- Title
- Density and regrowth of a forest restio (Ischyrolepis eleocharis) under harvest and non-harvest treatments in dune forests of Eastern Cape Province, South Africa
- Creator
- Ruwanza, Sheunesu, Shackleton, Charlie M
- Subject
- To be catalogued
- Date
- 2015
- Type
- text
- Type
- article
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/180828
- Identifier
- vital:43649
- Identifier
- xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12231-015-9306-y"
- Description
- Ischyrolepis eleocharis (Mast.) H.P.Linder is a perennial rush or sedge-like herb in the Restionaceae family and has been harvested for various uses from coastal forest dunes of South Africa. Around 2005, a ban on I. eleocharis harvesting in Bathurst coastal forest was instituted by provincial conservation authorities based on their unsubstantiated impression that the species population was decreasing. Here we report on the population density pre and post the harvest ban, as well as further explore the autecology of the species by assessing plant density relative to environmental factors (slope and aspect) and a controlled experiment on regrowth after harvesting at different intensities. The results show that the shoot density of both living and dead I. eleocharis increased significantly over the past eight years. This concurs with results from the harvesting experiment which showed that I. eleocharis recovered rapidly within a year of harvesting. Both aspect and slope play a key role in the distribution of I. eleocharis, with most plants found in open patches in the forest located on the summit and upper slopes of dunes facing the landward side. These results indicate that I. eleocharis is highly abundant and resilient to harvesting.
- Format
- computer, online resource, application/pdf, 1 online resource (14 pages), pdf
- Publisher
- Springer Link
- Language
- English
- Relation
- Economic Botany, Ruwanza, S. and Shackleton, C.M., 2015. Density and regrowth of a forest restio (Ischyrolepis eleocharis) under harvest and non-harvest treatments in dune forests of Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Economic Botany, 69(2), pp.136-149, Economic Botany volume 69 number 2 p. 136 2015 1874-9364
- Rights
- Publisher
- Rights
- Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the SpringerLink Terms of Use Statement ( https://link.springer.com/termsandconditions
- Rights
- Open Access
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Collections
Ruwanza, Sheunesu (Dr)
RU DST/NRF SARChI for Interdisciplinary Science in Land and Natural Resource Use for Sustainable Livelihoods
Shackleton, Charles Michael (Distinguished Prof)
RU Department of Environmental Science
SDG 11. Sustainable Cities and Communities
SDG 15. Life On Land
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | Density and regrowth of a forest restio Ischyrolepis eleocharis under harvest and non-harvest treatments in dune forests of Eastern Cape Province, South Africa.pdf | 8 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |