Preliminary inventory and classification of indigenous afromontane forests on the Blyde River Canyon Nature Reserve, Mpumalanga, South Africa.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Mixed evergreen forests form the smallest, most widely distributed and fragmented biome in southern Africa. Within South Africa, 44% of this vegetation type has been transformed. Afromontane forest only covers 0.56 % of South Africa, yet it contains 5.35% of South Africa's plant species. Prior to this investigation of the indigenous forests on the Blyde River Canyon Nature Reserve (BRCNR), very little was known about the size, floristic composition and conservation status of the forest biome conserved within the reserve. We report here an inventory of the forest size, fragmentation, species composition and the basic floristic communities along environmental gradients.

Results

A total of 2111 ha of forest occurs on Blyde River Canyon Nature Reserve. The forest is f

SUBMITTER: Lotter MC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC512296 | biostudies-literature | 2004 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature