Rob Slotow

Agricultural intensification has a major impact on arthropod diversity and related functional traits. However, research has primarily focused on how farm systems influence biodiversity metrics, often overlooking trait-mediated responses. This study examined the response of carabid beetle abundance, composition and functional traits to farming systems and vegetation cover in South African agricultural systems. Carabid beetles were collected from grain crop farms (conservation grazing, conservation tillage and conventional tillage) and semi-natural grasslands using pitfall traps and active search method. The abundance and community trait composition of the six genera were quantified using Generalised Linear Models (GLMs – Poisson and negative binomial distributions) and multivariate ordination. The relationship between traits and vegetation cover was evaluated using Generalised Additive Models (GAMs). Conservation grazing supported the highest carabid abundance, with conventional tillage and semi-natural grasslands exhibiting a significant abundance decline. Large-bodied genera, Calosoma and Scarites, showed 95% abundance decline outside conservation grazing. Community ordination indicates distinct segregation by farm type, primarily attributed to wing morphology and predatory behaviour. Functional trait responses were significantly affected by the interaction between vegetation cover and farm system, with brachypterous species responding uniformly (optimal at 25–35% cover), whereas macropterous carnivores exhibited different patterns. Conversely, semi-natural grasslands had the lowest abundance and trait results despite permanent vegetation. Overall, conservation grazing with a moderate vegetation structure provide an intact habitat for functionally important predatory carabids. These results suggest that species-specific functional traits should be identified when implementing sustainable management practices.

Information on entomotherapy in Africa is fragmented across different countries, resulting in the lack of comprehensive documentation of the diversity of i

The water-energy-food (WEF and its variants) nexus addresses the intricate linkages between human and natural systems to ensure sustainable management of natural resources without compromising economic, social, and environmental well-being. Despite this, the WEF nexus has been mainly approached as a focused biophysical system connecting those three dimensions. This review maps the extent to which the WEF nexus has been conceptualised and the consideration of additional dimensions linked to environmental and social outcomes. The aim is to broaden the WEF nexus concept to enhance its applicability to human, planetary, and sustainable development outcomes. Of the identified nexus frameworks, approximately 50% are sectorally unbalanced, as they centralise one or more resource node(s). Water and energy are key nexus nodes in most frameworks. The second most popular framing is water-energy-food-climate, followed by water-energy-land (WEL) and water-energy-food-land-ecosystems. In addition, the current WEF nexus approach is biased towards input-oriented conceptualisation. It fails to make explicit linkages to outcome- and impact-based dimensions, such as politics, gender, environment, planetary health and the economy. This limits its relevance and practical application in decision-making and policymaking for addressing sustainability and developmental challenges. Models and tools should be improved to be more holistic, including WEF resources and other linked resources, and should be useful for monitoring all sustainability outcomes (economic, social, and environmental). We propose a conceptual broadening of the WEF nexus to a WEF+ nexus, with the “plus” representing added outcomes-based dimensions such as environment, climate, people, planet and health. This conceptual broadening balances WEF resource securities with human, planetary and sustainable development outcomes.

Livestock underpin livelihoods and food security in Africa, using marginal lands to produce high-quality protein for the household or as a source of income. For mixed farmers, livestock provide draught power, manure for fields, and buffer variations in crop productivity. Livestock also hold cultural significance. However, African livestock farmers are especially vulnerable to climate hazards, and attempt to reduce impacts in different ways, with varied outcomes. A synthesis of the state of knowledge of livestock farmers’ responses to climate variability and change would assist policymakers and practitioners to make informed decisions, and guide researchers towards gaps that need to be filled. To that end, we systematically reviewed articles published between 2014 and 2022—the period between the end of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fifth Assessment and the end of the Sixth, recording study metadata, farmers’ responses, and their drivers, outcomes, barriers and enablers. We included 186 articles from 32 countries (most frequently Kenya or Ethiopia), from which 1089 responses were coded for analysis. Responses by small-scale farmers of cattle, sheep and goats, typically as part of mixed crop-livestock systems, were most common ( n = 816), with few documented responses of commercial farmers (121). Most responses pertained to changing herd management (437), followed by feed or pasture management (294). Drought was the most common climate driver of responses (567), while the most commonly mentioned barriers included financial constraints (116), a lack of knowledge or information (98), and government support (67). While there is a sizable body of literature on climate impacts and adaptation of livestock farmers, notable gaps included any work in Central and Northern Africa, and responses of commercial farming systems. In general, future research should focus on these gaps and on improving the depth of information collected, such as on barriers and enablers of adaptation, to better inform future interventions.

The contribution of village chickens to food and nutrition security and achieving sustainable food systems in both rural and urban environments has not received sufficient attention. The objective of the study was to investigate the consumption patterns of village chicken products along the urban-rural gradient using a structured questionnaire with 300 respondents. Face-to-face interviews were conducted in urban ( n = 100), peri-urban ( n = 100), and rural ( n = 100) areas of Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. A positive linear relationship between distance from the city centre and preference for village chicken products based on tastiness (P < 0.05) was observed. The preference for village chicken products based on the absence of growth promoters increased with an increase in distance from the city centre (P < 0.001). Non-preference of village chicken products based on non-desired smell increased with an increase in distance from the city centre (P < 0.05). A positive linear relationship between distance from the city centre and consumption of village chicken meat and eggs (P < 0.001) was observed. Consumption of village chicken intestines increased with an increase in distance from the city centre (P < 0.01). Consumption of village chicken gizzards increased with an increase in distance from the city centre (P < 0.01). A quadratic relationship was observed between the distance from the city centre and consumption of village chicken hearts (P < 0.01). Appropriate policies that promote the optimal consumption of village chicken products are required, particularly in urban areas.

Because of its global status as well as its conservation dependence, the African elephant requires national attention. Within South Africa, the Norms and Standards for the Management of Elephants, provide a ‘how to’ tool, but these do not define a national common vision for elephant conservation, nor provide a broader understanding of the role of elephants in society. South Africa thus urgently needed an overarching strategy. Following a whole of society co-development consultation process, the wide range of values and expectations held by a diverse set of stakeholders was realized. While the National Elephant Heritage Strategy includes key elements required by typical conservation planning, the strategy focuses on achieving South African societal aspirations for elephants, including promoting a sustainable intergenerational legacy for all. The strategy provides a framework for planning and decision-making around living landscapes with elephants, which maximizes all values that elephants contribute to South Africans while mitigating risks to people and the environment, through a common vision, goals and key actions. The strategy broadens beyond conserving populations of the species, to a contextualization of the role of elephants in society. We describe the approach and process followed in the co-development of the strategy and key outcomes. This process and approach can inform other national conservation strategies to better align with the different value systems and whole of society principles encapsulated within the Global Biodiversity Framework.

African elephants (Loxodonta africana), in conjunction with the community of browser species, exert substantial top‐down control over the woody vegetation in savannas by utilizing large amounts of plant biomass, as well as through non‐consumptive effects. However, how much browsers affect the pattern of proportional growth between different tree components remains understudied. Using vegetation data collected in 2000–2001 and 2019 for more than 3500 trees inside and outside Madikwe Game Reserve, South Africa, we determined the long‐term effects of an increasing elephant population, in conjunction with the community of meso‐browsers, on structural relationships in 13 tree species. The number of trees utilized by elephants increased between 2000 and 2019, but individual trees were not more intensively utilized. After almost two decades of use by elephants, we observed a reduction in the logged initial growth rate of the structural relationship between tree height and stem diameter, without modification of the asymptotic change in growth rate. Despite species‐specific variability, tree height was overall reduced for a given stem diameter. Canopy area, as well as its structural relationship with stem diameter, remained mostly stable. We suggest that elephants are responsible for hedging by reducing tree height. Together with impala (Aepyceros melampus), the dominant species in this meso‐browser community, they could stimulate regrowth by browsing the canopy of the vegetation maintained in the browsing trap. Our study emphasizes the necessity of long‐term, species‐specific studies to improve our understanding of how the browser community, and elephants in particular, affect structural relationships in trees.