Biodiversity Institute Research Articles

Determining regions of higher extinction risk occurrences in South African cycads

Extinction crisis in South African cycads has been very high in recent times. This study used comprehensive distribution records of cycads that occurred in South Africa. The records obtained from the South African national herbarium named South African National Biodiversity Institute (sanbi) through the herbarium sheets were used to determine the regions of higher extinction crisis in South Africa. The threat status of the herbarium taxa was obtained from iucn 2019 version and was analysed. Threats to these taxa were extracted from iucn and the numbers of taxa facing each threat were determined to unravel the prominent threats. The herbarium records were used to construct a species distribution map for all the cycads in South Africa and another map for Critically Endangered and Extinct South African cycads. This study revealed that regions of high species richness for South African cycads are not the same as regions with highly threatened and extinct South African cycads. Prominent threats found in this plant group are also the major threats causing extinction crisis in the highly threatened and extinct cycads that occurs in few provinces in South Africa. This study therefore recommends that conservation efforts for South African cycads should be intensified in the hotspots of highly threatened and extinct South African cycads identified in this study to further mitigate extinction crisis of South African cycads.

Preface iBIOSDG2021

1st International Conference on Biodiversity and Sustainable Development 2021, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia The 1st International Conference on Biodiversity and Sustainable Development 2021 (iBIOSDG 2021) was virtually hosted by Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia, on 23-24 November 2021. Due to the COVID-19 travel and event restrictions as well as many other uncertainties, it is ideal for this conference to run virtually and to keep abreast with the progress in research despite of COVID-19. iBIOSDG 2021 is the first international conference exclusively focused on biodiversity and sustainable development research and innovation. The Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainable Development (IBSD), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Shah Alam, Malaysia is incredibly honoured and privileged to host the first iBIOSDG2021 with the theme, ‘Biodiversity in the 21st century: Transformation in biological diversity and science in supporting the Sustainable Development Goals’ supported by Department of Wildlife and National Parks (PERHILITAN) and Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM). This conference has one plenary speaker, four keynote speakers with three parallel sessions with three breakout rooms at each session. Plenary and keynote speakers are given one hour each to deliver their talk while parallel room is given 15 minutes for each presenter via Webex platform. A total of 75 accepted papers with 268 authors from Malaysia, India, Indonesia, UAE, UK, and Yemen has participated and contributed to this conference. iBIOSDG2021 aims to highlight research and innovation that demonstrates how diverse fields and disciplines can work together to conserve and protect the ecosystem for the benefit of human life. It is widely recognised that biodiversity is one of the most effective levers for achieving sustainability and provides a forum for discussion and exchange of ideas about the most effective ways to connect universities, research institutions, government, industry, and experts from around the world. As a conference focused on sustainable development, iBIOSDG2021 pooled and assisted prospectus research fraternity in sourcing, comprehending, determining, and recognising available and updated research methodology varieties. The organising and technical committees of iBIOSDG2021 seek to establish the conference as a renowned platform and annual venue for transnational intellectual discourse. More than a showcase of the state of the art in research creativity and innovation, this conference served as a reflection on how to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 (SDGs). List of Committee are avilable in this pdf.

Peer Review Statement

All papers published in this volume have been reviewed through processes administered by the Editors. Reviews were conducted by expert referees to the professional and scientific standards expected of a proceedings journal published by IOP Publishing. · Type of peer review: Double Anonymous · Conference submission management system: Morressier · Number of submissions received: 89 · Number of submissions sent for review: 87 · Number of submissions accepted: 75 · Acceptance Rate (Submissions Accepted / Submissions Received × 100): 84.3 · Average number of reviews per paper: 2 · Total number of reviewers involved: 143 · Contact person for queries: Name: Siti Aekbal Salleh and Faezah Pardi Email: aekbal@uitm.edu.my Affiliation: Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainable Development, UiTM Shah Alam

Article Continued - Outcomes of the Southern African Lepidoptera Conservation Assessment (SALCA)

Issue consists of one article divided into downloadable PDFS.
 The Southern African Lepidoptera Conservation Assessment (SALCA) was a collaborative venture between the Lepidopterists’ Society of Africa (LepSoc Africa), the Brenton Blue Trust (BBT) and the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), and formed part of the National Biodiversity Assessment (NBA). SALCA was founded on the importance of Lepidoptera both ecologically and as biodiversity indicators and the proven expertise of the participants during the Southern African Butterfly Conservation Assessment (SABCA). The main outcomes of the SALCA project are presented and discussed here.The SALCA tool, a custom-designed interactive distribution database, enabled high quality data to be derived so that accurate conservation assessments could be produced in accordance with IUCN methodology. The Red Lists of SALCA and SABCA facilitated the first opportunity to calculate the Red List Index (RLI) for South African butterflies during the period from 2012–2018. Other metrics required for the NBA included protection level and threats analyses. A further outcome was the critical habitat mapping for butterflies, which formed part of a screening tool implemented by SANBI, to ensure that land use changes did not cause any further loss of butterfly biodiversity.A comprehensive distribution database was developed for South African moths, enabling data to be analysed so that moth species potentially threatened could be short-listed for further investigation.

Article continued - Outcomes of the Southern African Lepidoptera Conservation Assessment (SALCA)


 
 Issue consists of one article divided into downloadable PDFS.
 The Southern African Lepidoptera Conservation Assessment (SALCA) was a collaborative venture between the Lepidopterists’ Society of Africa (LepSoc Africa), the Brenton Blue Trust (BBT) and the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), and formed part of the National Biodiversity Assessment (NBA). SALCA was founded on the importance of Lepidoptera both ecologically and as biodiversity indicators and the proven expertise of the participants during the Southern African Butterfly Conservation Assessment (SABCA). The main outcomes of the SALCA project are presented and discussed here.The SALCA tool, a custom-designed interactive distribution database, enabled high quality data to be derived so that accurate conservation assessments could be produced in accordance with IUCN methodology. The Red Lists of SALCA and SABCA facilitated the first opportunity to calculate the Red List Index (RLI) for South African butterflies during the period from 2012–2018. Other metrics required for the NBA included protection level and threats analyses. A further outcome was the critical habitat mapping for butterflies, which formed part of a screening tool implemented by SANBI, to ensure that land use changes did not cause any further loss of butterfly biodiversity.A comprehensive distribution database was developed for South African moths, enabling data to be analysed so that moth species potentially threatened could be short-listed for further investigation.Geographical hotspots and ecosystems (vegetation types) containing butterflies of conservation concern are highlighted. The societal, economic and human wellbeing benefits of conserving Lepidoptera are identified. Responses by LepSoc Africa to the increasing pressures on South African Lepidoptera biodiversity, are also reported on and discussed. The significant outcomes of SABCA and SALCA are benchmarked against a well-known European butterfly atlasing and conservation assessment project.The 165 SALCA Red Lists and conservation assessments are presented at the end of this publication.
 
 
 
 
 
 PDF
 
 
 
 Published
 2022-03-27
 
 
 
 Issue
 Vol. 31 No. 4 (2020)
 
 
 Section
 Articles
 
 
 
 All copyright for publications belongs to the Lepidopterists’ Society of Africa NPC (LepSoc Africa) and/or the individual author(s), in terms of a Creative Commons license, which can be viewed at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/, and which only allows users to copy, distribute and transmit the work, whilst prohibiting commercial use and preventing alteration, transformation of, or building upon the work. The finally formatted, printed version is under the copyright of LepSoc Africa as the publisher, although the author(s) retain the right to fully use the content of the article, provided that the publisher is acknowledged. Text extracts may be used by third parties with prior, written permission from the Metamorphosis Editor and (as a minimum) the senior author. The journal name, volume, number and date of publication must be acknowledged by the third party together with the author(s) and title of the article.
 

Article continued - Outcomes of the Southern African Lepidoptera Conservation Assessment (SALCA)

Issue consists of one article divided into downloadable PDFS.
 The Southern African Lepidoptera Conservation Assessment (SALCA) was a collaborative venture between the Lepidopterists’ Society of Africa (LepSoc Africa), the Brenton Blue Trust (BBT) and the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), and formed part of the National Biodiversity Assessment (NBA). SALCA was founded on the importance of Lepidoptera both ecologically and as biodiversity indicators and the proven expertise of the participants during the Southern African Butterfly Conservation Assessment (SABCA). The main outcomes of the SALCA project are presented and discussed here.The SALCA tool, a custom-designed interactive distribution database, enabled high quality data to be derived so that accurate conservation assessments could be produced in accordance with IUCN methodology. The Red Lists of SALCA and SABCA facilitated the first opportunity to calculate the Red List Index (RLI) for South African butterflies during the period from 2012–2018. Other metrics required for the NBA included protection level and threats analyses. A further outcome was the critical habitat mapping for butterflies, which formed part of a screening tool implemented by SANBI, to ensure that land use changes did not cause any further loss of butterfly biodiversity.A comprehensive distribution database was developed for South African moths, enabling data to be analysed so that moth species potentially threatened could be short-listed for further investigation.Geographical hotspots and ecosystems (vegetation types) containing butterflies of conservation concern are highlighted. The societal, economic and human wellbeing benefits of conserving Lepidoptera are identified. Responses by LepSoc Africa to the increasing pressures on South African Lepidoptera biodiversity, are also reported on and discussed. The significant outcomes of SABCA and SALCA are benchmarked against a well-known European butterfly atlasing and conservation assessment project.The 165 SALCA Red Lists and conservation assessments are presented at the end of this publication.

Article continued - Outcomes of the Southern African Lepidoptera Conservation Assessment (SALCA)

Issue consists of one article divided into downloadable PDFS.
 The Southern African Lepidoptera Conservation Assessment (SALCA) was a collaborative venture between the Lepidopterists’ Society of Africa (LepSoc Africa), the Brenton Blue Trust (BBT) and the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), and formed part of the National Biodiversity Assessment (NBA). SALCA was founded on the importance of Lepidoptera both ecologically and as biodiversity indicators and the proven expertise of the participants during the Southern African Butterfly Conservation Assessment (SABCA). The main outcomes of the SALCA project are presented and discussed here.The SALCA tool, a custom-designed interactive distribution database, enabled high quality data to be derived so that accurate conservation assessments could be produced in accordance with IUCN methodology. The Red Lists of SALCA and SABCA facilitated the first opportunity to calculate the Red List Index (RLI) for South African butterflies during the period from 2012–2018. Other metrics required for the NBA included protection level and threats analyses. A further outcome was the critical habitat mapping for butterflies, which formed part of a screening tool implemented by SANBI, to ensure that land use changes did not cause any further loss of butterfly biodiversity.A comprehensive distribution database was developed for South African moths, enabling data to be analysed so that moth species potentially threatened could be short-listed for further investigation.Geographical hotspots and ecosystems (vegetation types) containing butterflies of conservation concern are highlighted. The societal, economic and human wellbeing benefits of conserving Lepidoptera are identified. Responses by LepSoc Africa to the increasing pressures on South African Lepidoptera biodiversity, are also reported on and discussed. The significant outcomes of SABCA and SALCA are benchmarked against a well-known European butterfly atlasing and conservation assessment project.The 165 SALCA Red Lists and conservation assessments are presented at the end of this publication.

Outcomes of the Southern African Lepidoptera Conservation Assessment (SALCA)

The Southern African Lepidoptera Conservation Assessment (SALCA) was a collaborative venture between the Lepidopterists’ Society of Africa (LepSoc Africa), the Brenton Blue Trust (BBT) and the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), and formed part of the National Biodiversity Assessment (NBA). SALCA was founded on the importance of Lepidoptera both ecologically and as biodiversity indicators and the proven expertise of the participants during the Southern African Butterfly Conservation Assessment (SABCA). The main outcomes of the SALCA project are presented and discussed here.The SALCA tool, a custom-designed interactive distribution database, enabled high quality data to be derived so that accurate conservation assessments could be produced in accordance with IUCN methodology. The Red Lists of SALCA and SABCA facilitated the first opportunity to calculate the Red List Index (RLI) for South African butterflies during the period from 2012–2018. Other metrics required for the NBA included protection level and threats analyses. A further outcome was the critical habitat mapping for butterflies, which formed part of a screening tool implemented by SANBI, to ensure that land use changes did not cause any further loss of butterfly biodiversity.A comprehensive distribution database was developed for South African moths, enabling data to be analysed so that moth species potentially threatened could be short-listed for further investigation.Geographical hotspots and ecosystems (vegetation types) containing butterflies of conservation concern are highlighted. The societal, economic and human wellbeing benefits of conserving Lepidoptera are identified. Responses by LepSoc Africa to the increasing pressures on South African Lepidoptera biodiversity, are also reported on and discussed. The significant outcomes of SABCA and SALCA are benchmarked against a well-known European butterfly atlasing and conservation assessment project.The 165 SALCA Red Lists and conservation assessments are presented at the end of this publication.

Article continued - Outcomes of the Southern African Lepidoptera Conservation Assessment (SALCA)

Issue consists of one article divided into downloadable PDFS.
 The Southern African Lepidoptera Conservation Assessment (SALCA) was a collaborative venture between the Lepidopterists’ Society of Africa (LepSoc Africa), the Brenton Blue Trust (BBT) and the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), and formed part of the National Biodiversity Assessment (NBA). SALCA was founded on the importance of Lepidoptera both ecologically and as biodiversity indicators and the proven expertise of the participants during the Southern African Butterfly Conservation Assessment (SABCA). The main outcomes of the SALCA project are presented and discussed here.The SALCA tool, a custom-designed interactive distribution database, enabled high quality data to be derived so that accurate conservation assessments could be produced in accordance with IUCN methodology. The Red Lists of SALCA and SABCA facilitated the first opportunity to calculate the Red List Index (RLI) for South African butterflies during the period from 2012–2018. Other metrics required for the NBA included protection level and threats analyses. A further outcome was the critical habitat mapping for butterflies, which formed part of a screening tool implemented by SANBI, to ensure that land use changes did not cause any further loss of butterfly biodiversity.A comprehensive distribution database was developed for South African moths, enabling data to be analysed so that moth species potentially threatened could be short-listed for further investigation.Geographical hotspots and ecosystems (vegetation types) containing butterflies of conservation concern are highlighted. The societal, economic and human wellbeing benefits of conserving Lepidoptera are identified. Responses by LepSoc Africa to the increasing pressures on South African Lepidoptera biodiversity, are also reported on and discussed. The significant outcomes of SABCA and SALCA are benchmarked against a well-known European butterfly atlasing and conservation assessment project.The 165 SALCA Red Lists and conservation assessments are presented at the end of this publication.

Genetic diversity and population structure analysis of Grass pea (Lathyrus sativus L.) accessions collected from North-Western Ethiopia using SSR markers

Grass pea (Lathyrus sativus L.) is a legume crop known to be an excellent source of protein, tolerant to drought, waterlogging, and salinity. The crop is used as an alternative source of protein to reduce malnutrition for resource-poor people and farmers leaving in marginal areas. However, due to the presence of a neurotoxin that causes lathyrism in the crop, it has been neglected and underutilized. As a necessary first step towards, therefore, this investigation was undertaken to assess the genetic diversity and population structure that existed within grass pea accessions collected from North-West Ethiopia using simple sequence repeat markers. Twenty-five grass pea accessions collected from the Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute were planted at the College of Agricultural Science, Ebonyi State University, Nigeria. The genomic DNA was extracted using Quick-DNA™ ZR Plant/Seed Miniprep Kit and amplified in an ABI Veriti PCR machine with 10 pairs of SSR markers in IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria. Out of 10 SSR primers, only eight primers were polymorphic. A total of 41 alleles were detected with an average of 5.13. The Polymorphism Information Content and Gene Diversity values ranged from 0.074 to 0.944 with a mean of 0.474 and 0.536 respectively. The largest pairwise genetic distance (0.365) was detected between North Gondar and East Gojjam populations. The ФPT (analog of FST test) estimated through AMOVA were 0.24, 0.20, and 0.05 for within accessions, among regions, and population within regions respectively. The highest genetic differentiation value (76%) resides within accessions followed by 20% among regions. Both the population structure and cluster analyses grouped the 25 grass pea accessions into two distinct subgroups. This grouping pattern indicates the presence of gene flow among geographic regions. In general, the findings of this study indicate that despite few numbers of SSR markers it was possible to detect genetic diversity among grass pea accessions indicating the power of the SSR marker in picking up the existing genetic diversity within the studied accessions.

Announcing the 2021 Journal of Experimental Biology Outstanding Paper Prize shortlist and winner.

Announcing the 2021 Journal of Experimental Biology Outstanding Paper Prize shortlist and winner.

A Laboratory Manual for the Preparation of Chemical Reagents, Solutions and Special Indicators

A Laboratory Manual for the Preparation of Chemical Reagents, Solutions and Special Indicators. ETHIOPIAN BIODIVERSITY INSTITUTE, Microbial Biodiversity Directorate. This manual includes detailed view of the following: Laboratory Safety Precautions, Chemical Reagent Preparation, Buffer and Chemical Solution Preparation, Staining Solution Preparation, Indicators and Dye Solution Preparation, Preparation of Special Reagents, Known and Suspected List of Carcinogens and References.

English

Sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench], is believed to be originated in Ethiopia and Sudan. Although, many morphological and molecular diversity studies reveal the existence of genetic variations with sorghum populations, their distribution within basic races were not considered. Hence, the present study aimed to analyze the extent and distribution of genetic variation within basic Ethiopian sorghum landraces using SSR markers. A total of 107 landraces obtained from Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute (EBI) representing 12 ecological zones grouped according to their race types based on inflorescence and spiklet on field at their maturity time. Twelve SSR markers revealed a total of 110 alleles with average polymorphic content of 0.76 and the allele frequencies show 42 of them were rare (less than 0.05), 22 ranged from 0.05 to 0.1, while 46 of them were higher than 0.1. Expected and observed heterozygosity were 0.78 and 0.2, respectively. The genetic differentiation between populations were also moderate (FST=0.07 for races and 0.13 for E/zones) indicating continuous exchange of genes among them. Partitioning the total genetic variation also indicated 61.38 and 55.17% of the variations were among individuals within racial and zonal populations, respectively. Neighbor-Joining cluster analysis also indicated four major grouping of the landraces according to their racial groups where majority of race caudatum and durra form separate groups while intermediate durra-bicolor form two separate sub-clusters. Overall locus, the intra-racial population diversity showed the greatest genetic diversity (He=0.77 and 0.75) among race dura-bicolor and caudatum, respectively. Information with sorghum races along their important agronomic traits could be used for conservation and future breeding programs of sorghum.   Key words: Sorghum bicolor, races, genetic diversity, SSR.

Assessing the extent of land-use change around important bat-inhabited caves

BackgroundModification and destruction of natural habitats are bringing previously unencountered animal populations into contact with humans, with bats considered important zoonotic transmission vectors. Caves and cave-dwelling bats are under-represented in conservation plans. In South Africa, at least two cavernicolous species are of interest as potential zoonotic hosts: the Natal long-fingered bat Miniopterus natalensis and the Egyptian fruit bat Rousettus aegyptiacus. Little information is available about the anthropogenic pressures these species face around important roost sites. Both bats are numerous and widespread throughout the country; land-use changes and urban expansions are a rising concern for both conservation and increased bat-human contact.ResultsOur study addressed this shortfall by determining the extent of land-cover change around 47 roosts between 2014 and 2018 using existing land cover datasets. We determined the land-cover composition around important roost sites (including maternity, hibernacula and co-roosts), distances to urban settlements and assessed the current protection levels of roost localities. We detected an overall 4% decrease in natural woody vegetation (trees) within 5 km buffer zones of all roost sites, with a 10% decrease detected at co-roost sites alone. Agricultural land cover increased the most near roost sites, followed by plantations and urban land-cover. Overall, roosts were located 4.15 ± 0.91 km from urban settlements in 2018, the distances decreasing as urban areas expand. According to the South African National Biodiversity Institute Ecosystem Threat Status assessment, 72% of roosts fall outside of well-protected ecosystems.ConclusionsThe current lack of regulatory protection of cavernicolous bats and their roosts, increasing anthropogenic expansions and proximity to human settlements raises concerns about increased human-bat contact. Furthermore, uncontrolled roost visitation and vandalism are increasing, contributing to bat health risks and population declines, though the extent of roosts affected is yet to be quantified. In an era where pandemics are predicted to become more frequent and severe due to land-use change, our research is an urgent call for the formal protection of bat-inhabited caves to safeguard both bats and humans.

EVALUATING CONSERVATION STATUS, THREATS AND POPULATION TRENDS OF LEUCADENDRON, A PLANT GENUS ENDEMIC TO THE CAPE REGION IN SOUTH AFRICA

Declines in endemic species have significant impact on global biodiversity loss. More efforts need to be harnessed to further protect endemic species from the current global extinction crisis. This study evaluated the current conservation status, factors responsible for risk of extinction and the trends in populations of Leucadendron, a plant genus endemic to the Cape region in South Africa. The SANBI (South African National Biodiversity Institute) Red List was employed in this study. The results revealed that over 50% of taxa in this genus are threatened and most of the species are exposed to habitat destruction and the presence of invasive species. It was also discovered that two species of this genus are currently extinct, which implies this genus is facing a high risk of extinction. More efforts, such as designing effective methods of controlling forces responsible for the risk of extinction of taxa in this genus, should be put in place to prevent their complete extirpation in future.

The Control and Eradication of Invasive Species in Urban Areas in terms of South African Law: The City of Cape Town and the Polyphagous Shot Hole Borer Beetles

The introduction and prevalence of invasive species is an alarming reality in South Africa. The emergence of invasive species has resulted in harmful consequences on various levels and has adverse impacts on the environment and the economy. Hence, biological invasions demand attention. The control and eradication of invasive species can serve to minimise their adverse impact. In 2019 the South African National Biodiversity Institute highlighted the threats posed by biological invasions in South Africa and specifically identified Polyphagous Shot Hole Borer Beetles as a significant new invasive species in South Africa that has a demonstrable ongoing detrimental impact on varieties of trees. Polyphagous Shot Hole Borer Beetles have been detected in various urban areas in South Africa, including the City of Cape Town. This note briefly examines the control and eradication of invasive species in urban areas in terms of the South African legal framework, specifically against the backdrop of the emergence of the Polyphagous Shot Hole Borer Beetles in the City of Cape Town.

South Africa's Initiative Towards an Integrated Biodiversity Data Portal

Biodiversity Advisor, developed by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), is a system that will provide integrated biodiversity information to a wide range of users who will have access to geospatial data, plant and animal species distribution data, ecosystem-level data, literature, images and metadata. It aims to deliver a centralized location with open access to information to enable research, assessment and monitoring; to support policy development; to foster collaboration and advance governance. Data are aggregated from multiple, diverse data partners across South Africa including, CapeNature, the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, Iziko South African museum, the National Herbarium of South Africa and the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity. This newly developed and integrated system promotes a shift from tactically-based information systems, aimed at delivering products for individual project initiatives to a strategic system that promotes the building of capacity within organisations and networks. It has been developed by integrating SANBI’s existing authoring layers through a service-orientated architecture approach, which enables seamless cross-platform integration. Some of the key authoring layers that will be integrated are, the Botanical Database of Southern Africa (BODATSA), the Zoological Database of Southern Africa (ZODATSA), the Biodiversity Geographic Information System (BGIS) and SANBI's institutional repository (Opus). Biodiversity Advisor will provide users, policy and decision makers, environmental impact practitioners and associated organizations with free access to view, query and download any of South Africa's biodiversity data available on the system, providing them with everything needed to make decisions around conservation and biodiversity planning in South Africa. All sensitive species data, which are those that are vulnerable to collecting, over-exploitation, commercial and/or medicinal use, will be redacted and only granted access upon application. Biodiversity Advisor will encourage more effective management of data within SANBI, but also encourage the sharing of data by the biodiversity community to provide integrated products and services, which are needed to address complex environmental issues.

First Characterisation of the Phoma Species Complex on Maize Leaves in Central Europe.

In the last decade, the cultivated area of maize has increased in Central Europe due to its high yield potential and diverse uses for feed and bio-energy. This has led to more intense maize cultivation, with narrowed crop rotations resulting in the increase in maize leaf diseases. During 2012 and 2013, an inventory of maize leaf spot diseases was carried out in various regions in Central Europe. In addition to the major leaf pathogens, isolates of Phoma-like species were obtained from oval to elliptical spots on leaves or found in lesions produced by other leaf pathogens. A total of 16 representative Phoma-like strains were characterised for their pathogenicity on maize leaves, for their morphological characteristics and with a phylogenetic analysis based on multilocus sequence analysis using part of the actin (ACT), calmodulin (CAL), β-tubulin (TUB), internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of ribosomal DNA and large subunit ribosomal RNA (LSU) genes. The strains were grouped into four clades, and morphological studies supported this classification for most of them. Strains were compared with six reference Phoma-like species strains from the Westerndijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute collection reported to colonise maize. The pathogenic group of strains from our collection (after completion of Koch’s postulates) did not cluster with any of these species, indicating a different and novel Phoma-like species infecting maize leaves. To our knowledge, this is the first study dissecting the Phoma species complex on maize leaves in Central Europe.

The South African National Plant Checklist: Maintaining the taxonomic backbone for a megadiverse country

Updated country and regional plant checklists for southern Africa have been available for several decades. These form the backbone of foundational and applied biodiversity-related processes, e.g., herbarium specimen curation, conservation assessments, and biodiversity policy and planning activities. A plant taxonomic backbone for South Africa has been maintained electronically since the 1970s; originally in the custom-built National Herbarium, Pretoria Computerised Information System (PRECIS) database; and currently in the Botanical Database of Southern Africa (BODATSA), using Botanical Research & Herbarium Management System (BRAHMS) software. The BODATSA species table contains ca. 129,000 names of fungi, algae, mosses, lycophytes and ferns, conifers, and flowering plants. Taxonomic backbone data is continuously expanded, updated, and improved following strict policies and standards in an attempt to keep it up-to-date and current. The South African National Plant Checklist (SANPC) Policy stipulates that a single classification is followed for taxonomic groups at the family level and above. Thus a classification system was chosen for each plant group represented in the backbone. For genera and below, the latest published evidence-based classification is followed. Where there are opposing classifications for a group based on similar data, the SANPC Committee decides which classification is most suitable from a southern African perspective. Researchers can also make an appeal to the Committee not to follow the latest publication, if it is controversial. Updating primarily involves keeping track of literature references and the taxon additions, synonymies, and other taxonomic and nomenclatural changes they represent. Attributes affected by such changes are adjusted in the taxon module of BODATSA. Currently the taxonomic backbone for indigenous and naturalised mosses, liverworts, hornworts, ferns and lycophytes, conifers, and flowering plants is actively maintained and updated. Fungal names are not curated in BODATSA, as the Mycology Unit of the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) of South Africa maintains a taxonomic backbone for fungi. In future, all fungal names will be migrated to a separate instance of BRAHMS, and links to the ARC database will be established to update the fungal backbone. Previously algae were not included in BODATSA or the SANPC, but algal names are now being added to the backbone. Only names of green and red algae will be added initially. Maintenance of the names for indigenous taxa in southern Africa was always prioritised in the taxonomic backbone. Recently, the scope was expanded to also focus more on our naturalised flora. For these taxa, expansion involved tagging some existing names as naturalised or invasive and adding others. Thus far this dataset has been managed differently, and we realize that to some extent, this will need to continue going forward since information here are more about presence or absence, and confirmation of naturalised status. BODATSA also houses 1.37 million specimen records for more than 2 million specimens housed in the three herbaria of the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI): Compton Herbarium (NBG & SAM), Cape Town; KwaZulu-Natal Herbarium (NH), Durban; and National Herbarium (PRE), Pretoria. Determinations of specimen records are directly linked to names in the taxonomic backbone. Any changes in the backbone thus filter down to the specimen records and should ideally also be reflected in the physical herbarium collections. Checklists for South Africa and the Flora of southern African region were initially published in hardcopy, with some later made available in pdf format. An official yearly release of the SANPC (currently containing just under 40,000 names for indigenous and naturalised mosses, liverworts, hornworts, lycophytes and ferns, conifers, and flowering plants occurring in South Africa) is now made available online as a downloadable spreadsheet, together with other checklist-related documents. This part of the backbone is also accessible in the searchable online platform, Plants of southern Africa (POSA). In line with global initiatives to mobilise plant biodiversity data, this platform provides specimen record data as well, and will soon link descriptive data from the e-Flora of South Africa project to the backbone (once the National Biodiversity Information System website upgrade is finalised). The SANPC connects with several international initiatives and is utilised to update the taxonomic backbones of, amongst others, the World Flora Online (WFO) Project (including the WFO Plant List) and the African Plants Database. This contribution will briefly outline the history of compiling, updating, and disseminating the taxonomic backbone of southern African plants. It will provide information on current data management processes and procedures. Challenges relating to updating the taxonomic backbone, will be highlighted and discussed.

Fun and Easy Georeferencing with a New Online Tool from South Africa

A new online tool for georeferencing specimen records has been developed through the Natural Science Collections Facility (NSCF) in South Africa to address the need for rapid, high quality georeferencing of specimen collections in the region (Fig. 1). A dataset of specimen records with Darwin Core fields dwc:scientificName, dwc:country, optional dwc:stateProvince, dwc:locality or dwc:verbatimLocality, optional dwc:recordedBy, and a record identifier such as dwc:occurrenceID (see dwc.tdwg.org/terms for definitions) is first uploaded into the tool and a team of georeferencers then work to georeference the dataset. Fuzzy string matching is used to group similar locality strings and to search for potential matching georeferences from a georeference database. The tool aims to improve efficiency by storing georeferenced localities so that they can be reused when the same locality is encountered again in other datasets. Thus, a locality only needs to be georeferenced once, and that georeference is reused for any other permutations of that locality string. A georeference includes the most important metadata from the Darwin Core standard: a measure of uncertainty, dwc:georeferenceDate, dwc:georeferencedBy, dwc:georeferenceProtocol, dwc:georeferenceSources, and the all too often neglected dwc:geodeticDatum. dwc:georeferencedByID is included for recording the ORCID iD of the georeferencer to facilitate attribution further down the data publication pipeline. In theory, the process of georeferencing should become more efficient with time as the georeference database grows. The georeferencing process is gamified by showing each georeferencer their own numbers of georeferenced records as they work, and they can see activity of fellow georeferencers as the dataset statistics update in real time. Dataset owners can also see overall progress with the dataset and numbers of records georeferenced by each team member, which may be useful for management purposes. Once a dataset is completed, it is downloaded with the new georeferences so these can be incorporated back into the original source database. Within the landscape of currently available georeferencing tools the system presented here is specifically placed to facilitate the management of the georeferencing process for a dataset by a team of georeferencers. The georeferencing workflow still requires a full suite of tools for finding coordinates for localities, such as a GIS, gazetteers and online resources, as well as a specific georeferencing protocol. It essentially replaces the use of spreadsheets for doing georeferencing, or doing georeferences directly in a collection database, which can be inefficient. Related to this, it includes a quality assurance process whereby georeferences are checked for correctness and adherence to the protocol being used, and for identifying geographic and environmental outliers for each species within the dataset. In this way the tool supports current workflows and best practices for georeferencing (e.g. Chapman and Wieczorek (2020), Zermoglio et al. (2020)). The technology stack includes Firebase as the primary database, ElasticSearch for fuzzy string matching, and the user interface is built with the modern Javascript framework Svelte. The tool has been in use by the NSCF since April 2021 after being populated with approximately 300 000 existing georeferences for southern Africa from various sources, including the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) Gazetteer and several collections databases. While initial emphasis in developing the tool has focussed on southern Africa, the tool can be extended to other regions easily. Please contact data@nscf.org.za for further information.