This Biota Africa Subproject S01 is aiming at remote sensing and GIS based monitoring of vegetation, land cover and biodiversity dynamics along the BIOTA South transect. The research is application driven aiming at an output with high potential for the support of decision making processes, both with regard to management and policy formulation. In continuation of the assessment of vegetation spatial patterns in Phase I, which will be continued for the new transect extensions, the focus in the second phase will be on the monitoring of vegetation dynamics causing changes in biodiversity. Within this, biomass as a limiting factor of livestock grazing capacity will be assessed by combining field measurements and remote sensing indication at selected biomes along the BIOTA South research transect. Spatial diversity of woodland savanna vegetation as one aspect of structural diversity is addressed to determine future woodland structure. In support of all spatial analyses, the BIOTA South GIS which was successfully established in Phase I will be maintained and new satellite, spatial and climate data will be integrated.

In order to understand natural processes of longer-term changes in vegetation and biodiversity, the dependencies between vegetation dynamics and climatic variability will be analysed and modelled on a regional scale, covering Namibia and western South Africa. This will help to estimate imminent hazards for rangeland management and pastoralism under future climate. A remote sensing based fog monitoring approach seeks to contribute to an understanding of such climate-vegetation interactions especially in the desert biome of the Namib.

Following the analysis of dependencies between vegetation and climate, the role of human induced land use patterns and their temporal changes with special emphasis on land degradation shall be examined. Using time-series of remote sensing data, analyses will be performed to investigate how human land use processes affect vegetation and biodiversity development over time by analysing where, when and how land transformation takes place. Special studies on land-use impact on biomass and vegetation structure/degradation status will be performed along a latitudinal and altitudinal transect in the Namaqualand area and in the adjacent ecotone towards the Bushmanland area, respectively.

Finally, the implementation of biodiversity management tools will be supported by supervising regeneration experiments with satellite data and by a review of remote sensing based products and information and subsequent evaluation of their suitability for use as indicators in a sustainable biodiversity monitoring and management concept. Capacity building in the fields of remote sensing, geostatistics and bioclimatic modelling will be continued for African and German partners.