Limpopo Leader - Spring 2005 - University of Limpopo

Ecology:
THE LEGACY OF ANTS
fFEW TRAVELLERS TO THE FAMOUS FLOWERS OF
NAMAQUALAND KNOW OF THE EXISTENCE OF
THE UNIQUE AGE-OLD TERMITE NESTS TO BE
FOUND IN THIS BEAUTIFUL AREA OF SOUTH
AFRICA.
According to scientists, some of the older of
these inactive termite nests are between 25 000 and
30 000 years old. The termites, scientifically known
as Microhodotermis viator, built amazingly huge nests
with an average height of one metre and a diameter
of up to 30 metres. It is, therefore, quite apt that these
nests are known as heuweltjies (hillocks) among the
residents of Namaqualand. Millions of these
heuweltjies are found on the West Coast from the
Piketberg area up to the border with Namibia.
Research shows that the Cape climate at the time
of the building of the termite heuweltjies supported an
open savannah area, more suited to the prevalence
of termites. The current semi-desert heuweltjie-studded
landscape is, therefore, a telling example of the results
of climate change.
But there’s a lot more to the heuweltjies than this.
They’re easily recognisable by the unique vegetation
to be found on them. This vegetation differs from the
surrounding vegetation and is the result of changed
soil and other characteristics that are connected with
the termite nests. As the plant species that grow on
the heuweltjies are, according to livestock farmers in
the area, tasty to the livestock that is farmed in
Namaqualand, heuweltjies form an important
management component of the small-animal industry in
the area. Not only are the heuweltjies important to the
livestock farmers for management purposes, but the
grain farmers in the area are also affected by the
changing characteristics of the soil as a result of the
prevalence of heuweltjies.
Little scientifically-founded knowledge on
heuweltjies is available and even the recommended
Professor Dirk Wessels
carrying capacity of heuweltjie veld is still
scientifically unfounded at present.
Research on Namaqualand’s heuweltjies now forms
part of an interdisciplinary, international research
project known as ‘BIOTA South’, funded primarily
by the German government. This ambitious project
comprises a research trajectory from the southern tip
of South Africa to the border of Angola, with a branch
off to the lichen fields of the central Namib desert.
Here, research is being done on a number of subjects
ranging from lichens, soil fungi, plants and animals, to
agricultural and socio-economic aspects of farmers
and other communities in the trajectory.
Scientists from a number of universities and other
institutions in Germany, as well as universities and
government departments in South Africa and Namibia,
are participating. Professor Dirk Wessels of the
University of Limpopo, an expert on the lichen fields
of the Namib, is part of a specialist group of
international scientists led by Professor Burkhard Büdel
of the University of Kaiserslautern in Germany doing
research on the biological soil crust of heuweltjies and
other areas in the research trajectory.
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