Caption "D8. Across the Injasuti Valley to the Berg. Oct. 1958."

Caption "D8. Across the Injasuti Valley to Champagne Castle, Monk’s Cowl, Cathkin Peak. Oct. 1958."

Caption "Landrover climbing a hill. The ridges are snow stripes in the grass – a common feature in the reserve. Oct. 1958."

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters of Science by Coursework and Research Report. Johannesburg November 2017. / Mountains are complex environments owing to their varying topography and geographic range, and as a result are havens for a variety of eco-systems and biodiversity. Mountain systems around the globe are potentially transforming due to increasing pressure from human-driven climate change. The possible effects of these pressures and overall consequences of the changes are difficult to predict due to the complexity of mountain habitats. Previous studies have recorded increasing temperatures in mountain systems as one of the consequences of climatic change. As a consequence of this warming trend, plant species that typically grow in lower altitudes may migrate to higher altitudes as those habitats become suitable. There are many different effects this may have on the local eco-system, such as the possibility of the migrating species outcompeting the local species or even hybridization occurring, resulting in a new species. Regardless, the movement of species from low to high elevations will have a direct effect on plant community dynamics in the area. South Africa is experiencing warming temperatures and has experienced a reported increase in mean annual temperature by 0.96 ºC over the last five decades. This research aims to understand the implications of inter-annual temperature and precipitation trends in the alpine, upper and lower montane thermal zones in the Drakensberg on two endemic plant genera, Rhodohypoxis (Hypoxidaceae) and Glumicalyx (Scrophulariaceae). A thermal zone refers to a temperature gradient at a specific altitude in a mountain system. Temperature and precipitation data from 1994 to 2014 were collected from four weather stations: Sani Pass (2874 m), Shaleburn (1614 m) and Giants Castle (1759 m) in South Africa, and Mokhotlong (2209 m) in Lesotho. These sites represent three thermal zones; Sani Pass is in the alpine zone, Mokhotlong is in the upper montane zone, and Shaleburn and Giants Castle are in the lower montane zone. The objectives of this research are to analyse and compare the temperature and precipitation trends, inter-annual variability, and annual number of frost days at each data collection site from 1994 to 2014, as well as infer the potential impact these changes may have on the local endemic plant genera. Results show a more pronounced increase in temperature in the lower thermal zones and a larger decrease in precipitation in higher thermal zones. The lower montane zone experienced the highest increase in temperature of up to 0.6 ºC over two decades. The alpine zone showed the largest decrease in precipitation of on average 27.5 mm of rainfall per annum over 20 years, while the lower montane zone displayed the largest inter-annual variability in both temperature and precipitation variables. The upper montane zone had a larger decrease in frost days over the 20 year period relative to the lower montane zone. Interestingly this work showed an increased warming pattern in the lower thermal zones relative to upper zones, which contrasts with work in other mountain ecosystems. This warming may create larger intermediate regions which could encourage the movement of endemic flora into neighbouring thermal zones. Movement between thermal zones may increase hybridization within plant genera which could change the structure of the plant communities and possibly result in altered floral populations. Keywords: Climatic change, Drakensberg, endemic flora, thermal zones, temperature and precipitation trends, inter-annual variability / LG2018

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science August 2017. / Streamwater chemistry is influenced by several factors that include: geology, soil-geology interactions, land use, climate change, topography, vegetation, mechanical and chemical weathering. The dominance of these factors when determining the chemistry of streamwater varies from one situation to the other. Four different catchments in the Drakensberg were monitored to identify the processes determining temporal and seasonal patterns in streamwater chemistry. The land uses of the catchment include: CP03 (previously afforested, degraded), CP04 (pristine grasslands), CP06 (pristine grasslands) and CP09 (protection from fire). All the catchments were investigated for differences in major ion concentrations, streamwater temperatures, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), dissolved oxygen, pH, conductivity. There were comparisons made between historical and recent data collected at the Cathedral Peak Research Site. Comparisons were made between CP03 and CP06 to identify effects of storm events on streamwater chemistry. CP03 and CP09 had significant statistical differences in terms of major ions. Land use and stormflow path ways were most influential in determining the streamwater chemistry across catchments. / LG2018

Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1994.

From Introduction: The study of San rock art has undergone several different phases in approach to the interpretation of art. Two approaches are currently in use. The first emphasises the art as narrative or literal representations of San life and its proponents may be called the "art for art's sake" school. Adherents to the second approach make detailed use of the San ethnography on the belief system of these people and are highly critical of the literalists because they provide no such context. The second approach has rapidly gained ascendancy and replaced the "art for art's sake" school over the last twenty years. The watershed came with the researches of Vinnicombe (1967) in the southern Drakensberg and Maggs (1967) in the Western Cape who both embarked upon programs of research which had quantification and numerical analysis at their core, so that they could present "...some objective observations on a given sample of rock paintings in a particular area..." in order to compare and contrast paintings from geographically different areas. What Vinnicombe's numerical analyses clearly showed was that the eland was the most frequently depicted antelope and that it must have played a fundamental role "...in both the economy and the rellgious beliefs of the painters...", which opened up the search for what those beliefs might be and how they could be related to the rock art itself. In order to understand what the rock art was all about it was recognised that researchers had to meaningfully contextualise the art within the social and religious framework of the artists themselves. Without the provision of such a relevant context, as many different interpretations of the paintings could be made as there were people with imaginations. Such a piecemeal approach provides a meaningless jumble of subjective fancy which tells us something about the interpreters but nothing about the rock art. It is unfortunate that the advent of this explicitly social and anthropological approach marks the end of the amateur as a serious interpreter of San rock art, for the juxtaposition of the ethnography with the rock art requires a proper training in which the intricacies of symbol and metaphor can be recognised.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. Johannesburg, 2014. / This thesis presents data collected during the 2012 and 2013 recording of painted sheep imagery from five painted rock shelters in the northern Drakensberg, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Through studying the micro- and macro-context of these paintings, I try to understand their presence in the rock art here. Paintings of sheep are believed to have been made by San hunter-gatherers and thought to be relatively old. Using multiple strands of evidence from the rock art, the excavated record, ethnographies, and drawing on human-animal theory, I explore when the sheep were painted, whose sheep were painted and for what reason.

Recent research has emphasized the importance of understanding the consequences of species loss, not just for biodiversity per se, but also for ecosystem resilience and functioning. Firstly, a baseline analysis of the effects of a naturally patchy landscape on avian community composition and resilience in a high altitude Afrotemperate forest landscape in South Africa is presented. Bird data from a point count survey of 706 counts at 31 forest sites was used to test whether taxonomic species diversity, functional species richness and density of birds provide insight into community resilience in this historically patchy ecosystem. Bird species richness of forest patches ranged from 17 to 38, with a total species richness of 50. Density was slightly but negatively related to both area and species richness. That density compensation is occurring in these Afrotemperate forests suggests a level of resilience in this system. Following on from this, cumulative species-area and function-area graphs were derived to quantify the loss of forest area or taxonomic bird species richness that this landscape may potentially sustain before ecosystem functioning is negatively affected. The concept that species’ patterns of distribution, abundance and coexistence are the result of local ecological processes has recently been challenged by evidence that regionalscale processes are equally instrumental in shaping local community composition. The historically and naturally fragmented Afrotemperate forests of the uKhahlamba– Drakensberg Park, South Africa, offer an interesting test case. In this study the relative effects of local and regional-scale processes on species assemblages in a naturally patchy forest system were investigated. By employing species-area and species-isolation relationships, and nested subset analyses, we showed that isolation (regional-scale process) had a greater effect on bird species richness and composition than area (local-scale process), though the species-area relationship was significant. Using generalized linear models and an information-theoretic approach to model selection, patch area, the size of the regional species pool as well as the distance to the nearest Eastern Mistbelt forest were all influential in determining local bird species richness in these montane forests. Thus, localities are regionally enriched within the constraints on species occupancy provided by the available habitat. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2009.

Although periglacial research in the high Drakensberg and Lesotho mountains has received growing interest amongst southern African geomorphologists, little detailed, quantitative information was available prior to this study. In an attempt to help overcome this deficit, a quantitative assessment on cryogenic landforms and processes operative in the high Drakensberg was undertaken. Morphological and sedimentological assessments of sorted patterned ground, non-sorted steps, thufur, blockstreams, stone-banked lobes, debris deposits and turf exfoliation landforms were undertaken. In addition, geomorphic process assessments in the field included the measurement of turf retreat at turf exfoliation sites, the determination of frost-heave mechanisms within wetlands and sediment mobilization along the Mashai Stream. Ground temperatures were recorded for thufur from 1993 to 1996. The environmental implications of some of the findings are discussed. Seasonal frost-induced sorted patterned ground emerges annually within a few weeks, demonstrating the effect of regular, diurnal freeze-thaw cycles during the winter months. It is found that the present climate is not conducive to maintaining or preserving miniature periglacial landforms below 3200m a.s.l. during the summer months. Large relict sorted circles, stone-banked lobes and blockstreams are the most conspicuous periglacial landforms in the high Drakensberg and are products of at least seasonally-frozen ground. It is suggested that debris deposits found within high Drakensberg cutbacks are possible indicators for marginal niche and cirque glaciation during the Late Pleistocene. It is demonstrated that in climatically marginal periglacial regions, the microtopographically controlled freezing processes may be of paramount importance in maintaining and modifying the cryogenic landforms that occur. Pronounced temperature differentials are found during the winter months, when thufur are frozen for several weeks and depressions remain predominantly unfrozen. It is suggested that such contemporary temperature differentials induce thermodynamic forces and ultimately ground heave at sites in the high Drakensberg. The pronounced seasonal weather patterns in the high Drakensberg have promoted a cycle of geomorphic process events that operate synergistically and initiate particular erosion landforms. However, cryogenic activity during the colder period is overwhelmed by water induced erosion processes during the summer months in the high Drakensberg. It is concluded that the high Drakensberg is currently a marginal periglacial region, but that periglacial conditions prevailed during both the Pleistocene and some Late Holocene Neoglacial events. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1997.