Search

JORG HELMSCHROT1, GERHARD MUCHE1, THOMAS HILLMANN1, JOSEPH KANYANGA2, MOMPATI BUTALE3, DOMINGOS NASCIMENTO4, SALOME KRUGER5, BEN STROHBACH6, MARY SEELY7, CARLOS RIBEIRO8, WILLEM DE CLERCQ9, PIET KENABATHO10, KATRIN JOSENHANS1 & NORBERT JURGENS1 1 Biodiversity, Evolution and Ecology of Plants (BEE), University of Hamburg, Ohnhorststr. 18, D-22609 Hamburg, Germany joerg.helmschrot@sasscal.org 2 Zambia Meteorological Department (ZMD), PO Box 30200, Lusaka, Zambia 3 Department of Meteorological Services (DMS), PO Box 10100, Gaborone, Botswana 4 Instituto Nacional de Meteorologia e Geofisica (INAMET), Rua 21 de Janeiro, Luanda, Angola 5 National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI), Private Bag 13184, 8 Orban Street, Windhoek, Namibia 6 School of Natural Resources and Spatial Sciences, Polytechnic of Namibia, Private bag 13388, Windhoek, Namibia 7 Gobabeb Research and Training Centre, PO Box 953, Walvis Bay, Namibia 8 Instituto Superior Politecnico Tundaval, Rua Patrice Lumumba, Lubango, Angola 9 Department of Soil Science, Stellenbosch University, Private Bag X1, Matieland, South Africa 10 University of Botswana, Department of Environmental Science, PO Box UB 00704, Gaborone, Botswana

The BIOTA Southern Africa Biodiversity Observatories Vegetation Database (AF-00-003) hosts the project-related data on spatial patterns and time series of biodiversity in southern Africa. Along a 2,000 km long transect, from the northern border of Namibia to the Cape of Good Hope, the plant diversity has been monitored on 37 Biodiversity Observatories for up to ten years (2001– 2010). The design of the Observatories enables the observation of vegetation in nested, permanent plots where standardized measurements can be repeated. Information on species occurrence, cover and abundance has been recorded annually and stored in a database. These vegetation observations form a part of the interdisciplinary approach of BIOTA Southern Africa which assesses and monitors different organisms. In this paper, we describe how the vegetation data of the biodiversity monitoring project BIOTA Southern Africa, are managed. More than 400,000 species observations were recorded and stored in a database, covering a time-series of up to ten years. The Biodiversity Observatories are situated in along a major rainfall gradient, cover six biomes and are subject to different land use. The vegetation monitoring is on-going. The empirical data are a valuable source of information for various research questions ranging from testing theories on patterns, drivers of biodiversity at different spatial scales to studies on changes in biodiversity in space and time. The BIOTA Southern Africa Biodiversity Observatories Vegetation Database is currently explored to answer the following research questions: How many plant species exist at different scale levels? How does plant species composition change over time in relation to seasonal fluctuations, long-term climate change, environmental changes and human influences?

The international, interdisciplinary biodiversity research project BIOTA AFRICA initiated a standardized biodiversity monitoring network along climatic gradients across the African continent. Due to an identified lack of adequate monitoring designs, BIOTA AFRICA developed and implemented the standardized BIOTA Biodiversity Observatories, that meet the following criteria (a) enable long-term monitoring of biodiversity, potential driving factors, and relevant indicators with adequate spatial and temporal resolution, (b) facilitate comparability of data generated within different ecosystems, (c) allow integration of many disciplines, (d) allow spatial up-scaling, and (e) be applicable within a network approach. A BIOTA Observatory encompasses an area of 1 km(2) and is subdivided into 100 1-ha plots. For meeting the needs of sampling of different organism groups, the hectare plot is again subdivided into standardized subplots, whose sizes follow a geometric series. To allow for different sampling intensities but at the same time to characterize the whole square kilometer, the number of hectare plots to be sampled depends on the requirements of the respective discipline. A hierarchical ranking of the hectare plots ensures that all disciplines monitor as many hectare plots jointly as possible. The BIOTA Observatory design assures repeated, multidisciplinary standardized inventories of biodiversity and its environmental drivers, including options for spatial up- and downscaling and different sampling intensities. BIOTA Observatories have been installed along climatic and landscape gradients in Morocco, West Africa, and southern Africa. In regions with varying land use, several BIOTA Observatories are situated close to each other to analyze management effects.

Since 1980 many observations of the vegetation in the dry regions of Namibia and South Africa have been recorded in the database of Namib Desert Region Vegetation Database (GIVD ID AF-00-007). All releves were recorded using a standard size of 1000 m2 and include spatial reference data, habitat information and all observed species occurrences with cover and (partly) abundance data. Worth mentioning is that the database has been sampled over a period of several years thereby including different seasons as well as dry and wet years. Many releves do not show the entire local species pool at the time of documentation. The interpretation of therophytic, geophytic and hemicryptophytic species must take this into consideration. Conditions of strongly grazed plant individuals in particular during dry seasons may have resulted in some inconsistencies in plant identifications, e.g. Stipagrostis hirtigluma subsp. hirtigluma versus S. uniplumis var. intermedia.

Hotels bieten ihre Dienstleistungen rund um die Uhr an. Allein dieser Tatbestand zwingt dazu, fur das Personal eine Planung des zeitlichen Einsatzes durchzufuhren. Der Arbeitsanfall hangt von der taglichen Auslastung der Hotels ab. Zahl reservierter Zimmer, Veranstaltung etc. sind Prognosegrosen, um die Arbeitskrafte dem Bedarf angepast in den Abteilungen einzusetzen.