Updated list of obligate wetland plants April 2021
Hi to all members of this project, thank you to those of you that joined when this project was first created, we are finally getting active!
You might have noticed a change in the species list, the list has been updated thanks to Dr Erwin Sieben (UKZN) and Hlengiwe Mtshali (SANBI) to represent a current master list of obligate (always found in wetland conditions) wetland plant species for South Africa.
We acknowledge that a small number of species on the current list may be considered to be riverine or riparian, and we may split into multiple lists in the future.
We welcome feedback within this journal on your observations from the field, especially if you have recommendations for additions or subtractions from the list.
Related to this, we are considering requesting additional information tags such as hydroperiod (temporary, seasonal, permanent) and substrate (peat/organic, sand, clay, other) as this will help to confirm or expand understanding of the narrow or wide habitat preferences of our wetland plants.
Thanks so much! Nancy
Comments
Thank you to Raven for putting in the time to make the changes!
@nancy_job @tonyrebelo @robert_taylor @tuli @mahlengi @rianafourie @rpietersen
Im wondering how projects for different aquatic systems can best be created for Botswana.
Im not a biologist so Im asking questions out of ignorance. My own interest is in recording the fauna/flora of small ephemeral streams on basalt and sandstone hillsides and pools that collect seepage water year-round in Central Botswana. So I need a project that includes these environments.
Is it possible to make one project , perhaps an umbrella for all types of aquatic systems in all the countries of the southern African region made up of collection projects for different types of aquatic environments-seeps, pans, depressions wetlands, ephemeral streams and rivers, puddles. What would be the most efficient way of doing this to minimise the number of collection projects ? Is there a way of encouraging/forcing contributors to include the hydroperiod and substrate ?
In a nutshell can South African projects for aquatic systems be 'copied' , extended or adapted to other southern Africa countries so that each country doesnt have to reinvent the wheel when they want to create projects for all of their aquatic systems.
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/south-african-wetland-survey
2 Perhaps the nesaea species names in the plant list for this project, could be replaced by ammannia
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/freshwater-biodiversity-of-south-africa-wetland-plants
3 Why are aquatic ferns and macroalgae not included ?
Thanks
Tony Benn ( aka Botswanabugs, Serowe Central Botswana.
This project is based on a reference listing. Do you have similar comprehensive listings of wetland species for other countries?
No !
Not even a wetland plants of the Okavango?
But could there be a freshwater aquatic habitats project for southern africa that has fields for most possible types of aquatic habitat from enormous pan down to a puddle and showing definitions of each kind of a aquatic habitat. Something like the Habitats (sAf) project but for ponds, wetlands, seeps, pans, manmade dams,hillside rivers etc etc. It would be a lot of work setting it up. Or is there something like it already which I am missing.
It already exists: Just add the Habitat project with the Wetland or Aquatic option for the habitat.
Wetlands:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&subview=map&verifiable=any&field:Habitat%20(s%20Afr)=Wetland
Aquatic:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&subview=map&verifiable=any&field:Habitat%20(s%20Afr)=Aquatic
One could add "Littoral" (=shore) but that is shared with marine.
Unfortunately, at this stage one cannot filter Collection Projects by observation fields.
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