STOP PRESS! NRF Call for Research Proposals in Environmental Change - 2008

Research themes cover a wide range of ecosystems from marine to savannah (Picture 1 © REEF, picture 2 © Smithsonian Institute, picture 3 © Bernard Coetzee)

SAEON features strongly in the 2008 National Research Foundation (NRF) call for proposals. For more information visit www.nrf.ac.za  and open 2008 Call for Applications: NRF Focus Area Programme: KFD Strategy.

Call for proposals - Research Theme ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE

• Improving our understanding of social and ecosystem dynamics and how these are impacted by environmental and social changes
• Developing appropriate monitoring and information technology to enhance national capacity for environmental stewardship in response to local and global change
• Developing appropriate early warning systems and indicators for predicting the patterns and impacts of natural disasters and hazards
• Understanding and monitoring the impacts of land-use practices, changes and transformation on ecosystems, for example desertification and afforestation
• Developing capacity to predict the effects of climate change on ecosystem patterns and processes
• Monitoring and predicting the impacts of pollution on ecosystems, ecosystem services and human health
• Examining and monitoring the role and impact of non-indigenous organisms in ecosystem service provision and biodiversity conservation
• Enhancing scientific understanding of the effects and control of invasive aliens in ecosystems
• Assessing and monitoring the impacts of genetically modified organisms on biodiversity conservation and ecosystem dynamics
• Developing capacity to monitor, analyse, interpret and model atmospheric and marine variability and change
• Examining and monitoring issues of equity and justice pertaining to clean, safe, secure and healthy environments

This research theme should be read in conjunction with documentation on the website of the South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON; www.saeon.ac.za).

SAEON is designed to supply long-term data in support of decisions relating to a limited set of thematic issues of high importance to both ecosystem function and human wellbeing in South Africa. They are, in no order of priority:

Water, including:

• Its distribution in space and time, storage and flows through the system, energy exchange with the atmosphere, contamination, management and costing

Carbon / Nutrient Cycles, including:

• Plant and animal productivity in natural and managed systems, on land, in rivers and oceans
• Nutrient loading and deposition
• Eutrophication

Soils / Sediments, including:

• Measures of soil degradation and renewal, nutrients, biodiversity, pH distribution of sediment in space and time, sediment storage and sediment flux through the system
• Fluvial sediment and river ecosystem health

Biodiversity, including:

• Studies of populations of species and their interactions, their genetic composition and the diversity of the landscape and oceans
• Impact of proven and potential threats, e.g. climate change, habitat conversion/ fragmentation, desertification, invasive aliens and genetically modified organisms

Disturbance Regimes and their outcomes, including:

• Large Infrequent Disturbances (e.g. floods, droughts, fire), human settlement, fishing, toxicity and herbivory
• Human dimensions of coupled human-ecosystems including the monitoring of socio-economic and institutional conditions relating to resource use, consumption and contamination

Climate/ Atmosphere, including:

• Variability and change in precipitation, temperature, humidity, general circulation, chemistry and radiation

Note: The closing date for NRF research proposals is 14 May 2007. Proposals that are coordinated by SAEON will be given priority.

For more information visit www.nrf.ac.za and open 2008 Call for Applications: NRF Focus Area Programme: KFD Strategy