Johnny Wilson - Biogeography research

As part of my MSc dissertation research, I ventured into the fields of Macroecology and Biogeography. Using data from the South African Bird Atlas Project (SABAP), our team analysed species richness patterns of selected bird orders by considering the influences of environmental factors, human activity and spatial patterns relative to each other. We found that, despite large scale land transformation, biogeographical patterns in South African bird richness could still be recovered using modern data. However, we also found clear differences in the extent to which avian orders responded to different predictor groups. Water birds seemed to respond strongly to human-assisted alteration of the landscape, with both threatened and non-threatened water birds benefiting from the creation of artificial water bodies. In other words human activity allows many water birds to occur in otherwise unutilised areas.

Due to global warming water availability in South Africa is predicted to decline in the near future. In light of such envisaged environmental changes and findings from this study, conservation conflicts are likely to escalate across most, if not all, South African avian orders. Water birds that are highly dependent on water will likely be impacted most severely as human demands for limited environmental resources such as water increase. Different conservation strategies may be required to ensure the continued persistence of South Africa’s birds.