Browsing by Author "Smit, Albertus J"

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    Ecklonia maxima kelp forests along a thermal gradient: community composition and recovery from disturbance
    (University of the Western Cape, 2017) Coppin, Ross Mark; Smit, Albertus J
    Climate change will influence species distributions, survival and ecosystem functioning, mostly through changes in sea surface temperatures and storm disturbance. Species are expected to shift poleward in response to ocean warming, which will increase species interaction strength, and cause tropicalisation of temperate ecosystems. Furthermore, if storm frequency and magnitude increases, this could have detrimental effects for species already on their thermal limits. One such group of coastal species is kelp. Kelp are ecosystem engineers that rely on cool-temperate water for survival, and which support an array of fauna and flora. Kelp-based ecosystems are also highly productive, and provide important inorganic input into coastal food webs, largely through detritus. Temperature and disturbance have been shown to be important drivers of kelp ecosystems globally, and we expect that local changes in these drivers may affect kelp ecosystem composition and functioning along the south-western Cape coastline where they form extensive habitats.
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    How to build science-action partnerships for local land-use planning and management: Lessons from Durban, South Africa
    (Resilience Alliance, 2016) Cockburn, Jessica; Rouget, Mathieu; Smit, Albertus J
    The gap between scientific knowledge and implementation in the fields of biodiversity conservation, environmental management, and climate change adaptation has resulted in many calls from practitioners and academics to provide practical solutions responding effectively to the risks and opportunities of global environmental change, e.g., Future Earth. We present a framework to guide the implementation of science-action partnerships based on a real-world case study of a partnership between a local municipality and an academic institution to bridge the science-action gap in the eThekwini Municipal Area, South Africa. This partnership aims to inform the implementation of sustainable land-use planning, biodiversity conservation, environmental management, and climate change adaptation practice and contributes to the development of human capacity in these areas of expertise. Using a transdisciplinary approach, implementation-driven research is being conducted to develop several decision-making products to better inform land-use planning and management. Lessons learned through this partnership are synthesized and presented as a framework of enabling actions operating at different levels, from the individual to the interorganizational. Enabling actions include putting in place enabling organizational preconditions, assembling a functional well-structured team, and actively building interpersonal and individual collaborative capacity. Lessons learned in the case study emphasize the importance of building collaborative capacity and social capital, and paying attention to the process of transdisciplinary research to achieve more tangible science, management, and policy objectives in science-action partnerships. By documenting and reflecting on the process, this case study provides conceptual and practical guidance on bridging the science-action gap through partnerships.