Biogeography and Ecology of Southern Africa

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xv

   PDF

2. Environment, present and past

   1. The geomorphology of central and southern Africa

      • Lester King

      Pages 1-17

   2. Climatic indices and classifications in relation to the biogeography of southern Africa

      • R. E. Schulze, O. S. McGee

      Pages 19-52

   3. Rainfall changes over South Africa during the period of meteorological record

      • P. D. Tyson

      Pages 53-69

   4. Schematic soil map of southern Africa south of latitude 16°30′S

      • H. J. von M. Harmse

      Pages 71-75

   5. Late Cretaceous and Tertiary vegetation history of Africa

      • D. I. Axelrod, P. H. Raven

      Pages 77-130

   6. Quaternary vegetation changes in southern Africa

      • E. M. van Zinderen Bakker Sr

      Pages 131-143

3. Biogeography and ecology

   1. Biogeographical division of southern Africa

      • M. J. A. Werger

      Pages 145-170

   2. Capensis

      • H. C. Taylor

      Pages 171-229

   3. The Karoo-Namib Region

      • M. J. A. Werger

      Pages 231-299

   4. The Sudano-Zambezian Region

      • M. J. A. Werger, B. J. Coetzee

      Pages 301-462

   5. The Afromontane Region

      • F. White

      Pages 463-513

   6. The Afro-alpine Region

      • D. J. B. Killick

      Pages 515-560

   7. The Indian Ocean Coastal Belt

      • E. J. Moll, F. White

      Pages 561-598

   8. The Guineo-Congolian transition to southern Africa

      • F. White, M. J. A. Werger

      Pages 599-620

   9. Primary production ecology in southern Africa

      • M. C. Rutherford

      Pages 621-659

   10. Megadrilacea (Oligochaeta)

       • R. W. Sims

       Pages 661-676

   11. Onychophora

       • G. Newlands, H. Ruhberg

       Pages 677-684

   12. Arachnida (except Acari)

       • G. Newlands

       Pages 685-702

   13. Acari

       • Magdalena K. P. Smith Meyer, G. C. Loots

       Pages 703-718

Southern Africa is certainly not a naturally bounded area so that there are several possibilities for delineating it and concepts about its extent. Wellington* discussed the various possibilities for delineation and suggested that one line stands out more clearly and definitely as a physical boundary than any other, namely the South Equatorial Divide, the watershed between the ZaIre, Cuanza and Rufiji Rivers on the one hand and the Z ambezi, Cunene and Rovuma Rivers on the other. This South Equatorial Divide is indeed a major line of separation for some organisms and is also applicable in a certain geographical sense, though it does not possess the slightest significance for many other groups of organisms, ecosystems or geographical and physical features of Africa. The placing of the northern boundary of southern Africa differs in fact strongly per scientific dis­ cipline and is also influenced by practical considerations regarding the possibilities of scientific work as subordinate to certain political realities and historically grown traditions. This is illustrated, for example, in such works as the Flora of Southern Africa, where the northern boundary of the area is conceived as the northern and eastern political boundaries of South West Africa, South Africa and Swaziland. Botswana, traditionally included in the area covered by the Flora Zambesiaca, thus forms a large wedge in 'Southern Africa'.

• Fauna
• Karoo
• Mangrove
• Namib
• Vegetation
• classification
• ecology
• ecosystem
• environment
• morphology

• Department of Geobotany, University of Nijmegen, Nijmegen, the Netherlands

  M. J. A. Werger

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