Vegetation and habitat types of the Umkhanyakude Node

Abstract

The aim of the study was to identify and classify the woodlands, bushland and grasslands of the Umkhanyakude Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Node (also known as Maputaland) into homogenous management units to assist with the natural resource audit and monitoring program initiated by the Department of Agriculture. The Node is situated in KwaZulu-Natal Province at the extreme northern border between South Africa and Mozambique. Two hundred and twenty-five surveys were conducted during March–July 2002 within 400 random plots created within ARCVIEW 3.2. Ecological data were analysed using multivariate ordination and classification techniques. Four broad plant communities within two geographically separated vegetation types were described. The Coastal Sandveld occurs on the coastal plain on recent arenaceous sediments. The Clay Thornveld occurs in the interior and is associated with a variety of terrain types and geological formations but predominantly rhyolite, basalt, shale and mudstones. Communities within the major vegetation types were differentiated based on climate (temperature and precipitation differences associated with differences in elevation and topography) and anthropogenic disturbances such as old fields, settlements and deforested plantations. The two major plant communities were subdivided into two sub-communities that can be used as management units since they have approximately the same physiognomy, grass composition and habitat characteristics. The four broad management units are the Acacia nilotica – Acacia karroo – Dichrostachys cinerea Community (Clay Thornveld); the Cissus rotundifolia – Enteropogon monostachyos ( Valley Bushveld) Community; the Panicum maximum – Brachylaena discolor Community (Coastal Bushveld) and the Themeda triandra – Urelytrum agropyroides Community (Grass – Palmveld).