MSc Student, Elelwani Nenzhelele gets her thesis off the ground

Elelwani Nenzhelele has started collecting field data for the thesis component of her MSc. Elelwani is a student with the Percy Fitzpatrick Institute’s Conservation Biology (CB) MSc programme but will be doing her thesis with the Plant Conservation Unit (PCU). She will be working at the PCU’s long-term research site at Paulshoek village in Namaqualand where she will be following up on the research begun by Simon Todd, exactly 20 years ago when he was a CB Masters student on the programme (see Todd & Hoffman 1999, 2009). Simon is currently employed by the South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON) and is an Honorary Research Associate HRA) with the PCU. 

Simon, together with Timm Hoffman (Director of the PCU) will be supervising Elelwani’s thesis which investigates long-term changes in the composition and cover of vegetation across a fence-line which separates communally-grazed areas from privately-owned farms. The study will show the extent to which species of conservation and economic importance are affected by ongoing, heavy grazing pressure and what the implications of degradation are for livestock production systems in this biodiversity hotspot. Elelwani will be ably supported in the field by PCU staff member and para-ecologist, Marianna Lot who maintains several long-term data sets in the village as part of the PCU’s ongoing interest in the sustainability and benefits of land use practices in the communal areas of Namaqualand.

MSc student Elelwani Nenzhelele and PCU staff member and para-ecologist Marianna Lot starting Elelwani’s field work programme in Paulshoek, Namaqualand

Elelwani, Marianna and MSc thesis supervisor Simon Todd collecting data at a long-term monitoring site at Paulshoek, Namaqualand. Simon initiated the study on which Elelwani’s thesis is based in 1996 when he was a Masters student with the Fitzpatrick Institute’s MSc Conservation Biology programme.