Water resources

Published research highlights

	Sustainable livelihoods and biodiversity in developing countries The LiveDiverse project is now in its second year, and moving into an intensive period of field work in South Africa, Vietnam, Costa Rica and India. The livelihoods of rural people in and around protected areas is at the heart of the project. At the same time, improvement of living conditions for the rural poor must not be at the expense of the rich biodiversity of the areas in which they live. Our task is to find ways to improve livelihoods while at the same time protecting biodiversity.

	Integration goes underground: A review of groundwater research in support of sustainable development in South Africa The ground water group of the CSIR has conducted research into nitrates in groundwater, groundwater for ecosystems, and artificial storage as well as recovery of groundwater.

	"Identification of toxigenic microcystis strains after incidents of wild animal mortalities in the Kruger National Park, South Africa" The eutrophic process potentially caused by a high urine and faecal load resulting from an unusually high hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibious) density in the Nhlanganzwane Dam, Kruger National Park, South Africa, triggered a chain of events characterised by an increase in the growth of primary producers (Microcystis aeruginosa). This increase in M. aeruginosa biomass was followed by bio-intoxication incidents in wild animals..

	"Responses of phytoplankton upon exposure to a mixture of acid mine drainage and high levels of nutrient pollution in Lake Loskop, South Africa" The relationships between water quality and the phytoplankton community within Lake Loskop were studied during the late summer and autumn of 2008 to evaluate the impacts of acid mine drainage and high nutrient concentrations. The higher concentrations of metal ions and sulphate had adverse effects on certain phytoplankton species in the inflowing riverine zone of Lake Loskop, in comparison to the reference site in the lacustrine zone of the lake, which was dominated by the larger and slower growing late summer species. CSIR water researchers Dr Paul Oberholster and Dr Pete Ashton argue in this paper that the aquatic system of Lake Loskop entered an alternate, hyper trophic regime.