Title: Biodiversity in southern Africa
Volume 1: Patterns at local scale: the BIOTA Observatories
Volume 2: Patterns and processes at regional scale
Volume 3: Implications for landuse and management
Editors: Norbert Jürgens; Daniela H. Haarmeyer; Jona Luther-Mosebach; Jürgen Dengler; Manfred Finckh; Ute Schmiedel; M. Timm Hoffman
Authors: 200, as listed in excerpts
© University of Hamburg
Publisher: Klaus Hess Publishers
Göttingen, Namibia 2010
ISBN 9783933117441 / ISBN 978-3-933117-44-1 (Europe)
ISBN 9789991657301 / ISBN 978-99916-57-30-1 (Southern Africa:)
Hardcover, 21 x 30 cm, 1400 pages, throughout, more than 2400 photos, figures, tables and maps, CD-ROM
This unique 3-volume series “Biodiversity in southern Africa” has been published in 2010. On nearly 1500 pages, 200 researchers from various countries report on the results of one decade of joint research by South African, Namibian, and German institutions within the project BIOTA Southern Africa. The backbone of BIOTA Southern Africa is a globally unique transect through six biomes with 37 BIOTA Observatories of 1 km² each, on which biodiversity data of various taxa (lichens, biological soil crusts, vascular plants, millipedes, several taxa of insects) as well as the major drivers of biodiversity (weather, soil, land use) have been recorded according to standa rdised protocols. For the vegetation (vascular plants), the sampling was particularly elaborate with many replicates , different spatial scales, and annual repetition. Volume 1 reports on the sampling methods and presents the biodiversity baseline data for all Observatories in a detailed and informative manner. Volume 2 analyses the data along the transect and in relation to climate and land use change. Finally, Volume 3 combines the results from the various disciplines into integrated views per biome, linking findings of the natural sciences to socioeconomic perspectives. With its attractive full-colour layout, its magnificent photographs, and its moderate price, the series is not only attractive for scientists of the included disciplines (botany, zoology, ecology, soil science, agriculture, social sciences, etc.) but also practitioners (farmers, conservationists, politicians), and interested laypersons. Thanks to the uniqueness of the presented data from a subcontinent particularly susceptible to climate change and the innovative sampling approach, the series will also be valuable to researchers outside southern Africa. You will find the table of content (referring to each volume) in more detailed excerpts via the links below.