Download Article: iSimangaliso Wetlands (St. Lucia Estuary)

698 iSimangaliso Wetlands (St. Lucia Estuary)
can deplete fish populations, causing drastic and
negative effects on the food chain.
Local governments, environmental and human
rights groups are doing what they can to stem environmental damage and perhaps to block the building of the Myitsone dam project. There are six additional dam projects proposed for the Irrawaddy
River. Already, unregulated mining, deforestation,
and erosion have taken a heavy toll here. Burmese
activists fear that if the dam project moves forward,
its impact will extend to communities downstream
that rely on the river flow and adequate nutrients to
sustain the rice production on which the country
depends. Meanwhile, the Chinese and the China
Power Investment Corporation are lobbying persistently to restart construction.
William Forbes
Andrew Osborn
Further Reading
Burma Rivers Network. “Irrawaddy River.” 2012.
http://www.burmariversnetwork.org/burmas
-rivers/irrawaddy.html.
Smith, Brian D. and Randall R. Reeves. “River
Cetaceans and Habitat Change: Generalist
Resilience or Specialist Vulnerability?” Journal
of Marine Biology 2012, no. 1 (2012).
Smith, Jeff. “Two Rivers: The Chance to Export
Power Divides Southeast Asia.” National
Geographic Daily News, October 25, 2011.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/
energy/2011/10/111026-mekong-irrawaddy
-hydropower-dams.
Thant, Mynt-U. Where China Meets India—Burma
and the New Crossroads of Asia. New York: Farrar,
Straus & Giroux, 2012.
iSimangaliso Wetlands
(St. Lucia Estuary)
Category: Marine and Oceanic Biomes.
Geographic Location: Africa.
Summary: The iSimangaliso Wetlands is a tidal
estuary of unparalleled beauty and diversity, whose
Zulu name aptly means “miracle and wonder.”
The iSimangaliso Wetlands biome in South Africa
is a tidal estuary ecosystem on the Indian Ocean,
situated along the northeast coast of the KwaZuluNatal province. It stretches from Kozi Bay in the
north to St. Lucia in the south. Virtually the whole
of the iSimangaliso Wetlands biome has been
incorporated into iSimangaliso Wetland Park, and
has been recognized as a World Heritage site by
the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
iSimangaliso is a Zulu word meaning “miracle
and wonder,” which appropriately describes this
beautiful and diverse tidal estuary. One of South
Africa’s largest protected areas, it encompasses
1,266 square miles (3,280 square kilometers), and
extends 174 miles (280 kilometers) along the coast.
The estuary area includes some of the world’s largest forested coastal dunes; they reach up to 656
feet (200 meters) high. The park also includes all
of Lake St. Lucia, the St. Lucia and Maputaland
Marine Reserves, the Coastal Forest Reserve, and
the Kosi Bay Natural Reserve.
As a tidal estuary, iSimangaliso has interconnected habitats and wetlands that vary seasonally,
with fresh- and marine-water inputs and varied
salinity levels. There are swamps along Lake St.
Lucia; these and other areas fed by water seeping
through the coastal dunes, that provide freshwater habitats year-round, irrespective of the changing salinity of the lake and estuary. There are also
swaths of grassland habitat here.
Biodiversity
The iSimangaliso Wetlands biome is important as
a breeding ground for giant leatherback and loggerhead sea turtles. Other species include 100
corals, 1,200 fish, 36 snakes, 80 dragonflies, 110
butterflies, and approximately 520 bird types.
Important birds include the sea-eagle, pinkbacked and white-backed pelican, and greater and
lesser flamingo, and the fish-eagle. There are 11
animal species endemic to the biome, meaning
not found elsewhere, and at least 100 species that
iSimangaliso Wetlands (St. Lucia Estuary) 699
are near-endemic; these are also found in other
places around South Africa.
The large submarine reefs harbor many fish
and corals, with particularly strong coral diversity
in Sodwana Bay. Whales and dolphins migrate
through off-shore waters. Lake St. Lucia, 50 miles
(80 kilometers) long and up to 14 miles (23 kilometers) wide, is home to hundreds of hippopotamuses and crocodiles, as well as pelicans, flamingos, ducks, waders, and fish.
In addition to modern species, the iSimangaliso
Wetlands biome contains a living fossil: the coe­
la­canth. This is a fish species virtually unchanged
from millions of years ago; it was known only from
the fossil record and presumed to be extinct—until
a live specimen was found off the southeast African coast in 1938. It is still a rare protected fish,
but several living specimens have been found and
photographed in a submarine canyon off the coast
near Sodwana Bay.
Threats and Conservation
The iSimangaliso Wetlands is vulnerable to anthropogenic changes. Extensive use and alteration of
the rivers flowing into Lake St. Lucia for agriculture and other purposes have reduced freshwater
flows. At the same time, the wetlands and particularly the lake were subject to drought for more
than 10 years, ending in 2011. For much of this
time, the estuary was closed off from the Indian
Ocean, but due to low freshwater inflow and high
evaporation, salinity levels rose throughout the
ecosystem here. This led, in June 2009, to a redand-orange algal bloom in parts of Lake St. Lucia
that lasted for at least 18 months, which ended
only with heavy summer rains in 2011. The extent
and persistence of the algal bloom illustrates a
likely effect of global warming, and the fragile balance of the wetlands ecosystems.
Other threats include damage by excessive
tourism and overfishing. As a result of heavy traffic, the wetlands have been zoned into three ecotourism use zones: a zone of low-intensity use in
the wilderness, where all visitor access is by foot; a
moderate-use zone, where visitors can view wildlife from vehicles, camps, and shelters; and a highintensity use zone, where (in seven clusters) there
are roads, interpretative and educational displays,
guided walks, accommodations, and other tourist facilities. Overall human activity is confined to
one-third of the wetlands here.
The iSimangaliso Wetlands biome is relatively
well managed under national and provincial regulations. South Africa protects wetlands under
the World Heritage Convention Act of 1999. The
wetlands also contain four Ramsar sites that recognize the ecological functions of wetlands and
their importance as economic, cultural, scientific, and recreational resources. There is intensive management, research, and monitoring of
human activity in the wetlands. Sufficient funds
A sign warning swimmers not to enter a crocodile habitat
in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. About one-third of the
park is open to visitors. (Wikimedia/Christian Wörtz)
700 Italian Sclerophyllous and Semi-Deciduous Forests
are in place nationally and through internationally-funded projects for the ongoing operation of
the wetlands park.
Magdalena A. K. Muir
Further Reading
Saarinen, Jarkko, Fritz Becker, and Haretsebe Manwa,
eds. Sustainable Tourism in Southern Africa: Local
Communities and Natural Resources in Transition.
Bristol, UK: Channel View Publications, 2009.
Somers, Michael J. and Matthew Hayward,
eds. Fencing for Conservation: Restriction of
Evolutionary Potential or a Riposte to Threatening
Processes? New York: Springer, 2011.
Surhone, Lambert M., Mariam T. Tennoe, and Susan F.
Henssonow, eds. iSimangaliso Wetland Park. Beau
Bassin, Mauritius: Betascript Publishing, 2001.
World Heritage Centre. “iSimangaliso Wetland Park.”
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/914.
Italian Sclerophyllous and
Semi-Deciduous Forests
Category: Forest Biomes.
Geographic Location: Europe.
Summary: This broadly distributed and
diverse mixed forest biome of Mediterranean
climates occurs throughout the coast of the
Italian peninsula.
Although the term Mediterranean refers to a
specific region that includes parts of Africa,
Asia, and Europe, the climate of this type—cool
or mild, wet winters and hot, dry summers—is
actually common to temperate coastal systems
throughout the world. As climate is an important determining factor in vegetation, some ecosystems in coastal California and Australia, for
example, are actually quite similar structurally
and functionally, though quite different compositionally, to the coastal forests typical of the Italian and French coasts and valleys.
At low elevations, these coastal forests typically are characterized by a mixed evergreen or
semi-deciduous canopy with a diverse understory
and herbaceous layer. While superficially similar
to other coastal forests, certain local and regional
factors, particularly the presence of mountains,
make the sclerophyllous (thick-leaved scrub vegetation) and semi-deciduous forest types specific to the Italian peninsula and coastal France
a unique biome.
This biome covers much of the Italian peninsula
(as well as nearby islands, such as Ventotene) and
parts of the southern coast of France, a total of
39,500 square miles (102,200 square kilometers).
Most regional climatic variation here is the result
of mountain ranges near the coast. With increasing altitude, local zones tend to sustain more precipitation increases and lower temperature. Variation in edaphic (soil) conditions is more related
to volcanic activity and the underlying bedrock
types, which include dolomite, limestone, marl,
sandstone, and schist-marl.
Thus, it is elevation that primarily dictates forest zonation and volcanic activity, while bedrock
type dictates forest composition. Land cover here
is a mix of broadleaf deciduous woodland (30 percent), evergreen woodland (30 percent), cropland
(30 percent), dry grassland (five percent), and
inland water bodies (five percent).
Vegetation
Forests at the lowest elevations, generally closest to the coasts, are dominated by a mix of
evergreen sclerophyllous (hard, waxy) broadleaf
species, such as the commercially important
cork oak, and deciduous broadleaf species, such
as downy oak and Manna ash. At higher elevations further inland, the cooler temperatures and
greater precipitation favor deciduous species,
and forest compositions shift away from sclerophyllous vegetation.
As elevations increase still more, the coldtolerant European beech becomes a dominant
species, but the diverse woody flora include the
endangered Lobel’s maple and coniferous species
like the locally abundant yew and relict populations of silver fir in the Apennine Mountain.