Print version ISSN 0038-2353 S. Afr. j. sci. vol.107 no.3-4
Pretoria Mar./Apr. 2011 Botany Department, Rhodes University,
Grahamstown, South Africa Book Title: Biodiversity in southern
Africa Editors: Norbert Jürgens; Ute Schmiedel; M. Timm Hoffman
ISBN: 978-3-933117-44-1 (Germany), 978-99916-57-30-1 (Namibia)
Publisher: Klaus Hess Publishers (Göttingen and Windhoek), 2010,
R600.00* In over 1400 pages, this epic three-volume book
presents outputs and data from a decade-long research and
monitoring project, BIOTA-Southern Africa. Most of the research
was done in and around 37 standardised 1-km2 monitoring plots
(the BIOTA observatories) spread over a transect from the
woodland savannas of northern Namibia, through the thornbush
savanna, Nama Karoo and desert biomes in Namibia, to Namaqualand
and the western lowland fynbos in South Africa. As such, the
title is somewhat misleading, as the geographical area covered
encompasses Namibia and western South Africa. Also, while no
doubt a major buzzword in the decade