Wetlands within South Africa are an important source of water and nutrients necessary for biological productivity and often the survival of the local people. In a country where the rural communities depend on wetlands for their day to day provision of water, food and materials it has become necessary to understand the functions within wetland systems, so that proper conservation measures can be applied in order to protect and ensure the sustainable use of wetlands. Due to the fact that South Africa has a semi arid climate, thereby affecting the availability of water it is sensible that studies are under-taken in which, more is explored about the water resources, the protection as well as the sustainable use of the wetlands within the region. Despite the fact that the total area which wetlands cover in South Africa is relatively small, the functions which they provide is of fundamental magnitude not only to wildlife but also as an essential part of the human life support system. Wetlands have the ability to regulate regional flow regimes and are often situated in areas of impeded drainage, which may contribute to the regulation of water. It is thus plausible that if headwater/palustrine wetlands are destroyed, many of the streams and rivers which under normal circumstance are perennial, would not only become non- perennial but the consequence of a drought would be far more severe, as well as increasing the risk in flood damage further down the river. In Giants Castle Game Reserve, situated in the KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg, several palustrine wetlands where studied to identify the geomorphic attributes which contribute to the origin and maintenance of these wetlands. An added motive for the study was the fact that, according to Ramsar, one of the reasons for conserving the Drakensberg wetlands is to ensure the maintenance and production of water quality to KwaZulu-Natal. Seven wetlands within the Boesmans river upper catchment were identified and studied. Soil investigations were undertaken in an effort to determine the driving forces behind the origin and maintenance, as well as to improve the understanding relating to the functioning of the wetlands. The geomorphic attributes which were identified as being important to the genesis and maintenance of wetlands were found to be the following: low relief, soil piping within wetlands, sediment trapping ability of wetlands, the surface roughness of wetlands, channeling within wetlands, organic matter accumulation as well as geological barriers within wetland system. The adaptability of Longmore’s (2001) Hydro-Geomorphic classification to different catchment areas was also tested and was found suitable for these wetlands, although the influence of piping on wetlands evidently requires further investigation and incorporation into classifications. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology / MA / Unrestricted

The KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg, South Africa, is predominantly a grassland ecosystem maintained by fire. The effect of the current burning regime on invertebrate and flowering forb diversity in this ecosystem is poorly understood. The overall aim ofthis study was to contribute towards the development of an effective burning regime for the KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg that will conserve invertebrates and indigenous forbs, two major components of biodiversity. The objectives were to examine the effect of fire and fire frequency on flowering forb and invertebrate species diversity, to determine whether fire frequency, time since last burn or locality were influencing species composition, and to identify potential biodiversity indicators that reflect overall species richness for use in monitoring of invertebrates and forbs. Sampling took place in March, September and November of 2002 at Giants Castle Game Reserve. Invertebrates were sampled using sweep netting and targeted netting along transects, yellow pan traps and soil quadrats. Invertebrate taxa sampled were ants (Formicidae), butterflies (Lepidoptera), grasshoppers (Orthoptera), leafboppers (Cicadellidae), bees (Apoidea), bee flies (Bombyliidae), hover flies (Syrphidae), robber flies (Asilidae), spiders (Araneae), earthworms (Oligochaeta) and millipedes (Diploda). These were identified to species level with the assistance of taxon experts. Flowering forbs were sampled using five replicates of five by five metre quadrats randomly placed in each site. Overall flowering forb and invertebrate species diversity was higher in grasslands that were burnt for two consecutive years in 2001 and 2002 than in grasslands that were not burnt during those two years. Frequently (annual) and intermediately (biennial) burnt grasslands had significantly higher invertebrate and flowering forb diversity than infrequently (five years without burning) burnt grasslands. This, together with the fact that grasslands burnt during the year of sampling had higher species richness than grasslands burnt two and five years previously suggests that invertebrates and forbs are generally resilient to fire and many forb species appear to be stimulated by fire. However, each burn frequency had its own suite of unique flowering forb and invertebrate species. Invertebrate communities were influenced mostly by locality and the length of time past since the last fire and flowering forb communities were influenced mostly by the length oftime past since the last fire. Fire frequency had the least influence on both invertebrate and forb communities. Ecological succession occurred after each fire in the invertebrate communities but forb communities appear to need more than five years without fire for ecological succession to occur. The findings of this study therefore suggest that using a combination of three fire frequencies would result in patches of grassland in various stages of ecological succession, and would conserve species unique to each burning frequency, and would therefore conserve maximum diversity. Flowering forb species richness and certain invertebrate taxa (ants, leafboppers, spiders and bees) have the potential to act as indicators of overall invertebrate species richness for use in monitoring programmes. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.