scholarly journals Determining the type locality and collector of Nylander’s South African lichens

Bothalia ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian D. Medeiros

Background: In 1868, Nylander described 15 new lichen taxa from collections made near Durban, South Africa. The locality was not specified and the collector was identified only as ‘Miss Armstrong’.Objectives: To identify the collector and type locality of Nylander’s species.Method: Scientific literature, maps, letters, notebooks and genealogical sources were consulted to reconstruct the provenance of the specimens.Results: ‘Miss Armstrong’ was likely Olivia Armstrong; she collected in the Karkloof area of the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands.Conclusion: This investigation facilitates future work to determine whether the species described and reported by Nylander are still extant in the same locality.

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nirmala Dorasamy ◽  
Olayemi Bakre

The majority of the South African rural populace is directly or indirectly engaged in agricultural practices to earn a livelihood. However, impediments such as climate change, water shortages, and inadequacy of institutional support have undermined these once thriving subsistence farming communities. Furthermore, poor leadership in hydrology, coupled with a lack of depth in skills at all government levels to facilitate the understanding of the importance of groundwater, has made it near impossible for subsistence farmers to benefit optimally from groundwater. The 2012 drought experienced in South Africa paralysed several subsistence farming communities in KwaZulu-Natal. To revamp subsistence farming and assist these farmers across South Africa, the Department of Water and Sanitation launched interventions, but despite the enormous resources expended, indicators (e.g. unsustainable farming practices, poor crop yield, pitiable living conditions, and poor standards of living) provide evidence that these interventions have not yielded the desired results. This paper seeks to suggest practicable interventions aimed at reducing the vulnerability of subsistence farmers in KwaZulu-Natal. The study pursued a qualitative approach in that it solicited the views of experts on groundwater and in related fields to gain an in-depth perspective. Some of the core challenges undermining the sustainability and growth of subsistence farming in the study area were found to be the inadequacy of experts on groundwater, water shortages, institutional deficiencies, lack of political will, and lack of coordination among stakeholders. Pragmatic recommendations are made to address these challenges, among other things to encourage a South African-Chinese partnership in the hydrology sector.


Author(s):  
James R. Barnacle ◽  
Oliver Johnson ◽  
Ian Couper

Background: Many European-trained doctors (ETDs) recruited to work in rural district hospitals in South Africa have insufficient generalist competencies for the range of practice required. Africa Health Placements recruits ETDs to work in rural hospitals in Africa. Many of these doctors feel inadequately prepared. The Stellenbosch University Ukwanda Centre for Rural Health is launching a Postgraduate Diploma in Rural Medicine to help prepare doctors for such work.Aim: To determine the competencies gap for ETDs working in rural district hospitals in South Africa to inform the curriculum of the PG Dip (Rural Medicine).Setting: Rural district hospitals in South Africa.Methods: Nine hospitals in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga were purposefully selected by Africa Health Placements as receiving ETDs. An online survey was developed asking about the most important competencies and weaknesses for ETDs when working rurally. The clinical manager and any ETDs currently working in each hospital were invited to complete the survey.Results: Surveys were completed by 19 ETDs and five clinical managers. The top clinical competencies in relation to 10 specific domains were identified. The results also indicate broader competencies required, specific skills gaps, the strengths that ETDs bring to South Africa and how ETDs prepare themselves for working in this context.Conclusion: This study identifies the important competency gaps among ETDs and provides useful direction for the diploma and other future training initiatives. The diploma faculty must reflect on these findings and ensure the curriculum is aligned with these gaps.


2008 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 450-460 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Dlamini ◽  
M. Taylor ◽  
N. Mkhize ◽  
R. Huver ◽  
R. Sathiparsad ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul M Barrett ◽  
Tim Broderick ◽  
Kimberley Chapelle ◽  
Jonah Choiniere ◽  
Steve Edwards ◽  
...  

Southern Africa provides critical information on Late Triassic–Early Jurassic terrestrial tetrapod faunas. Most of the localities in this region are in South Africa and Lesotho, but preliminary work in Zimbabwe has revealed significant potential. Early Jurassic Zimbabwean localities have yielded the basal sauropodomorph Massospondylus, the early sauropod Vulcanodon and theropod material. Late Triassic localities are also known, but have yielded only fragmentary specimens thus far. In early 2017, a joint South African-Zimbabwean-UK team conducted fieldwork in the upper Karoo-aged deposits along the shores of Lake Kariba, northern Zimbabwe (Mid-Zambesi Basin). We relocated the Vulcanodon type locality on Island 126/127 and found that, contrary to previous reports suggesting a Toarcian age, the quarry was in a horizon pre-dating the onset of Drakensburg volcanism (= Batoka Basalts). It is situated instead within the earlier Lower Jurassic Forest Sandstone. This indicates that Vulcanodon is 10–15 million years older than thought previously, recalibrating several nodes within Sauropoda and indicating extensive overlap between true sauropods and 'prosauropods'. Other new vertebrate localities show that sauropodomorphs are present in the Forest Sandstone and upper Tashinga (Late Triassic) formations, but a grey mudstone facies within the Pebbly Arkose Member of the latter unit yields a more aquatic fauna, including lungfish and phytosaurs, but lacking sauropodomorphs. The phytosaur occurrence is the first in Africa south of the Sahara. Faunal and sedimentological evidence indicates that the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic sites in this region were deposited under more mesic environments than their lateral equivalents in South Africa.


Zootaxa ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4577 (2) ◽  
pp. 361
Author(s):  
JIŘÍ JANÁK

A revision of the south African genus Neopimus Özdikmen, Demir & Türkeş, 2008 is presented. Based on revision of the type and additional material, three species are recognised. The genus Neopimus is redescribed and all species are described or redescribed and illustrated, two of them for the first time: Neopimus capensis Janák, sp. nov., from Eastern Cape Province, South Africa and N. zulu Janák, sp. nov., from KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. The distribution of the genus is mapped and a key of species is presented. 


Zootaxa ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4885 (4) ◽  
pp. 579-590
Author(s):  
ALLEN F. SANBORN ◽  
MARTIN H. VILLET

Ingcainyenzane irhiniensis n. gen., n. sp. and Ingcainyenzane nolukhanyoensis n. gen., n. sp. are described from Eastern Cape and Ingcainyenzane umgeniensis n. gen., n. sp. is described from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Notes on its biology of the species and a key to species of the genus are also provided. 


Zootaxa ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 1990 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
ARTEM YU SINEV

Study of South African populations of chydorid cladocerans in the Alona affinis-group (Anomopoda: Chydoridae) revealed two closely related species, Alona affinis (Leydig, 1860) and a second, previously unknown, species A. martensi sp. n. No significant differences were seen between South African and Eurasian populations of A. affinis sensu stricto. A. martensi sp. n. differs from other species of the affinis-group by a shorter spine on the basal segment of antennal exopodite, and can be distinguished from A. affinis by a number of additional morphological characters. A. affinis is distributed mainly in the East and South regions of the Republic of South Africa, and is less frequented in this region. Confined mainly to artificial water bodies its presence may be human-mediated. A. martensi sp. n. sems to be endemic to the Drakensberg mountains within the borders of the KwaZulu-Natal Province and Lesotho.


2000 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 409 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. J. Radford ◽  
P. Muller ◽  
S. Fiffer ◽  
P. W. Michael

An isozyme and morphological study of Senecio madagascariensis Poir. and closely related species in Australia, South Africa and Madagascar was used to investigate the most likely region of origin for Australian plants known as fireweed. Collections of seed and voucher specimens were made in New South Wales, KwaZulu-Natal, East and West Cape Provinces and southern Madagascar and specimens classified according to recognised taxa or descriptive variants. Plants were characterised by using isozyme analyses and morphological observations of both voucher specimens and achenes. Australian fireweed populations were found to be most closely related to populations of S. madagascariensis from KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, and to be more distantly related to populations from East and West Cape Provinces in South Africa and from Madagascar. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to efforts to locate host-specific biological control agents for fireweed.


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