Home
  Mission
  Overview of Project
  Project Staff
  Sponsors
  Achievements
  Checking, Illustrations
  Upcoming Activities
  Id and  Species Lists
  Protea Information
  Protea Gallery
  Growing Proteas
  Interim Dist. Maps
  Publications
  Afrikaanse Inligting

  SANBI

When is Enough Enough

or Two New Species for Bontebok Park!

"When is the project going to end? Surely you have more than enough data? Are the costs of running the project for five more years justified?"

There is a misconception that for some areas we have "enough" data. We could never have enough data, but at some stage the cost of obtaining data would exceed the usefulness of that data. Have we reached that point?

Perhaps we can use the Bontebok National Park as a perfect example. It has been atlassed by four atlassers who have sent in 87 SRS for 9 species (excluding 4 planted) amounting to 226 records of species.

Now the Bontebok N.P. is only 2786 ha large. This means we have one Sight Record Sheet per 1.2 ha. A phenomenal coverage, suggesting that over 78 per cent of the Park has been atlassed (assuming that the entire park has proteas). In reality, some of these sites are duplicated or overlap, so we probably have only 66 per cent of the area atlassed.

However, the seasonal coverage is as follows:

So that we cannot say what is happening for more than three months of the year? Hardly seasonally representative! So more data would be welcome. About 10 SRS per nature reserve per month should be our goal.

In January 1997 I visited the reserve, mainly to atlas the eastern end of the reserve which is relatively under-atlassed. To my surprise I happened upon a clump of Common Pin Spiderhead Serruria fasciflora about 50 m from the road in the middle of the most-atlassed portion of the reserve. This is the first record from the reserve. Later that day I noticed a clump of Needlebush-like plants about 1 km SE of the offices, and sent Pat to investigate: six Hakea sericea, over 3 m tall, laden with follicles (cones) all in one clump. A major potential problem, but not yet recorded for the reserve. So even well-atlassed areas, and areas within them which are well covered, can yield surprises. More data would be most welcome.

And then, the most popular site in the reserve for atlassers - and perhaps the easiest site in the country to "tick" Pr decurrens and Pr piscina - is at the base of the gully from the offices to Langelsieskraal on the flats to the north side of the road. Except that the area was burned - probably within the last year. However, while Ld sgnm and Pr pisc were resprouting like mad, and seedlings were everywhere, there were only four seedlings of Pr decurrens, two already dead, among the about 140 skeletons of burned plants seen. A disaster - the Bontebok National Park contains the only conserved populations of this species south of the Langeberg! What happened? We must still find out, but perhaps the area was burned in spring, and all the shed fruit were eaten. We will keep you informed and try to ensure that the Bontebok Park is managed for its plants as well as the Bontebok which eat the plants. Can such extra data ever be evaluated to be useless?

Let us conclude then that during the decade of the Protea Atlas Project we could never get too much data anywhere!

Back FAQ