types were moved to the appropriate realm, or relevant boundary adjustments were made to match other realms. Thirteen vegetation types were mapping wetland ecosystems and were downgraded to communities within the vegetation types. The coastal vegetation types included four broadly mapped seashore types and needed further differentiation that was remapped and classified by coastal experts. Areas affected directly by coastal processes were removed from VEGMAP and coastal vegetation types were added as subtypes to the terrestrial map. Estuarine features were also mapped more accurately by realm specialists and the boundaries of these features were updated in VEGMAP. We also refined the delineation of forests in the Eastern Cape and Limpopo Provinces and undertook a collaborative integration of existing subtropical thicket mapping and classification. All technical changes were reviewed by regional and realm experts before final implementation and a clear data management process was followed to ensure that versioning was maintained.
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    Iterative mapping of marine ecosystems for spatial status assessment, prioritization, and decision support
    (2023-03-31) Harris, Linda R.; Karenyi, Natasha; Porter, Sean; Kirkman, Stephen; Pfaff, Maya; van Niekerk, Lara; Atkinson, Lara J.; Bernard, Anthony; Cawthra, Hayley; de Wet, Willem; Filander, Zoleka; Green, Andrew; Herbert, David; Holness, Stephen; Lamberth, Stephen; Livingstone, Tamsyn; Lück-Vogel, Melanie; Mackay, Fiona; Makwela, Mapula; Palmer, Ryan; van Zyl, Wilhem
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    Mapping biodiversity priorities: A practical approach to spatial biodiversity assessment and prioritisation to inform national policy, planning, decisions and action
    (2024) Botts, Emily; Driver, Amanda; Holness, Stephen; Arnell, Andy; Bezeng, Simeon; Dayaram, Anisha; Desmet, Philip; Grantham, Hedley; Ling, Matthew; Monyeki, Maphale; Pence, Genevieve; Poole, Carol; Raimondo, Domitilla; Skowno, Andrew; Sink, Kerry; Tayleur, John; von Staden, Lize; Valderrábano, Marcos