New open-access book authored by Garden researcher
Senior Research Scientist Dr. Joe McAuliffe is the principal author of a new, web-based, open access book on arid and semi-arid environments of western South Africa, including the Succulent Karoo. The book focuses on the unusual, regularly spaced earthen mounds called heuweltjies (Afrikaans for “little hills” and pronounced hué-vil-kees) found throughout this region. The mounds cover up to a quarter of the land surface throughout an area of about 26,000 square miles, and give the entire region a most usual appearance, even in views from space. Heuweltjies typically are 3 to 6 feet in height and up to 100 feet in diameter (a third the length of a football field). They are inhabited by colonies of a particular species of termite called the southern harvester termite (Microhodotermes viator). The processes responsible for the formation of heuweltjies have been debated by scientists for over 75 years. Since 2012, Dr. McAuliffe has conducted research on many aspects of the unusual mounds, including their formation. The guidebook contains technical information of value to researchers, yet is written in a style intended to be comprehensible to non-specialists, and of use to anyone interested in natural history, geology, ecology, and conservation.
Creation of the guidebook was an outgrowth of an international collaboration of a group of researchers who initiated a three year-long project in 2023 in South Africa to investigate soil processes in heuweltjies involved in the sequestration of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The collaborators include nine senior researchers and graduate students from four universities in South Africa and two universities in the United States (Kent State University and University of Texas, Austin), and the Desert Botanical Garden. The project was funded through a partnership of the U.S.A. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the South African National Research Foundation (NRF) to promote opportunities for international collaboration. That international program, Biodiversity on a Changing Planet (BoCP), initiated by the NSF, was developed in order to support international collaboration in interdisciplinary research that addresses major challenges at a time of unprecedented environmental changes worldwide, including climate change.
A complete PDF copy of the entire book (431 pages, 151 MB) can be downloaded here, or at the following address: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.30048331
Book cover with an aerial drone photograph that shows a dazzling display of color on heuweltjies during the spring bloom northeast of Vanrhynsdorp, Western Cape.
Aerial drone view of the heuweltjie-covered landscape, 260 miles north of Cape Town.