We live in a changing world - the tides, the seasons, and now even more importantly our climate. With the threat of sea-level rise, we hurry to protect our properties and within the Keurbooms Estuary, the threat of flooding is known only too well. To combat the erosion caused by floods artificial structures are placed along its banks but what does this mean for the creatures living amongst the mud and seagrass? (more…)
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Beneath the surface of the Knysna Estuary lies a rich diversity of plant and animal life which, until now, has been largely unexplored. Due to recent developments in Remote Operated Underwater Vehicle (ROV) technology, we can now discover what lies beneath our estuary. Using an ROV and Geographic Information System (GIS) software, we plan on creating a map that depicts the subtidal habitats of the Knysna Estuary. Estuarine habitats act as nursery areas for many important fish and invertebrate species, providing them with food and shelter for at least a part of their life cycle. As such, the subtidal habitats of estuaries often host diverse communities. It is important to study the distribution of these habitats for conserving and managing...
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In early 2011, when the Steenbok Channel was clothed in a luxuriant and healthy eelgrass bed, Richard Barnes investigated its invertebrate fauna at a series of nine points (at Kingfisher Creek near its junction with the Ashmead Channel, at its head near the Armstrong Causeway, and at a point halfway between the two, adjacent to the Reserve's Indigenous Garden; and at three points down the shore at each of those three sites - low water neap, mean low water, and low water spring). Early this year, he sampled those same nine points again but in 2018 in areas of bare mud left after loss of the seagrass. This was a race against time before the bare mud itself disappeared under...
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