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Our World at Risk
Climate Change and
Fynbos Birds
South Africa’s most dramatic global biodiversity hotspot
is the Cape Floral Kingdom or fynbos biome. Its
remarkable biodiversity is one of its strategic advantages
for tourism, rural economic development and human
well-being. Fortunately much of the mountain fynbos is
protected for water catchment, and the threat posed by
invasive plants is well understood. However, it is crucial
to assess the vulnerability of the biome and its avifauna
to climate change.
Catching 3000 Birds
Postdoctoral research fellow Dr Alan Lee initiated a biome-
wide fynbos-endemic bird survey at the start of 2012.
Summer and winter surveys were conducted at 900 points
from the Cederberg to the eastern Baviaanskloof. This
data has been used to calculate density estimates for
the endemic birds, allowing the first robust estimates of
their global populations. Cape Sugarbirds (
Promerops
cafer
), Orange-breasted Sunbirds (
Anthobaphes violacea
)
and Victorin's Warblers (
Cryptillas victorini
)
appear to be
vulnerable to changes in vegetation structure expected to
occur if predictions of a warmer, drier and more fire-prone
environment come about.
Research Projects
The project to assess the vulnerability and adaptation
of fynbos endemic birds to climate change explores
how the six passerine species endemic to mountain
fynbos are impacted by climate change and changing
fire regimes. Fynbos birds are increasingly threatened
by the unravelling of plant-pollinator mutualisms,
invasion by woody plants and too-frequent fires.
The key questions pertain to the vulnerability of
fynbos-endemic birds to climate and land use change,
how the endemic birds disperse across ecosystems
and how conservation planning and management
can help birds adapt to global change. The research
team includes ornithologists, pollination ecologists,
population and stress ecologists, behavioural
ecologists, a veterinarian, a small network of volunteer
observers and amateur bird-ringers.
In addition to a broad overview of the biophysical
limits on the ranges of endemic birds in the biome,
the project has various study sites. Given the
potential importance of habitat fragmentation, birds
were mist-netted and ringed during 2012 at sites
of varying distances apart in the Kouga, Outeniqua
and Kammanassie mountains. More than 3000 birds
have been captured with no evidence of movement
between sites. At a fine scale, researchers are assessing
the extent to which urbanisation creates opportunities
and poses novel threats for fynbos birds. For example,
birds might be able to seek refuge in urban gardens
during fires, hot dry winds or rainstorms, but at the
same time be exposed to commensal predators and
pathogens. The research will increasingly cast light on
conservation planning, policy and land management.
As attention is paid to the security of biodiversity in the
fynbos, this project will help guide landowners to make
more robust conservation-planning decisions based on
fine-scale understanding of the implications of climate-
driven change in this very special biodiversity hotspot.
A ringed Cape Sugarbird