Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

The contribution of wetland flora to regional floristic diversity across a wide range of climatic conditions in southern Africa

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Biodiversity and Conservation Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The assessment of regional diversity of wetlands at a country-wide scale can be challenging for data-poor countries. However, plant species records and datasets can provide insight in the drivers and geographic extent of the possible diversity in wetland flora at a country-wide scale. The species pool concept was applied to wetland plants in South Africa and the kingdoms of Lesotho and ESwaitini, whereby the land surface was subdivided into 35 bioregions, and wetland plants were characterized either as facultative (occurring in wetlands but not restricted to them) and obligate (restricted to the wetland environment). The total number of species and the number of facultative and obligate wetland species was calculated for each bioregion. This led to the development of 35 bioregional wetland floras and the number of species in these floras could be correlated to various climatic parameters and other explanatory variables of the bioregion. The relationships between several factors, connecting wetland plant diversity to the landscape scale, were used to explore the wetland biodiversity of the region. These included the fraction of the species pool consisting of wetland species, the number of wetland vegetation types, the overall wetland surface area and Mean Annual Precipitation (MAP). These relationships were established for both absolute species numbers (using Generalized Linear Models with a Poisson link function) and fractional species numbers (using beta regression). The best model was obtained using beta regression whereby the fraction of wetland species in the species pool was explained by MAP (pseuso-R2 = 0.8 for obligate species). For facultative species the correlations were weaker and for absolute values, no simplified model could be obtained, even though it was clear that surface area was not significant, whereas the correlation with MAP was stronger. It is suggested that higher amounts of precipitation lead to a higher volume of water in the landscape, which can be available in the form of groundwater, interflow or surface water. This available water leads to a larger number of wetland habitats which contains steeper environmental gradients and more niches for wetland plants, and this in turn leads to higher wetland species diversity. This shows a direct connection to wetland species diversity and the climatic regime over large areas.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

All data generated for this article is shared in the supplementary files that are provided with the article.

References

  • Alahuhta J, Heino J (2013) Spatial extent, regional specificity and metacommunity structuring in lake macrophytes. J Biogeogr 40:1572–1582. https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.12089

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Algar AC, Kerr JT, Currie DJ (2011) Quantifying the importance of regional and local filters for community trait structure in tropical and temperate zones. Ecology 92:903–914

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Aronson MFJ et al (2016) Hierarchical filters determine community assembly of urban species pools. Ecology 97:2952–2963

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Aselmann I, Crutzen PJ (1989) Global distribution of natural freshwater wetlands and rice paddies, their net primary productivity, seasonality and possible methane emissions. J Atmos Chem 8:307–358. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00052709

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Baker A, Pedentchouk N, Routh J, Roychoudhury AN (2017) Climatic variability in Mfabeni peatlands (South Africa) since the late Pleistocene. Quat Sci Rev 160:57–66

    Google Scholar 

  • Caley MJ, Schluter D (1997) The relationship between local and regional diversity. Ecology 78:70–80. https://doi.org/10.1890/0012-9658(1997)078[0070:TRBLAR]2.0.CO;2

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Canhos DA et al (2015) The importance of biodiversity e-infrastructures for megadiverse countries. PLoS Biol. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002204

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Chesson P (2000) General theory of competitive coexistence in spatially-varying environments. Theor Popul Biol 58:211–237

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Connor EF, McCoy ED (2001) Species-area relationships. Encycl Biodivers 5:397–411

    Google Scholar 

  • Cronk JK, Fennessey MS (2001) Wetland Plants: Biology and Ecology. Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies B, Day J (1998) Vanishing waters. University of Cape Town Press, Cape Town

    Google Scholar 

  • Dayaram A et al (2019) Vegetation Map of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland 2018: a description of changes since 2006. Bothalia-Afr Biodivers Conserv 49:1–11

    Google Scholar 

  • Driver A et al (2011) Implementation manual for freshwater ecosystem priority areas. Water Research Commission, Pretoria

    Google Scholar 

  • Ellery WN et al (2008) WET-origins. Controls on the distribution and dynamics of wetlands in South Africa. Water Research Commission, Gezina

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferrari S, Cribari-Neto F (2004) Beta regression for modelling rates and proportions. J Appl Stat 31:799–815. https://doi.org/10.1080/0266476042000214501

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Galatowitsch SM (2006) Restoring Prairie Pothole wetlands: does the species pool concept offer decision-making guidance for re-vegetation? Appl Veg Sci 9:261–270

    Google Scholar 

  • Glen RP (2013) Annotated checklist of the wetland flora of southern Africa. Unpublished Manuscript

  • Gopal B, Junk WJ, Davis JA (2000) Biodiversity in wetlands: assessment, function and conservation. Backhuys, Leiden

    Google Scholar 

  • Grace JB (2001) The roles of community biomass and species pools in the regulation of plant diversity. Oikos 92:193–207

    Google Scholar 

  • Greb SF, DiMichele WA (2006) Wetlands through time. Geol Soc Am Spec Pap 399:1–40

    Google Scholar 

  • Grundling P, Grootjans AP, Price JS, Ellery WN (2013) Development and persistence of an African mire: how the oldest South African fen has survived in a marginal climate. CATENA. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2013.06.004

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guralnick R, Van Cleve J (2005) Strengths and weaknesses of museum and national survey data sets for predicting regional species richness: comparative and combined approaches. Divers Distrib 11:349–359. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1366-9516.2005.00164.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hájek M, Horsák M, Hájková P, Dítě D (2006) Habitat diversity of central European fens in relation to environmental gradients and an effort to standardise fen terminology in ecological studies. Perspect Plant Ecol Evol Syst 8:97–114

    Google Scholar 

  • Hubbell SP (2001) The unified neutral theory of biodiversity and biogeography. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Hurvich CM, Tsai CL (1993) A corrected Akaike information criterion for vector autoregressive model selection. J Time Ser Anal 14:271–279

    Google Scholar 

  • Job N, Mbona N, Dayaram A, Kotze D (2018) Guidelines for mapping wetlands in South Africa. SANBI Biodiversity, Pretoria

    Google Scholar 

  • Jogo W, Hassan R (2010) Balancing the use of wetlands for economic well-being and ecological security: the case of the Limpopo wetland in southern Africa. Ecol Econ 69:1569–1579. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2010.02.021

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keddy PA (2000) Wetland ecology: principles and conservation. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Kotze DC, Hughes JC, Klug JR, Breen CM (1996) Improved criteria for classifying hydric soils in South Africa. S Afr J Plant Soil 13:67–73

    Google Scholar 

  • Le Roux JP (2019) The hydrogeomorphic distribution of the wetlands in Swaziland, and their prediction. MSc, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

  • Le Roux J, Beckedahl H, Grundling A, Sumner P (in review) Determining the distribution of wetlands across Eswatini

  • Legendre P (1993) Spatial autocorrelation: trouble or new paradigm? Ecology 74:1659–1673

    Google Scholar 

  • MacArthur RH, Wilson EO (1967) The theory of island biogeography. Monographs in population biology. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Maltby E, Acreman MC (2011) Ecosystem services of wetlands: pathfinder for a new paradigm. Hydrol Sci J 56:1341–1359. https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2011.631014

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Matthews GVT (1993) The Ramsar Convention on wetlands: its history and development. Ramsar Convention Bureau, Gland

    Google Scholar 

  • McInnes RJ, Simpson M, Lopez B, Hawkins R, Shore R (2017) Wetland ecosystem services and the Ramsar convention: an assessment of needs. Wetlands 37:123–134

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitsch WJ, Gosselink JG (2007) Wetlands. Wiley, Hoboken

    Google Scholar 

  • Moomaw WR et al (2018) Wetlands in a changing climate: science, policy and management. Wetlands 38:183–205

    Google Scholar 

  • Morton RD, Law R (1997) Regional species pools and the Assembly of Local Ecological Communities. J Theor Biol 187:321–331

    Google Scholar 

  • Mucina L, Rutherford MC (2006) The vegetation of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland, vol 19. Strelitzia South African National Biodiversity Institute, Pretoria

    Google Scholar 

  • Myers N (2003) Biodiversity hotspots revisited. Bioscience 53:916

    Google Scholar 

  • Nel JL et al (2009) Progress and challenges in freshwater conservation planning. Aquat Conserv 19:474–485. https://doi.org/10.1002/aqc.1010

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Onstein RE, Carter RJ, Xing Y, Linder HP (2014) Diversification rate shifts in the Cape Floristic Region: The right traits in the right place at the right time. Perspect Plant Ecol Evol Syst 16:331–340

    Google Scholar 

  • Pekel J-F, Cottam A, Gorelick N, Belward A (2016) High-resolution mapping of global surface water and its long-term changes. Nature 540:418–422

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pollock MM, Naiman RJ, Hanley TA (1998) Plant species richness in riparian wetlands: a test of biodiversity theory. Ecology 79:94–105

    Google Scholar 

  • Poschlod P, Bakker J, Kahmen S (2005) Changing land use and its impact on biodiversity. Basic Appl Ecol 6:93–98

    Google Scholar 

  • R Core Team (2013) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna

    Google Scholar 

  • Reynolds C, Cumming GS (2016) Seed traits and bird species influence the dispersal parameters of wetland plants. Freshw Biol 61:1157–1170

    Google Scholar 

  • Rolon AS, Maltchik L (2006) Environmental factors as predictors of aquatic macrophyte richness and composition in wetlands of southern Brazil. Hydrobiologia 556:221–231

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Scholes RJ, Scholes M, Lucas M (2015) Climate change: briefings from Southern Africa. Wits University Press, Johannesburg

    Google Scholar 

  • Sieben EJJ (2019) Zonal and azonal vegetation revisited: how is wetland vegetation distributed across different zonobiomes. Austral Ecol 44:449–460

    Google Scholar 

  • Sieben EJJ, Mtshali H, Janks M (2014) National Wetland Vegetation Database: classification and analysis of wetland vegetation types for conservation planning and monitoring. Water Research Commission, Pretoria

    Google Scholar 

  • Sieben EJJ, Collins NB, Mtshali H, Venter CE (2016) The vegetation of inland wetlands with salt-tolerant vegetation in South Africa: description, classification and explanatory environmental factors. S Afr J Bot 104:199–207

    Google Scholar 

  • Sieben EJJ, Glen RP, Muasya AM (2017) The wetland flora of South Africa: occurrence patterns, frequency and dominance across a diverse landscape. Aquat Bot 142:112–118

    Google Scholar 

  • Soltis D, Bell C, Kim S, Soltis P (2008) Origin and early evolution of angiosperms. Ann N Y Acad Sci 1133:3

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Soons MB, van der Vlugt C, van Lith B, Heil GW, Klaassen M (2008) Small seed size increases the potential for dispersal of wetland plants by ducks. J Ecol 96:619–627

    Google Scholar 

  • Sosnová M, van Diggelen R, Klimesova J (2010) Distribution of clonal growth forms in wetlands. Aquat Bot 92:33–39

    Google Scholar 

  • The European Space Agency (ESA) (2016) African land cover. https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2017/10/African_land_cover. Accessed 2 Oct 2020

  • Tooth S (2018) The geomorphology of wetlands in drylands: resilience, nonresilience, or …? Geomorphology 305:33–48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2017.10.017

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tooth S, McCarthy TS (2007) Wetlands in drylands: geomorphological and sedimentological characteristics, with emphasis on examples from southern Africa. Prog Phys Geogr 31:3–41. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309133307073879

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van der Maarel E (2005) Vegetation ecology. Blackwell, Malden

    Google Scholar 

  • van Deventer H, Nel J, Mbona N, Job N, Ewart-Smith J, Snaddon K, Maherry A (2016) Desktop classification of inland wetlands for systematic conservation planning in data-scarce countries: mapping wetland ecosystem types, disturbance indices and threatened species associations at country-wide scale. Aquat Conserv 26:57–75. https://doi.org/10.1002/aqc.2605

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Deventer H, Smith-Adao L, Petersen C, Mbona N, Skowno A, Nel JL (2018) Review of available data for a South African Inventory of Inland Aquatic Ecosystems (SAIIAE). Water SA 44:184–199

    Google Scholar 

  • van Deventer H et al (2020) National Wetland Map 5: an improved spatial extent and representation of inland aquatic and estuarine ecosystems in South Africa. Water SA 46:66–79

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Wyk B, Smith G (2001) Regions of floristic endemism in Southern Africa: a review with emphasis on succulents. Umdaus Press, Hatfield

    Google Scholar 

  • Weiher E, Keddy PA (2001) Ecological assembly rules: perspectives, advances, retreats. Cambridge University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Wisheu IC, Keddy P (1996) Three competing models for predicting the size of species pools: a test using Eastern North American Wetlands. Oikos 76:253

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Brenda Daly and Ronell Klopper for help with queries around the species pools. Nancy Job and Serban Proches provided feedback on earlier drafts of the paper and Retius Chifurira provided guidance with the statistical analysis.

Funding

This work has emerged from components of the National Biodiversity Assessment 2018 which was funded by the South African National Biodiversity Institute and the Water Research Commission (Project K5/1980). The Botanical Education Trust for financial support for the overall species list of wetland species.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Agricultural, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Private Bag X54001, Westville, 4001, South Africa

    E. J. J. Sieben

  2. School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, South Africa

    R. P. Glen

  3. Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), P.O. Box 395, Pretoria, 0001, South Africa

    H. van Deventer

  4. School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Johannesburg, 2050, South Africa

    H. van Deventer

  5. South African National Biodiversity Institute, Cape Town, South Africa

    A. Dayaram

  6. Restoration and Conservation Biology Research Group, School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Science, University of the Witwatersrand, WITS, Private Bag 3, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2050, South Africa

    A. Dayaram

Authors
  1. E. J. J. Sieben
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. R. P. Glen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. H. van Deventer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. A. Dayaram
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

Conceptualization of study: ES and RG. Data collection: ES, RG, HVD, AD. Formal analysis: ES. Writing of draft manuscript: ES, HVD. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to E. J. J. Sieben.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

Authors declare that they have no conflict of interest to disclose.

Additional information

Communicated by Daniel Sanchez Mata.

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (XLSX 34 KB)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Sieben, E.J.J., Glen, R.P., van Deventer, H. et al. The contribution of wetland flora to regional floristic diversity across a wide range of climatic conditions in southern Africa. Biodivers Conserv 30, 575–596 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-020-02104-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-020-02104-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation