Page 56 - Research & Innovation Report 2020

SCIENCE

Garden Route Gateway is one

of six selected nationally

A proposal in 2020 for the Garden Route Gateway landscape was one of six ecosystem research
sites selected from 57 proposals throughout South Africa.

A Nelson Mandela University-led consortium put together the fundamentally rely on their ecological contexts to sustain life and
Garden Route Gateway proposal for the Expanded Freshwater improve human well-being.
and Terrestrial Environmental Observation Network (EFTEON)
– a large landscape-wide research initiative being developed Prof Fritz explains that each of the proposals are led by academic
under the South African Research Infrastructure Roadmap (SARIR) institutions and a further five sites will be selected in the next
programme of the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI). round. Each of the sites represent a large landscape in one of South
Africa’s major biomes, including human-transformed areas, such as
“Mandela University’s director of Research Management, Dr Kwezi cities and farms. “It’s basically long-term monitoring of terrestrial
Mzilikazi coordinated the proposal together with researchers from ecosystems, including freshwater. An important dimension is that
the Sustainability Research Unit (SRU), George Campus,” says it includes monitoring of the societies that depend or coexist with
Professor Hervé Fritz, head of the International Research Laboratory these ecosystems.
IRL REHABS (Reconciling Ecological and Human Adaptations for a
Biosphere-based Sustainability) partnership in the SRU. “We selected the Garden Route Gateway, with ‘gateway’ as the
operative term, as it looks at how the Garden Route ecosystem
The consortium partners include South African National Parks connects with other landscapes such as the more arid Little Karoo
Garden Route NP, the Gouritz Cluster and Garden Route Biosphere ecosystems.”
Reserves and Rhodes University. A number of researchers from the
SRU, including Prof Fritz, Professor Christo Fabricius, SANParks’ The description of the Garden Route Gateway is summarised
Professor Dirk Roux (an adjunct professor in the SRU) are the as follows: The landscape provides access to a large number of
scientific coordinators. biomes such as Fynbos, Southern Afrotemperate Forest, Succulent
Karoo and Coastal Thicket. Hydrologically this landscape has
The focus of the EFTEON programme is on ecosystem processes, river systems draining the Karoo region and short-course high-
the state of the environment and the quality and quantity of energy systems draining the Cape Fold Mountains. This area is
ecosystem services. Social systems, including economic systems, home to coastal wetlands and exhibits an excellent source-to-

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