BIOTA observatory near Gobabeb
BIOTA (Biodiversity Monitoring Transect Analysis in Africa) is a cooperative, interdisciplinary and integrative research project with contributions from and in Benin, Burkina Faso, Germany, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Uganda, (Biota southern Africa) Namibia and South Africa. These countries are chosen as a result of their climatic factors, such as the rainfall, which has different patterns.
It was initiated in 1999 (Phase I), and at present funded mainly by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the project has developed towards a cooperative network with the aims to contribution towards sustainable use and conservation of the biodiversity of the African continent.
During the pilot phase (2000-2003), research on abiotic conditions as well as basic information on the existing biodiversity and its properties, patterns and function has been carried out as a prerequisite for understanding the natural framework of organismic diversity. Second phase (2004-2006), is to understand the drivers and mechanisms of changes in biodiversity as a base for scientifically sound predictions and interventions.
Now we are in phase III (2007-2009), the focus is on implementation of results and decision-making tools, while data collection continues.
BIOTA Southern Africa concentrates on studies in Namibia and the western parts of South Africa. The goal of BIOTA Southern Africa is to gain knowledge for decision makers for a feasible and sustainable management of biodiversity, by taking natural as well as socio-economic conditions into account. Here at Gobabeb, we are looking at soil arthropods and their importance as soil engineers (termites, ants and tenebrionid beetles). We are monitoring these arthropods along the rainfall gradient, west to east and north to south. These studies are done at many sites of interdisciplinary research (observatories).
All this is in support of the UN conventions (UNCBD and UNCCD) and to the Johannesburg Plan of Action of the World Summit on Sustainable Development.
Currently two countries (Zambia and Angola) are to join the project. BIOTA has a data sharing policy, and therefore the data is available on the website: http://www.biota-africa.org
Flood Water Recharge in Alluvial Aquifers of Dry Environments (WADE)
The project, initiated by Israeli, Spanish, German, South African, and Namibian scientists, adopts a holistic approach in order to assess the long-term water resources in arid environments. Two sets of "twin" ephemeral river basins are being compared: Rio Andarax (Spain) & Nahal Avara (Israel), and the Kuiseb River (Namibia) & Buffels River (South Africa). The Kuiseb was selected as one of the Southern Africa study sites because the extensive foundation of research on which the project can build. The project is looking at the various environmental processes that might control aquifer recharge as well as the natural, social and economic elements that determine water availability and sustainability.
WADE @ Gobabeb
Two boreholes (one in the main river channel and the other in the flood plain) were drilled upriver of Gobabeb in 2005. Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR) probes in the two boreholes monitor infiltration, transmission losses, percolation, conductivity and effective porosity at a series of depths. The data is downloaded every 6 days and sent to Israel for analysis. As per the project aims, the purpose of this data collection is to fill in the information gap about what happens between the surface flow and the groundwater -- what are the factors that influence how much water from floods are able to replenish the underground aquifers on which so many users rely? How much water is lost? How is it lost? These factors directly impact the long-term water supply, but until now very little research has been done to characterize them. Additional WADE project activities include:
Site characterization, which includes vegetation characterization and geomorphic mapping of the surrounding area.
Paleoflood Hydrological analysis, i.e. the examination of long-term flood records from deposits in the Kuiseb Canyon. The siltation layers are able to give an idea of height and speed of flood flow prior to the observed floods.
Socio-economic and historical perspective has looked at the social and economic value of water from the various users along the River, use patterns, and the role of gender and poverty in the use of water.
CDR project
The WADE project will continue at Gobabeb through December 2007. As of January 2008, the hydrological research will continue under the CDR project. For this project, seven new boreholes were drilled in April 2007. Four boreholes are located in either the river channel or in the flood plain near the two existing WADE boreholes near Gobabeb, the other three are located downstream of the Wier site (again, in the flood plain and river channel). Each borehole has a levelogger, which measures the depth of the water table. The purpose of the CDR project is to investigate relationship of water flow between the flood plain and river channel during recharge flood events. The project will be looking at lateral flow velocities along and across the stream channel by injecting friendly and non toxic tracers into boreholes and collecting water samples from the others. This data will be used to measure direction and velocity of the water flow.
Gobabeb’s Environmental Observatories Network (Gbb-EON)
The value of environmental research does not only lie in increasing knowledge and understanding on the subject under study here and now, but also in generating data. By repeating measurements at a different time or site, comparison is possible – we get an idea of what is changing across space and time. With so much field research being conducted through Gobabeb, there are many measurements that are repeatable. By selecting the best measures, an environmental monitoring programme is set up. This is the basis of Gobabeb’s Environmental Observatories Network (Gbb-EON).
Gbb-EON is now over four and half decades old. It all started with the establishment of a weather station, later with several at different sites situated between Walvis Bay and near Windhoek. Measurements of different variables soon followed, ranging from geophysical changes such as dune movements and groundwater dynamics to growth of individuals, such as Welwitschia, changes in populations, such as Tenebrionid beetles, and patterns of productivity, e.g., of grasses. A team at Gobabeb undertakes these measurements on an hourly, daily, monthly, seasonal, annual or decadal basis to build up a data base. Methods range from use of calipers to remote sensing. This is done in several projects, for example BIOTA, where visitors to the Gobabeb sites also include several Namibian and German collaborators. Other projects cover the same or different sites and variables. Gbb-EON straddles both time and space between projects and different initiatives, thus forming a true network concerning long-term environmental monitoring.
This is a lot of effort and we can tell a lot of detailed tales about it, but what is its real value? This is a good question, and its overpowering answer is one that is so often overlooked by research efforts looking for quick answers. Without long-term environmental monitoring we would not really know what changes are occurring over space and time and whether or not these changes represent a change of state, e.g. whether land degradation is real and permanent or only apparent and temporary. Monitoring has to be ongoing to detect change, and a track record of data is required in order to be able to guide planning concerning how to respond to change: reverse, mitigate or adapt to it. Monitoring is equally important in places that do not change significantly; we need to understand stability and its reasons, as much as we need to understand change and its causes.
The scale of monitoring is extended across Namibia (NaEON), SADC (ELTOSA – Environmental Long-Term Observatories network of Southern Africa), Africa (AFRICANNESS – Global Change Research in Africa) and the world (ILTER – International Long-Term Ecological Research network). In other words, a change detected at one place in a particular kind of ecosystem at a certain time needs to be compared with other places and times at different scales. Partly this indicates the time and spatial scale of the change, but it can also help reveal its cause. Furthermore, it extends the intellectual network, the number of scientists available to analyse a problem. So, for instance, variables that are measured world-wide can be analysed site by site by local experts and compared across the globe by scientists working on an international level.
Gobabeb plays a leading role in all of the above-named networks. Gbb-EON spearheaded the establishment of the Namibian network NaEON, which became the first African member of ILTER in 1999 and was one of the founders of the SADC regional network ELTOSA in 2001 as well as of AFRICANNESS in 2005. ILTER and ELTOSA recognised the importance of Gobabeb by holding their annual conferences at Gobabeb in 2006.
