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13 August 2018 Photo Charl Devenish
Mountain research Maloti-Drakensberg
Tucked in the foothills of the Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains is the Qwaqwa Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS), the home of the Afromontane Research Unit (ARU).
Mountains and highlands have always played an important role in the history of mankind. They produce economically essential goods and services (such as fresh water), host unique biodiversity, and offer unique recreational and tourism opportunities. Mountains are also a place for spiritual sanctuaries and are often used for journeys of self-reflection through pilgrimage.

In addition to these ‘feel good’ benefits, mountains are hazardous areas for communities and infrastructure and are vulnerable to natural disasters. Mountainous areas are also often natural borders defining geopolitical entities, but in the process splitting and marginalising communities, creating economic shadow zones and sometimes becoming highly militarised areas. 

“Southern African mountains provide enormous opportunities for holistic research as social-ecological systems, with some of the most interesting and least academically explored environments on Earth,” said Dr Vincent Clark, Director: Afromontane Research Unit (ARU) on the UFS Qwaqwa Campus. 

The Afromontane Research Unit
The Qwaqwa Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS) is the home of the ARU, a multidisciplinary flagship group addressing the largely under-researched mountainous landscapes of southern Africa. 

Research in the ARU is promoted around three broad themes to foster inter- and multidisciplinary discourse: (1) conservation and sustainable use of Afromontane biodiversity; (2) sustainable futures for the people of the Afromontane; and (3) living and doing business in the Afromontane –  with the intention of creating a sustainability science hub to bring the three themes into the ambit of solution-oriented transdisciplinary research, centred in the sustainable development goals and sustainability research in general. 

Continental leader
To achieve its vision of becoming a continental leader in African mountain research, the ARU is positioning itself as a mountain-knowledge generator and interchange by developing key relationships locally and internationally. The most valuable local partnership is with the South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON), with which the ARU will be sharing a Research Chair. 

The Chair will contain strong expertise in the Social Sciences to complement the existing strong Natural Science element in both the ARU and SAEON. The Sustainability Science component is being built through inter alia a mutually-reinforcing relationship with the University of Tokyo and United Nations University, Tokyo. 

The future
“In tandem with robust collaborations to achieve its goals, the ARU provides an envious capacity-building programme for its early career campus academics, postdoctoral and postgraduate students,” said Dr Clark. 

The scale of influence of the ARU is prioritised as ‘back yard first’, namely solution-oriented research that benefits Phuthaditjhaba, Qwaqwa, Golden Gate Highlands National Park and Royal Natal National Park. Thereafter, the ARU seeks to facilitate research that encourages the sustainable development of the Maloti-Drakensberg as a unique social-ecological system in Africa, and from there facilitate research in the intellectual vacuum that is the southern African mountains. With time, the ARU aims to take the intellectual lead as an Africa-based leader in African mountain research. The success of this will depend on how carefully the development of human infrastructure can be balanced with that of the myriad opportunities presented.”

With a diverse and motivated team, situated in one of the most attractive environments in Africa, the ARU is here to change the way we think about African mountains and what they mean for us all. 

News Archive

Four modernised controlled environment cabinets inaugurated
2006-07-27

Photographed in a controlled environment cabinet were at the back from the left:  Mr Adriaan Hugo (head of the UFS Electronics and Mechanisation Division), Prof Herman van Schalkwyk (Dean: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the UFS) and Prof Koos Terblans (lecturer at the UFS Department of Physics).  In front is Mr Koos Uys (engineering consultant from Experto Designa who helped with the cooling systems of the cabinets).
Photo: Leonie Bolleurs

Different look for research in controlled circumstances at the UFS  

Research in controlled circumstances at the University of the Free State (UFS) turned a new page today with the inauguration of four modernised controlled environment cabinets of the Department of Soil, Crop and Climate Sciences.

“The controlled environment cabinets, which are situated next to the glass houses on the eastern side of the Agriculture Building on the Main Campus in Bloemfontein, were installed in the early 1980’s.  The cabinets, used for research purposes in controlled circumstances by the UFS for many years, became dysfunctional and needed to be repaired and put into use again,” said Prof Herman van Schalkwyk, Dean: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the UFS.

“The cabinets are used by the agronomics, horticulture and soil science divisions of the Department of Soil, Crop and Climate Sciences to control factors such as the temperature, the intensity and quality of light, synthesis and humidity.  This is done 24 hours a day, with hourly intervals,” said Prof Van Schalkwyk.

The cabinets are ideally suited to determine the joint and separate effects of these factors on the growth of plants.  The adaptability of plants to climate can also be investigated under controlled circumstances.  All of this leads to a better understanding of the growth and development process of plants, more specifically that of agricultural crops. 

“The effect of these environmental factors on the effectiveness of insect killers such as fungus killers, insecticide and weed killers can also be investigated and can help to explain the damage that is sometimes experienced, or even prevent the damage if the research is timeously,” said Prof Van Schalkwyk.

A new cabinet can cost between R2-3 million, depending on the degree of sophistication.  “Although controlled environment cabinets have been used for agricultural research for a long time, it has become costly to maintain them     and even more impossible to purchase new ones,” said Prof Van Schalkwyk.

According to Prof Van Schalkwyk the cabinets were re-built by die UFS Electronics and Mechanisation Division.  Some of the mechanisms were also replaced and computerised.   

“The re-building and mechanisation of the cabinets were funded by the faculty and because the work was done by our own staff, an amount of about R1 million was saved.  The maintenance costs will now be lower as the cabinets are specifically tailor made for our research needs,” said Prof Van Schalkwyk.

Where all monitoring was done manually in the past, the cabinets can now be controlled with a computer.  This programme was designed by Prof Koos Terblans from the UFS Department of Physics. 

According to Prof Van Schalkwyk the modernisation of the cabinets is part of the faculty’s larger strategy to get its instruments and apparatus up to world standards.  “With this project we have proved that we can find a solution for a problem ourselves and that there are ways to get old apparatus functional again,” said Prof Van Schalkwyk.

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel:   (051) 401-2584
Cell:  083 645 2454
E-mail:  loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
26 July 2006

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