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UFS multidisciplinary research published in Special Issue of Koedoe journal

13 November 2020 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Dr Beanelri Janecke

Interdisciplinary research_ web — Five of the multidisciplinary team of researchers and some postgraduate students are determining the depth of soil on the underlying rock layer of the sodic site in the Kruger National Park.

When the Vice-Rector: Research, Prof Corli Witthuhn, invited researchers to apply for funding towards multidisciplinary and interdepartmental projects in 2015, Prof Piet le Roux from the Institute for Groundwater Studies, and the late Dr Fred Kruger from the Centre for Environmental Management took the opportunity and proposed a project to study a catenal ecosystem in the Kruger National Park.

According to Dr Beanélri Janecke from the Department of Animal, Wildlife and Grassland Sciences, who led the research team on this project, the team of researchers worked for four years, finding links between the catenal ecosystem (which can be described as a hillslope with different zones forming an environmental gradient from crest to foothill) and processes behind some of its abiotic (non-living) and biotic (living) components.

Large-scale multidisciplinary research project

All their research on this multidisciplinary project was published in one Special Issue of the Koedoe journal at the end of October 2020. Dr Janecke and Prof Johan van Tol from the Department of Soil, Crop and Climate Sciences were guest editors of this special issue. Dr Llewellyn Foxcroft from SANParks is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal. Other UFS departments involved in this project include the Departments of Genetics; Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology; Plant Sciences; and Zoology and Entomology.

Dr Janecke says there are 12 articles in this issue and, together with the principal researchers (but excluding postgraduate students), there were 12 authors from the UFS (eight departments and divisions in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences) and two from SANParks in associated research collaboration with authors from 14 other institutions.

This special issue of the Koedoe journal covered research on hydrology, flowpaths, and ground water, including the soil types and properties of different zones on the catena. As stated by Dr Janecke, there are also articles on micro-organisms, fungi, and Fusarium in the soil of the root zone of plants (rhizobiome).

The environment is degrading fast due to human activities, and there is a dire need for research to look at the bigger picture to find solutions on how to conserve ecosystems and not only smaller parts thereof. – Dr Beanélri Janecke

The journal also comprised articles on the vegetation communities and vegetation structure in the different zones. “Research on how the vegetation recovered post-drought of 2016-2017 and on large and small mammals present on the catena and at the closest waterholes was also published. All of these topics were linked in a discussion article on the catenal ecosystem,” says Dr Janecke.

Multidisciplinary research is not conducted very often on this scale. Many researchers will rather focus on one or a few specific aspects of the ecosystem in a specialist research field.

SANParks introduced supersite concept

Dr Janecke says scientists from SANParks initiated this supersite concept, where research can be focused on specific areas with similar geology and landscapes in the Kruger National Park to generate multidisciplinary data from separate specialist research fields.

“Our project went one step further and combined different research fields into one project done on a supersite over the same period. This multidisciplinary project created the opportunity for specialist research fields to be published separately in one special issue, but also to combine the expertise in one project that was summarised in a discussion article.”

She believes that the environment is degrading fast due to human activities, and that there is a dire need for research to look at the bigger picture to find solutions on how to conserve ecosystems and not only smaller parts thereof. “There is a need for a more holistic approach to research, and this special issue provides a framework and basis for similar multidisciplinary studies in future,” states Dr Janecke.

This issue is currently widely marketed on all social platforms of the Koedoe journal and AOSIS Publishers, while a podcast interview is also available at: https://soundcloud.com/aosis-za/koedoe-interview-podcast-2020 (with permission from Louw Lombaard from AOSIS).

News Archive

UFS boasts with world class research apparatus

2005-10-20

At the launch of the diffractometer were from the left Prof Steve Basson (Chairperson: Department of Chemistry at the UFS), Prof Jannie Swarts (Unit for Physical and Macro-molecular Chemistry at the UFS Department of Chemistry), Mr Pari Antalis (from the provider of the apparatus - Bruker SA), Prof Herman van Schalkwyk (Dean: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the UFS), Prof André Roodt (head of the X-ray diffraction unit at the UFS Department of Chemistry) and Prof Teuns Verschoor (Vice-Rector: Academic Operations at the UFS).

UFS boasts with world class research apparatus
The most advanced single crystal X-ray diffractometer in Africa has been installed in the Department of Chemistry at the University of the Free State (UFS).

“The diffractometer provides an indispensable technique to investigate compounds for medicinal application for example in breast, prostate and related bone cancer identification and therapy, currently synthesized in the Department of Chemistry. It also includes the area of homogeneous catalysis where new compounds for industrial application are synthesised and characterised and whereby SASOL and even the international petrochemical industry could benefit, especially in the current climate of increased oil prices,” said Prof Andrè Roodt, head of the X-ray diffraction unit at the UFS Department of Chemistry.

The installation of the Bruker Kappa APEX II single crystal diffractometer is part of an innovative programme of the UFS management to continue its competitive research and extend it further internationally.

“The diffractometer is the first milestone of the research funding programme for the Department of Chemistry and we are proud to be the first university in Africa to boast with such advanced apparatus. We are not standing back for any other university in the world and have already received requests for research agreements from universities such as the University of Cape Town,” said Prof Herman van Schalkwyk, Dean: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the UFS.

The diffractometer is capable of accurately analysing molecules in crystalline form within a few hours and obtain the precise geometry – that on a sample only the size of a grain of sugar. It simultaneously gives the exact distance between two atoms, accurate to less than fractions of a billionth of a millimetre.

“It allows us to investigate certain processes in Bloemfontein which has been impossible in the past. We now have a technique locally by which different steps in key chemical reactions can be evaluated much more reliable, even at temperatures as low as minus 170 degrees centigrade,” said Prof Roodt.

A few years ago these analyses would have taken days or even weeks. The Department of Chemistry now has the capability to investigate chemical compounds in Bloemfontein which previously had to be shipped to other, less sophisticate sites in the RSA or overseas (for example Sweden, Russia and Canada) at significant extra costs.

Media release
Issued by:Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
19 October 2005

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