The impacts of habitat fragmentation of Tsitsikamma fynbos, South Africa, on avian nectarivore presence, abundance, and pollination
type: CreativeWork
description: Habitat loss and fragmentation of natural habitat, and other global change drivers resulting from human expansion and development, are putting ecosystems and biodiversity at risk. The Cape Floristic Region (CFR), confined to South Africa and known for its high biodiversity of especially plants, has been subjected to extensive habitat loss and fragmentation through agriculture and other modifying land uses. Habitat loss and fragmentation have the potential to negatively affect pollination systems. A reduction in flowering abundance can result in lower nectar production and availability. This reduction in reliable food, along with a lack of adequate habitat and nesting resources, can reduce the abundance of pollinators which, in turn, may result in reduced seed-set for the plant species that rely on them. This study considers how selected erica and protea plants and the sunbirds and sugarbird that pollinate them are affected by fynbos habitat fragmentation. The study was conducted in an area of fragmented Tsitsikamma Plateau Fynbos in the eastern region of the CFR. In Chapter 2, I described the study area, reported methods used to choose and delineate the 17 study patches, and derived variables that were used in the analyses in subsequent chapters. I identified an expected fragmentation effect using exploratory analyses that investigated patch-similarity based on patch, fragmentation, and focal plant species variables. Large patches with high protea densities and surrounded by indigenous forest were clustered, while small patches with lower protea densities and surrounded by transformed farmland and alien vegetation were clustered separately. In Chapter 3, I explored how these fragmentation patterns affected bird species richness and nectar-feeding birds in fynbos habitat. Based on repeated bird point-counts at 33 locations in the study patches I showed that the surrounding non-habitat matrix contributed to faster species accumulation that led to higher species richne…
abstract: Habitat loss and fragmentation of natural habitat, and other global change drivers resulting from human expansion and development, are putting ecosystems and biodiversity at risk. The Cape Floristic Region (CFR), confined to South Africa and known for its high biodiversity of especially plants, has been subjected to extensive habitat loss and fragmentation through agriculture and other modifying land uses. Habitat loss and fragmentation have the potential to negatively affect pollination systems. A reduction in flowering abundance can result in lower nectar production and availability. This reduction in reliable food, along with a lack of adequate habitat and nesting resources, can reduce the abundance of pollinators which, in turn, may result in reduced seed-set for the plant species that rely on them. This study considers how selected erica and protea plants and the sunbirds and sugarbird that pollinate them are affected by fynbos habitat fragmentation. The study was conducted in an area of fragmented Tsitsikamma Plateau Fynbos in the eastern region of the CFR. In Chapter 2, I described the study area, reported methods used to choose and delineate the 17 study patches, and derived variables that were used in the analyses in subsequent chapters. I identified an expected fragmentation effect using exploratory analyses that investigated patch-similarity based on patch, fragmentation, and focal plant species variables. Large patches with high protea densities and surrounded by indigenous forest were clustered, while small patches with lower protea densities and surrounded by transformed farmland and alien vegetation were clustered separately. In Chapter 3, I explored how these fragmentation patterns affected bird species richness and nectar-feeding birds in fynbos habitat. Based on repeated bird point-counts at 33 locations in the study patches I showed that the surrounding non-habitat matrix contributed to faster species accumulation that led to higher species richne…
author: Cloete, Daniel
keywords: Biological science
date published: 2023
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:23:06Z
provider: University of Cape Town
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Department of Biological Sciences

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/39372