Fountainhill Estate Symposium Links Ecosystems, Agriculture and Mankind

BY: .

Fountainhill Estate (FHE) hosted its eighth research symposium for the presentation of environmental and agricultural research underway at the estate, where a diverse array of research is informing biodiversity conservation, sustainable land use practices, and management planning in the wider catchment and community.

The hybrid programme featured 34 presentations, including formal academic research, observational studies, surveys, and citizen science. It included work undertaken by UKZN staff and students on the private conservation and agricultural estate, which supports research, conservation efforts, and educational initiatives aimed at sustainability and biodiversity. The estate serves as a “living laboratory” for those researching ecosystem services, wetland and riverine health, soil conservation, and sustainable agricultural practices to answer ecological and environmental questions in a practical, field-based environment.

Delegates came from academia, civil society, neighbouring farms and estates, environmental agencies and more. Contributions help inform further research, promote inter- and intra-disciplinary cooperation, and promote and operationalise implementable findings in the broader community.

The keynote address by UKZN alumnus, Mr Ant Edmonds of the Donovale Farming Company, gave insight into conservation in farming and what is possible to achieve, even at scale, drawing from decades of experience. He drew attention to the food system being a prime driver of biodiversity loss and to farming’s use of water and energy resources and highlighted the benefits of ethical farming practices, soil conservation, and extension support to enable farmers to fix issues under their control.

Recounting advice from a mentor that characterised his approach in what he called one of the best conserved agricultural regions in the country, Edmonds said, ‘You don’t own this land, you’re a temporary tenant here with a huge responsibility to leave this piece of land in a better state than when you received it.

‘The environment is incredibly resilient, and you don’t have to give it much of a chance for it actually to recover,’ said Edmonds as he encouraged attendees with the stories of local environmental champions, epitomised in the creation of the uMngeni Protected Area.

The programme included presentations under the themes of archaeology and palaeontology to emphasise how the past defines the future and how understanding emerging patterns informs appropriate management interventions.

Dr Gregor Bader from Tübingen University in Germany presented the changing human behaviour and seasonality during the Middle Stone Age, revealed during excavations at the Holley Shelter on the estate. This significant archaeological site has yielded valuable information about early human habitation in the KwaZulu-Natal region through preserving artefacts and environmental evidence spanning thousands of years, including stone tools, faunal and botanical remains, and cultural evidence. Excavations have contributed to broader studies on human adaptation to changing environments over millennia and showed that the southern bald ibis has bred in the area for over 30 000 years.

Bader led a site visit to the shelter, giving delegates a first-person view of the dig.

Staff and students in the Discipline of Geography and Environmental Science presented their research on paleo-ecological topics, including tree ring pattern formation and assessments of fossil pollen and salt marsh to understand past environmental conditions, phytoliths and wetland records that shed light on Holocene fire, vegetation and climate dynamics.

UKZN students in the Centres for Functional Biodiversity (CFB) and Water Resources Research, alongside experts from the Agricultural Research Council, Green Door Environmental, and the South African Sugarcane Research Institute, presented under the landscape engineering and restoration theme. Topics included arthropod and plant biodiversity in floodplains, arthropod responses to riparian stress, grassland transformation’s impact on ant diversity, socioeconomic benefits of ecological infrastructure, wetland health, citizen science in water quality monitoring, and reintroducing beneficial insects to farming systems.

The theme of ecosystem services included presentations from the CFB on pollinator and pollination studies of avocado by Professor Timo van der Niet, a pollination study on Natal crocus by Dr Ian Kiepiel, and the loss of pollinators associated with clinal seed production and floral mutation in a South African orchid.

Biodiversity presentations from the CFB, the Durban University of Technology, and BirdLife South Africa, covered a wide range of investigations into various species, including freshwater macroinvertebrates Southern African Pythons and other reptiles and small mammals, tree frogs, spiders, secretarybirds, and yellow-billed kites. Other presentations touched on the river eco-status programme, water resource socioecological risk assessments, seismic data recording, surface-groundwater interactions, corona from electrical lines, geothermal energy, crop modelling, and the growth of ecotourism in the area.

Words and photograph: Christine Cuénod