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20 July 2020 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Supplied
The view from one of the offices in the Marion Island research station, with fresh snowfall in the interior of the island in the background.

Liezel Rudolph, lecturer and researcher in the Department of Geography at the University of the Free State (UFS), is strongly convinced that the Southern Hemisphere’s past glacial cycles will provide valuable insights to help predict and prepare for future climate change. Climate is changing fast and the magnitude of change we have seen over the last 30 years has taken a hundred or several hundred years to occur in the past. 

It is not only temperatures that are rising, but changes in wind patterns, rain cycles, oceanic circulation, etc., are also observed. As we do not know how the earth will respond or adapt to such rapid and drastic changes in climatic patterns, this poses various threats.

Link between landscape responses and climate change

Rudolph focuses her research on reconstructing the past climate of Marion Island. 

She had the wonderful opportunity to visit the island for the past three years with study and project leaders, Profs Werner Nel from the University of Fort Hare and David Hedding from UNISA, she departed on a ship to Marion Island to conduct fieldwork.They published their research findings of fieldwork conducted in 2017 and 2018.  

According to Rudolph, research in Antarctica, the Southern Ocean, and islands such as Marion Island is very important. South Africa is the only African country with research stations that have the ability to explore these regions.

“Marion Island has many landforms that could only have been created by glacial erosional or depositional processes, with glaciers currently absent from the island. To determine when the island was last in a full glacial period, we date the formation ages of these landforms.”

“In the short time we have been visiting the island, it was impossible to notice any drastic changes in the island climate. That is why we use these very old landforms to tell us more about periods before humans visited the island,” she says. 

Rudolph believes that understanding the link between landscape responses and climate change of the past can help to better predict some of the climate change processes that are currently threatening the planet.

“There’s a principle in geography called ‘uniformitarianism’, whereby we assume that the earth-surface processes we observe today, are the same as those that have been active in the past,” says Rudolph.

As scientists, they thus look at evidence of past geomorphic processes (which remain in the landscape in various forms, e.g. residual landforms, stratigraphic sequences, etc.) to piece together what the past climate was like. In the same way, they also use this principle to predict how certain earth processes will change in the future, along with climate changes.

“In return, we understand how the climate and the earth’s surface interact, and we can better predict how the earth will respond to climate change,” Rudolph adds. 

Society to play its part in climate change

In the long run, we as the public should play our part in readying society for the effects of climate change. 

Rudolph says society can play a positive role in terms of climate change by educating themselves with unbiased, scientifically sound information on the true state of climate change and by responding within their own spheres of influence.

“Don’t leave everything up to politicians and policy. As the public, you can start to make progress by assessing the effects that climate change may have on your industry, business or society, and strategise on how to adapt your processes to deal with these changes.”

“Be responsible with our natural resources, reduce your waste, support local businesses that are sustainable, and volunteer at a local environmental protection/clean-up organisation. All the small efforts will eventually add up to substantial change,” she says. 

News Archive

UFS/PUK Intervarsity - Results
2009-08-04

 KOVSIES / PUKKE INTERVARSITY 2009: UITSLAE / RESULTS  
           
  SPORT SPANNE                                                     TEAMS   UITSLAE / RESULTS
        PUKKE KOVSIES
1 GHOLF  /  GOLF MANS / MEN   4.5 1.5
           
  KARATE MANS / MEN   * *
    DAMES / LADIES   * *
2 BASKETBAL / BASKETBALL PUK UFS 40 72
3 PLUIMBAL/ BADMINTON PUK 1 KOVSIES 1 5 0
4   PUK 2 KOVSIES 2 5 0
5 VLUGBAL / VOLLEYBALL PUK KOVSIES 1 3
6 MUURBAL / SQUASH PUK UFS 2 4
  LANDLOOP / CROSS COUNTRY UV Mans / UFS Men PUK Mans * *
    UV Vroue / UFS Women PUK Vroue * *
  BASKETBAL / BASKETBALL UV Mans / UFS Men PUK Mans * *
7 SOKKER                               FOOTBALL UFS 1 MEN ALS PUK MEN 1 1
8 SOCCER     * *
9       * *
10 TENNIS UV MANS / UFS MEN PUK MANS * *
12 HOKKIE                               HOCKEY PUK 1 (V) KOVSIES (V) 3 0
13 HOCKEY PUK 2 (V) REDS (V) 4 1
14   PUK 1 (M) KOVSIES 1 (M) 3 1
15   PUK 2 (M) REDS (M) 1 3
16   VMN SOETDORING 1 0
17   WANDA VMN * *
18   REPUBLIEK WNB * *
19   OOSTERHOF HOBHOUSE * *
20   EXCELSIOR VERITAS 0 1
21   PATRIA TKV * *
22 NETBAL                              NETBALL PUK 1 KOVSIES 1 34 43
23 NETBALL PUK O/21 KOVSIES 3 24 31
24   PUK O/19 A KOVSIES 4 39 34
    PUK 2 KOVSIES 2 33 45
    PUK O/19 B HOBHOUSE 35 12
    EIKENHOF SONNEDOU 21 18
    KASTEEL ROOSMARYN 2 20 9
    DINKI MARJOLEIN 21 11
    OOSTERHOF ROOSMARYN 1 21 8
25   WANDA SOETDORING 1 26 3
26   KARLIEN SOETDORING 2 31 7
27   KLAWERHOF VMN 17 14
28   BELLATRIX WNB 19 16
29   MINJONETTE WNB 27 6
30 RUGBY PUK 1 SHIMLAS 20 6
31   IBBIES IRAWAS 21 6
32   PUK O/21 UV O/21 20 9
33   PUK O/19 UV O/19 12 8
34   PATRIA ARMENTUM 22 12
35   VILLAGERS KAREE 9 8
36   DE WILGERS VERITAS 27 7
37   HEIMAT VISHUIS 5 17
38   OVERS JBM 18 21
39   VERITAS  HEIMAT 11 15
  INTERVARSITY OPSOMMING / SUMMARY 2009    
        PUKKE KOVSIES
  WEDSTRYDE / GAMES     37 37
  GEWEN / WON     25 11
  VERLOOR / LOST     11 25
  GELYK / DRAWN     1 1

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