Project showcase: Biological Invasions in South Africa

SAF-ADAPT PhD student, Ntandokazi Sijabulisiwe Masimula, is investigating alien plant invasion interactions with land-use and climate change in South Africa. Her research project aims to assess dynamics of how invasive alien plant species (IAPS) influence and are influenced by biodiversity and climate change.

Ecosystems interact differently with alien invasive plant species, more interestingly in biodiverse regions like South Africa. Multiple drivers determine the impacts found at farm to landscape level, thus assessing these drivers and their compounding effects (i.e. Land-use, Climate change, Management, etc.) with earth observation data will give a holistic and mechanistic understanding of the invasions in South African ecosystems at the landscape level. The research further dives deep into better detection of IAPS through merging satellite data, assessing land-use vulnerability to biological invasions and the impact of IAPS on ecosystem functioning and vulnerability. Thus increasing the understanding of present and future invasions which can be informed through high resolution earth observation data in robust models.

Ultimately, this research aims to inform effective, contextualised monitoring and robust
management of alien invasive plant species in different ecosystems as well as conservation of native
vegetation in South Africa.