Extensive consultation with a wide range of stakeholders has led to the selection of six ecosystem research sites located across the country for the Expanded Freshwater and Terrestrial Environmental Observation Network (EFTEON), a large research infrastructure that is being developed under the South African Research Infrastructure Roadmap (SARIR) programme of the Department of Science and Innovation. EFTEON is hosted by SAEON, a programme of the National Research Foundation (NRF). 

Each of the six selected ecosystem research sites represents a large landscape in one of the major biomes in South Africa and includes areas representing human-transformed ecosystems such as urban areas and agricultural systems. Research programmes performed within the designated EFTEON Landscapes will broadly cover the status and observed dynamics of the carbon and water cycles, climate and air quality, ecosystem condition and productivity, biodiversity, and water quality and supply.

“Despite the distressing impact of Covid-19 on normal business processes, a thorough step-wise selection process was followed to identify the most appropriate EFTEON landscapes,” says Dr Chris Moseke, chair of the EFTEON Advisory Panel.

An open call for the nomination of potential landscapes was extended nationally to initiate the process. A subcommittee evaluated the 57 nominations received and developed a shortlist of nominations that, in some instances where geographic overlapping was evident, proposed collaboration between the affected parties.

A total of 19 regional virtual workshops involving nearly 500 participants were held with the teams of shortlisted proponents to clarify EFTEON’s expectations. This resulted in 19 excellent landscape proposals and a tough competition that took two days for the subcommittee to evaluate and rank the proposals in order of excellence.

“The EFTEON Advisory Panel duly considered and endorsed the final report as the result of an open, just and defensible process,” says Dr Moseke.

Improving our national capacity to understand critical ecological processes 

“South Africa’s investment in EFTEON is a major advancement towards improving our national capacity to understand critical ecological processes and how they support and respond to the societies depending on them,” says Dr Molapo Qhobela, chief executive officer of the NRF.

He explains that the thematic focus of the EFTEON programme is on ecosystem processes, the state of the environment and the quality and quantity of ecosystem services. Social systems, including economic systems, fundamentally rely on their ecological contexts to sustain and improve human well-being.

EFTEON manager, Dr Gregor Feig, describes the design of EFTEON as a modular research infrastructure consisting of an array of ecosystem research sites and high-tech ecosystem research equipment.

“The long-term impact of EFTEON will be through sophisticated people-nature observations and experimentation to clarify the complex relationships between societies and ecosystems in diverse environments under climate change as a pervasive driver of change,” says Dr Feig.

According to SAEON managing director Johan Pauw, the designated EFTEON landscapes are supported by central coordination through SAEON and data management facilities (shared with the two other SARIR-funded Environmental Research Infrastructures, these being the Shallow Marine and Coastal Research Infrastructure (SMCRI) and the proposed South African Polar Research Infrastructure (SAPRI) and general SAEON operations).

Final selection of EFTEON Landscapes

• Greater Cape Town (Western Cape): This landscape links the Atlantic Ocean to the peaks of the Boland Mountains Strategic Water Source Area, covering steep climate gradients and a hyperdiverse mix of lowland (strandveld and renosterveld) and upland (mountain fynbos) major vegetation formations of the Fynbos Biome, interspersed with pockets of Southern Afrotemperate Forest. This environmental template supports and interacts with a diverse socio-econo-cultural mix, inhabiting a tapestry of urban, agricultural and natural land use/land cover types. The landscape offers a direct link to a number of SARIR research infrastructures including the Shallow Marine and Coastal Research Infrastructure (Two Oceans Sentinel Site), the BioGrip Cape Point Atmospheric Monitoring Site (Global Atmospheric Watch) and two nodes (University of Cape Town and Stellenbosch University), and the Cape Town South African Population Research Infrastructure Network (SAPRIN) site.
• KIMTRI (Kimberley area, Northern Cape and Western Free State): This is the most arid of the landscapes selected and is located in the transition zone between the Nama Karoo, Arid Savanna and Grassland Biomes. Urban developments in the city of Kimberley as well as land use change resulting from developments in the agriculture, energy and mining sectors are a feature of this landscape. Hydrologically the area is important as it is trisected by major river systems draining the interior of the country. Close links to the newly promulgated Sol Plaatje University and the University of the Free State are expected.
• Garden Route Gateway (George, Western Cape): This landscape provides access to a large number of biomes such as Fynbos, Afrotemperate Forest, Succulent Karoo and Coastal Thicket. Hydrologically this landscape has river systems draining the Karoo region and short-course high-energy systems draining the Cape Fold mountains. This area is home to coastal wetlands and exhibits an excellent source-to-sea opportunity. The landscape is undergoing rapid urbanisation and agricultural intensification. Strong links have been developed in this concept to a number of satellite sites, extending the footprint of the infrastructure into the surrounding biomes.
• Northern Maluti-Drakensberg (Cathedral Peak and surrounds, KwaZulu-Natal): This landscape lies in the northern sections of the Maluti-Drakensberg escarpment in the headwaters of the Tugela River where complex socio-ecological issues are emerging. It builds on the historical research site at Cathedral Peak and extends the research infrastructure out of the World Heritage Site into areas of both subsistence and commercial agriculture in the headwaters of the Tugela River. This area is of value as a high-altitude location with C3/C4 grassland, and grassland/savanna transitions.
• Maputaland (Northern KwaZulu-Natal): This is the most tropical of the selected landscapes and is an important region for observing changes in the impact of tropical meteorological systems. The system presents a valuable hydrological test site as it is a groundwater-driven system exhibiting strong responses to land use and climatic influences and abstraction, resulting in significant social and ecological consequences.
• Lowveld (Mpumalanga): This landscape links the extensive historical social and ecological research sites across land tenure and conservation systems. The site comprises conservation lands use (Kruger National Park and private conservation areas) that are well studied, with adjacent lands under traditional authority management and with villages that are well studied through the SAPRIN Agincourt Research infrastructure. The landscape is bisected by a number of rivers that pass through the different land use systems.