universit y of kw azulu-na tal research repor t 2008/2009 - UKZN ...

nrf P-rateD reSearcherNRF P-rated researchers are “young researchers (normally younger than 35 years of age), who haveheld the doctorate or equivalent qualification for less than five years at the time of application andwho, on the basis of exceptional potential demonstrated in their published doctoral work and/or theirresearch outputs in their early post-doctoral careers are considered likely to become future leaders intheir field”.Dr Serban ProchesDDLecturer in Biogeography inDr Serban Proches – a SeniorDLecturer in Biogeography inDthe School of EnvironmentalDSciences on the Westville Dcampus – hails fromBucharest, Romania, wherehe studied up to Masterslevel and acquired a goodcommand of plant and insectdiversity. Dr Proches movedto Durban in 1999 to study towards a PhD with Dr David Marshall ofthe then University of Durban-Westville (UDW)’s Zoology Department,which he completed in 2001.After six years of postdoctoral projects in Port Elizabeth withProfessor Richard Cowling and Professor Graham Kerley; inStellenbosch with Professor Dave Richardson and Professor StevenChown, and in Pietermaritzburg with Professor Steve Johnson, DrProches returned to Durban in 2008.He is interested in alien species invasions, plant-insect interactions,global bio-geography and phylogenetic patterns. He has authored50 journal articles and is an associate editor of the Journal ofBiogeography.Dr Proches’ most recent projects focus on the region stretchingfrom Port Elizabeth to Maputo in Mozambique (and thus centred inDurban) and recognised as one of world’s 34 biodiversity hotspots.The patterns of species endemism and diversity in this region canbe used to disentangle the dynamics of forest, grassland, thicket andsavanna vegetation with climate change, and to inform conservationdecisions. In particular, Dr Proches focuses on weevils (Coleoptera:Curculionidae) associated with plants endemic to this region – asindicators of plant persistence and climatic stability.With more than 10 000 species in South Africa and hundreds ofthousands worldwide, weevils are the most diverse group of organismsregionally and globally, and vary enormously in colour and shape, butare severely understudied in southern Africa. Most of the species arespecialists associated with one plant species or a few related species,and cannot survive without large populations of their host plants.Several weevil lineages survived over tens of millions of years in thisregion, some ever since the break-up of Gondwanaland, but currentlyface threats from insecticide use and unsustainable plant collection.44 UKZN Research Report // 2008/2009 UKZN Research Report // 2008/2009 45