Impact of Subtropical Thicket Restoration Project in Baviaanskloof Nature Reserve (South Africa): An Insight Into The Changing Climate

Abstract

The Baviaankloof is popularly known as “Valley of Baboons”. It is one of the global biodiversity hotspots contain endemic species. But overgrazing by goats has degraded this region. The South African government invested in planting cuttings of Spekboom (Portulacaria afra) to restore the degraded landscape. In the period 2004-2016 Spekbooms were planted under the Subtropical Thicket Restoration Project (STRP) in the Baviaanskloof Nature Reserve. Many studies have been done to analyse the survivorship of planted Spekboom. Some studies also focussed on studying the effect of restoration methods on the condition of the soil, water, carbon sequestration and biodiversity. It would be also interesting to study the change in meteorological variables over a long period to understand climate change over this area. The impact of STRP on climate can be also studied over the area. We have analysed meteorological parameters using re-analysis datasets from ERA 5 (resolution of 0.250 X 0.250) over Baviaanskloof Nature Reserve for the period 1990-2018. We observed a decrease in precipitation and cloud cover in recent years. However, net solar radiation and temperature have shown the increasing trend. These climatic variables indicate that there is a need for more extensive and long term projects like STRP to improve the degraded ecosystem.