This presentation provides a synthesis of biodiversity patterns on the African Continent. It also includes some of the biodiversity informatics efforts that has been taking place in Africa

1. Continental Synthesis
Fatima Parker-Allie

2. Overview
• Introduction: Africa as a megadiverse continent
• Summary of some key points of the African region talks
• Climate Subregions and Ecosystem Units
• Latitude and Pattens of Biodiversity
• Factors which determine species distributions
• Biodiversity in Africa
• Diversity Patterns in Animals (mammals, bats, amphibians) and Plants
• Biodiversity in South Africa
• My work and research – biodiversity informatics in Africa, data mobilization and filling
gaps

3. Introduction
• Africa is one of the most megadiverse continents in the world.
• Here biodiversity plays a critical role in sustainable development, provides vital
ecosystem services, contains a wealth of indigenous and local knowledge and is one
of our greatest regional assets.
• The benefits of biodiversity are crucial to key economic sectors (i.e. forestry,
agriculture, fisheries, tourism, health and energy) and to providing solutions to
sustainable development and poverty alleviation on the continent.
• The management of our natural assets and the information related to this are crucial.
Ultimately, we cannot manage what we cannot measure.

4. Summary of some key points of the African regions
• Over the last few weeks, we have journeyed through the regions in Africa; We heard from our experts about the biodiversity
in the region, and specifically learnt more about the different vegetation types, the biogeographic factors in the different
subregions of the continent and about the richness and endemicity patterns of some plants and animal species.
• In East Africa (Jess) – includes some hotspots which have unique species and renown for its big game; High diversity in
mountains of Kenya and Tanzania (cold/high humidity and rainfall); lower parts of Tanzania-semi arid. indigenous plants
used by communities over 1000 years; Major lakes, Nile starts from EA;
• In CA (Moses)– 8 countries; 3 ecoregions – Rainforest, Savannah and Wetlands (Mangroves); contrasting environments –
mountains, rainforests (largest rainforest after Amazon), big river systems (Congo basin) with source Eastern Arc Mountains;
Exceptional diversity of species and highest endemicity in Tropical Africa.
• West Africa (Alex)– 16 countries, Biodiversity of WA Guinean Forests, high species richness and endemism, although highly
transformed –agriculture. Forest species connected to livelihoods, documenting the traditional knowledge and use of plants
for medicine, in the Guinean Forest.
• Southern Africa (Tiwonge)– terrestrial biomes; Savannah (Miombo&Mopane) woodlands, bat species richness projects,
lakes (Malawi, Tanganyika, Victoria) and also high richness and endemism of CFR.
• North Africa-(Abdu) – 5 countries; 3 main features-Sahara, Nile River and Atlas Mountains. Flora is Sahara region is poor
(500 species in very large area); xerophytes. The Mediterranean region holds a more diverse richness of plant and animal
communities.

5. • Africa comprises 5 subregions under different climate conditions
• Mediterranean climate at the northern and southern points of the continent
• Equatorial & tropical climate characterized by high rainfall in Central Africa & across the
southern part of West Africa
• Climate which ranges from hyper arid to semi arid, with very sparse to no rainfall in a great part
of North Africa and West Africa and also part of Southern Africa
• Subtropical climate in East Africa and adjacent islands and a large part of Southern Africa.
• These climate variations have contributed towards a wide range of significant richness of biodiversity
at the species, ecosystem and genetic levels.
Olsen et al 2001
Climate Subregions and Ecosystem Units

6. Latitude and Patterns of Biodiversity
• Biodiversity / Species numbers are not distributed evenly across the earth
• Early biogeographers hypothesized that this was driven primarily by contemporary
climatic gradients & received lots of support
• By the mid-20th century workers were referring to the global pattern as the
‘latitudinal diversity gradient’
• The assumption thus - more species occur in tropical zones than in temperate zones
(eg birds), but this is not always accurate (eg CFR)
• Also, species richness should not just be considered in one dimension as there are
other spatial dimensions to consider – longitude, altitude, depth (marine species)
‘Latitude’ and geographic patterns in species richness Bradford A. Hawkins, ECOGRAPHY 27:2 (2004)

7. Latitudinal Diversity Gradient of Birds
• Very high richness near Lake
Victoria with a secondary peak at
Mt. Cameron in the west
• Not unexpectedly, the fewest
species occur in the Sahel, the
Horn, and in the
Namibian/Kalahari Deserts.
• Richness appears to be
moderately low in the central
Congo Basin.
BRADFORD A. HAWKINS et al. 2003. PRODUCTIVITY AND HISTORY AS PREDICTORS OF
THE LATITUDINAL DIVERSITY GRADIENT OF TERRESTRIAL BIRDS, Ecology, 84(6), pp.
1608–1623
Geographic variation in richness in
bird species in the Afrotropics

8. Factors which determine species distributions
• Species distributions (where species live) are determined by a number of factors:
1. Physical /environmental/geography - freshwater/saltwater/mountains /deserts;
Physical factors can be barriers to organism and restrict movement i.e. mountains
& rivers; Climate (temperature/rainfall) - driver of species distributions
2. Biotic – productivity, biomass and diversity; here life dictates how one species is
dependent on another, e.g. low grass no antelope – so one species predicts
habitat for another; symbiotic relationships – species found on other species.
(Good example from Kenya – based on farming practices/ Masai areas)
3. Evolutionary – life constantly diversifies over time; chance incidence, adaptation
4. Increase in ranges – through dispersal – plants/seeds, birds – migration; fungal
spores, sneeze or bacteria/viruses (expanding range) i.e. COVID
Dispersal - In the ocean eg coral – through larvae

9. Diversity and Endemism in Africa
• The continent is home to more than 50,000 known plant species, 1,000 mammal species, and 1,500 bird species.
• Eastern Africa has the highest numbers of endemic species of mammals (55%), birds (63%), reptiles (49%) and
amphibians (40%), whereas species endemism is relatively low in Northern Africa.
• Madagascar is the most endemic-rich country in Africa, and the sixth in the world for higher vertebrates
(mammals, birds and amphibians), with more than 300 endemic species, and the third-most plant-rich country in
Africa after the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania.
• Savannahs, are the most extensive ecosystem in Africa. They support many indigenous plants and animals as well
as the world's largest concentration of large mammals such as elephants, buffalo, rhinoceros, giraffes, lions,
leopards, cheetah, zebras, hippopotami, kudus, waterbucks and oryx.
• African wetlands also have a rich biological diversity, with many endemic and rare plant species as well as wildlife
such as migratory birds. Wetlands are found in most African countries, the largest including the Okavango Delta,
the Sudd in the Upper Nile, the Lake Victoria and Chad basins, and the flood plains and deltas of the Congo, Niger
and Zambezi rivers.

10. HOTSPOTS
1. Guinean Forest of West Africa
2. Coastal Forest of Eastern Africa
3. Horn of Africa
4. Madagascar and Indian Ocean Islands
5. Cape Floristic Region
6. Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany
7. Succulent Karoo
8. Eastern Afromontane

11. Ecoregions - a new classification framework for conservation planning
• Olsen et al 2001 subdivided the terrestrial world into 14 biomes and 8 biogeographic realms, nested
within these are 867 ecoregions designed to more efficiently support analyses and conservation
planning efforts at global and regional scales.
• Provides a framework for comparisons among units and the identification of representative habitats
and species assemblages
• Based on classical biogeography concepts, biologists can examine the concordance and mismatches in
patterns of richness and endemism for indicator taxa, often birds and mammals, used in conservation
priority setting

12. BioScience, Volume 51, Issue 11, November 2001, Pages 933–938, https://doi.org/10.1641/0006-
3568(2001)051[0933:TEOTWA]2.0.CO;2
The content of this slide may be subject to copyright: please see the slide notes for details.
The relative richness of terrestrial mammal species by ecoregion
patterns of richness & endemism by ecoregion for 4,600+ terrestrial mammals show
• Africa contains one of the 3 riches mammal assemblages on the continent,
• the map also clearly shows the highest mammal concentration in the Zambezian miombo woodlands
• Whereas the ecoregions with the highest number of endemic mammals is, the Albertine Rift montane
forests of Central Africa.

13. Bat Diversity and Endemism
A high-resolution model of bat diversity and endemism for continental Africa
K. Matthias B. Herkt , Günter Barnikel, Andrew K. Skidmore , Jakob Fahr, Ecological Modelling 320 (2016) 9–28
SDMs for nearly all 250 African bat species to explore emerging diversity
patterns at a resolution of 1 km2. Predicted species richness generally
increases towards the equator conforming to expectations.

14. Amphibians
• Amphibian species richness generally increases towards the equator,
with high concentrations in tropical moist forests like the Congo Basin.
• Very low richness is seen in NA and SW Africa, in the dry dessert
landscapes
• Pattern corresponds to birds and mammals

15. Plant Diversity Patterns
• Africa has a very rich floral diversity of between 40 000-50 000
vascular plant species, with some estimates as high as 74 000
species and endemism of 58-88%; lower than S.America or Asia;
largely due to the drier climate, past climate fluctuations and
humans
• Documenting/inventorying these floras has been an ongoing
scientific endeavour as far back as 1800’s with the Flora of Tropical
Africa & Flora Capensis, and there are many others for WA and EA.
• The 3 most plant rich countries in Africa are DRC, Tanzania and
Madagascar, while SA contains one of the 6 most significant
concentrations of plants in the CFK. The rainforests of the
continent are also exceptionally rich.
Klopper, R. R., Gautier, L., Chatelain, C., Smith, G. F., and Spichiger, R. (2007). Floristics of the angiosperm
flora of sub-Saharan Africa: an analysis of the African plant checklist and database. Taxon 56, 201–208.

16. Plant Diversity Patterns
• Plant species are not evenly distributed across the continent,
• In NA, Mediterranean woodland and forest ecoregion of North Africa stretches from the coastal plains to the hills of
northern Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, and eventually surrounds the Atlas Mountains, and have high plant diversity
and endemism (IPBES Assessment Report).
• Much lower richness and diversity in rest of NA. In the Sahara (Tenere ) is home to only 20 vascular plants in
200000km2 compared to 9000 species in the CFR.;
• The richness of rainforests can be seen through the 0.02 ha site in Gabon with 201-211 plant species and in
Cameroon in 0.01ha site with about 227 plants.
Distribution of species richness in sub-Saharan Africa, based on analysis
of 5881 species mapped to a 1° grid. Study shows-the high richness of the
West African coast, the East African uplands, and the southern tip of the
continent.
IPBES Africa Assessment

17. Plant Diversity at the Southern Tip of Africa
• SA contains 3 biodiversity hotspots & the CFR is situated at the Southern most tip of Africa
• Spanning 90 000km2 (less than 4% of Southern Africa) & is the only floral kingdom contained in one
country. Exceptional beauty and floral heritage & has exceptional high levels of diversity and endemism.
• Thus, it is referred to as the world’s hottest hotspot and is more botanically diverse than the richest
tropical rain forests of South America. It contains 3% of the worlds plant species and 20% of Africa’s.
• Fynbos veg forms the largest component (80%) of the CFK and is a sclerophyllous, fire prone shrubland
occurring on nutrient poor soil. It is composed of proteoid, restioid and ericoids.
• Its 9000 plant species is distributed amongst 5 principal veg types – (grassy, laterite, limestone, mountain
and sand plain fynbos) and has an endemicity of 80% of plant species confined to the biome
• Due to the latitudinal position of the CFR, much of this area experiences Mediterranean type climate
with warm dry summers and cold wet winters.
• Geology of the Cape Fold Mountains is important in diversification & separates species into lowland and
mountain fynbos. The wildlife includes a number of endemic bees, beetles, horseflies, and ants, and birds
- important pollinators. Larger animals include antelopes, particularly Cape grysbok & common duiker
CFR Succulent Karoo Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany Cape fold mountains

18. Marine Systems
• At the Southern tip of the continent, we have three ocean systems which plays a role in the
biogeography of region- Indian, Atlantic & Southern Oceans.
• Here the contrasting cold Benguela Current and upwelling region and the warm, fast-flowing
Agulhas current interacting with the diverse geological setting and topography to drive
exceptional marine biodiversity.
• The number of marine biota recorded in South Africa is estimated at 12,914 species, although
many taxa remain poorly documented (WWF, 2016). Representing 15% of the world’s total, these
species are found across diverse marine ecosystems such as estuaries, wetlands, lagoons, salt
marches, mangroves, and dunes. Many nursery grounds for juvenile fish and wading birds are
supported by nearly 343 recognized estuaries along the coast (Griffiths et al., 2010).
• Endemicity ranges 26-33% for various taxa and is the 3rd highest in the world, following New
Zealand and Antartica

19. Biodiversity Informatics in Africa

20. 1. Build capacity to mobilise foundational data to fill the data and knowledge
gaps
2. Build capacity to deliver relevant data to support biodiversity research,
assessments, modelling & planning for decision making.
3. Build institutional capacity in BIM through empowering stakeholders to
produce, make accessible and use accurate data
4. African countries leverage STI to achieve the SDG’s and aspirations of the
AU - Agenda 2063
5. Strengthen regional engagement through advocacy, awareness-raising
and enhancing GBIF-Africa’s role in supporting regional strategies &
conventions like CBD, CITES, UNFCCC, CITES
6. In the 1st three years explore the need and feasibility of developing a
bigger platform that can provide for a strengthening of a community of
practice
Strategic Objectives
SKILLS DEVELOPMENT
LONG-TERM PARTNERSHIPS
MOVING INFORMATION UP THE CHAIN

21. IPBES Knowledge and Data
Task Force
SANBI-GBIF was elected to the IPBES Knowledge and
Data Task Force.
• Supporting the development of templates and
guidelines for IPBES authors on knowledge gaps
identification.
• Gaps will be used to engage & dialogue with
research funders and programmers, to catalyse
investment in priority research & data mobilization.
• Supported the development of the IPBES Data
Management Policy, approved by MEP and Bureau
○ Curriculum and webinars developed to
support IPBES authors in the implementation
of the data management policy in the
development of chapters.
○ SANBI-GBIF contributed to development of a
webinar dealing with active research data
management (presentation and video
recording)
https://zenodo.org/record/4018634#.X5crq4gzY2w

22. Thank You