SAEON in the media

SAEON, in collaboration with SANBI, launched the “Field Guide to the Offshore Marine Invertebrates of South Africa” at the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town. The editors are SAEON’s Dr Lara Atkinson and SANBI’s Kerry Sink. Dr Lara Atkinson was interviewed on May 17 on the Smile FM programme, The Honest Truth, about the research that went into producing the book, their findings and conceptual framework since 2007, the team that went into the research as well as the focal area of the study. An article on the launch of the field guide, Marine guide leap forward for South Africa, was published in Cape Times of May 9.

Arid Lands Node

Dr Joh Henschel, Manager of the Arid Lands Node, was interviewed by SABC TV at a Climate Change Bill feedback session facilitated by the Department of Environmental Affairs in Kimberley in the Northern Cape. The insert was broadcast on SABC News on June 28.

The June 2018 edition of Prince Albert Friend published an article written by Hanna Petersen, an intern at Renu-Karoo/Wolwekraal Nature Reserve: The Role of Art in Conservation.

Elwandle Coastal Node

SAEON’s Dr Tommy Bornman will join an international team of scientists from institutions around the world on a major international scientific expedition to survey the underside of the Larsen C Ice Shelf, document the rich and little-studied marine life of the western Weddell Sea ecosystem and attempt to locate the wreck of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance, which was trapped, crushed by the ice and sunk there in 1915. Over and above the articles mentioned in the previous edition of SAEON eNews, an article titled Suid-Afrika speel sleutelrol in weergalose 2019-ekspedisie na Antarktika (South Africa plays key role in 2019 expedition to Antarctica) was published in Die Plattelander of April 27.

Egagasini Node

The National Research Foundation (NRF) published a Youth Month Feature on Dr Thulwaneng Mashifane (33), a postdoctoral research fellow at the Egagasini Node. An article on Thulwaneng also appeared in the Mail & Guardian's 200 Young South Africans on June 29. The supplement showcases "the young stars who are shaping the country's future".

Several articles were published on the recent training of young seafarers on the SA Agulhas. All the articles mention that the SA Agulhas was on charter to SAEON to retrieve data from a number of scientific buoys deployed in coastal waters to monitor the Agulhas current.

Business LIVE (June 14)
MyPE (May 31)
Bizommunity.com (June 1)
DefenceWeb (June 1)
Transport World Africa (June 19)
Atlantic Sun (June 21)

Fynbos Node

Dr Nicky Allsopp, manager of SAEON’s Fynbos Node, was quoted in several articles on Cape Town’s recent heavy rains. These articles were published in All4Women, AllAfrica, News24 and News24 Mobile.

Aliens are greatest threat to Cape Town’s water security, an article co-authored by SAEON’s Dr Jasper Slingsby for GroundUp, was published in The South African of May 31, Daily Maverick of May 29, Green Times of May 29 and GroundUp on May 29. SABC Digital News also broadcast an insert, Alien plant invasions trap a lot of water on June 18. Dr Slingsby also had a popular article published in the June edition of Veld and Flora, "Water at what cost to our unique flora?", with Ed February (UCT) and Tony Rebelo (SANBI).

An article titled ‘Bekamp eerder indringers as om damme te bou’ ('Prevent aliens rather than build dams') was published in Landbouweekblad on June 22. Dr Slingsby is quoted saying that it would be more cost effective to eradicate alien vegetation than to build desalination plants or drill more holes in an effort to make Cape Town’s water supply more secure. These ‘solutions’ can moreover be harmful to natural ecosystems.

A news bulletin on Lotus FM (June 18) mentioned the research which the SAEON Fynbos Node is doing on the impact of alien vegetation on existing dams and the groundwater well fields the City is developing.

The Cape Water and Dams Report of May 14, published in ShowMe, features data from the SAEON weather station at Dwarsberg.

uLwazi Node

The ability to respond to the impacts of global change on vulnerable populations and assets hinges on the availability of accurate and current information. Through the South African Risk and Vulnerability Atlas, SAEON aims to make the research into characterising and understanding global change accessible and usable to policy- and decision-makers on a local scale. An article on the Risk and Vulnerability Atlas titled Crowdsourcing the impact of global change, written by SAEON’s Amelia Hilgart, Wim Hugo, Kerryn Warren and Hayden Wilson, was published in Position IT of April 1 and on the website of EE Publishers on May 15.