NEMO: North-Eastern Mountain Observatories

Mountains are globally recognized as areas where global climate change is having the greatest impact. In the north-eastern parts of South Africa the Soutpansberg and Drakensberg Escarpment form a stark contrast to the generally flat landscapes, extending from around 400m up to nearly 2000m above sea level. This creates strong gradients in climate, soils and ecosystems, and these mountains harbour a high diversity of plant and animal species. Many of these are restricted to the peaks, and are likely to experience shifts in their distributions in response to global climate change, long before the biota of the savannas below. This project aims to detect the impacts of global climate change on montane ecosystems at selected sites. Currently, the focus is on detecting shifts in the boundaries of biomes (particularly grassland to savanna or thicket) and the herbaceous plant diversity of montane grasslands.