Species-area relationships in the Hantam-Tanqua-Roggeveld, Succulent Karoo, South Africa

Abstract

The Hantam-Tanqua-Roggeveld subregion is part of the Succulent Karoo hotspot of biodiversity which stretches along the southwestern side of South Africa and Namibia. Forty Whittaker plots were surveyed in the spring of 2005, in eight vegetation associations, to gather diversity data for the Hantam, Tanqua Karoo and Roggeveld areas. Seven plot sizes were used to construct species–area curves using three different models namely: the untransformed linear function, the power function and the exponential function. In general, the power and exponential functions produced a more significant fit to the data than the untransformed linear function. Linear regressions using environmental parameters indicated that altitude, mean annual precipitation and mean annual temperature were significant predictors of species richness at the 1, 10, 100 and 1000 m2 scales. To illustrate the variation in species–area curves and species richness across the landscape, a transect through the study area is discussed. The transect stretches eastwards from the Tanqua Karoo across the escarpment into the Roggeveld and crosses five different vegetation associations. Differences between associations were found in species richness in the 1000 m2 plots. Each association also produced species–area curves with their own characteristics. Slope values for the samples within an association did not differ significantly, although the intercept value often did. Comparisons between associations along the transect revealed significant differences in the slope value between the associations, except for the Dicerothamnus rhinocerotis Mountain Renosterveld which did not differ significantly from the associations bordering it on either side.