Abstract
The Okavango Delta is a large land-locked alluvial fan in the Kalahari Basin, north-east Botswana. It comprises a rich mosaic of habitats and is the largest inland delta in Africa. The ecosystem is driven by annual flooding, which brings water and initiates forage growth during the dry season, allowing the area to support a wide variety of animals and plants, making it a major global tourist attraction with its unique biodiversity and aesthetics. Despite policies aimed at protecting the area from detrimental disturbance, it remains under threat due to seasonal burns and herbivore. These threats are compounded by a lack of knowledge about the vegetation and its resilience. It is crucial to ascertain how disturbance affects the structure and function of the ecosystem. This project focuses on gaining an understanding of the structure and function of the ecosystems, to provide robust ecological data that can be used by managers for long-term management strategies and to assess the potential environmental impacts of the Delta´s principal conservation issues. This will be achieved by gathering detailed information on stakeholders? perception, species richness, tree recruitment, seed banks, seed dispersal, seedling establishment in relation to fire regime and herbivore pressure. These data should increase our understanding of the biophysical character and current state of the area vegetation resource with respect to the independent and combined effects of fire and herbivory.
Sweden