Karoo a haven for undiscovered creepy-crawlies
TWO new scorpion species, a never-seen-before reptile, several new species of trapdoor spider and ground wandering spiders, a new plant in the aloe family, and new fish species.
And there’s a strong inkling that the three roundworm species that have been unearthed are new to science, too. The same goes for the collection of potentially new grasshopper species and at least one new species of filamentous fungi.
These are among the remarkable discoveries made by a multidisciplinary team of researchers from a consortium of over 20 institutions.
They have spent the past two years trawling the remote arid reaches of the Karoo, to document its little-known natural treasures.
“I think it’s amazing that we’re still finding so many new species in the Karoo,” remarks Carol Poole, the project manager for the Karoo Biogaps project, which is led by the SA National Biodiversity Institute.
“We realised how the Karoo has been under-sampled,” he said.
The three-year project started in 2016 to fill biodiversity information gaps to support decision-making about development earmarked for the Karoo, which includes fracking and uranium mining.
“We just want to make sure we provide the foundational information that decision-makers will need about where or when development might be best suited for the Karoo,” explains Poole.
Now in its final year, the project’s extensive field surveys have revealed at least 15 new species, while the project’s researchers have discovered range extensions for some species that were thought to have narrow distribution, provided more accurate estimates of population sizes for some species previously considered to be rare, and gleaned information for taxonomic updates.
Poole explains that, when the project started, the Karoo was one of the most poorly explored regions of the country, perhaps because of its harsh conditions and the perception that it was a species-poor ecosystem.
Fourteen taxonomic groups are being studied. It spans plants, mammals, fish, birds, amphibians, reptiles and six invertebrate groups: bees, dragonflies, grasshoppers, scorpions, butterflies and spiders; and fungi and nematodes.
Poole explains that when the strategic environmental assessment was undertaken for proposed shale gas development in the Karoo, “we realised there was a scarcity of species data and couldn’t answer questions about endangered species distribution and how shale gas exploration would affect them.
“We pulled together a huge consortium, from grasshopper to spider experts, to pull off a project like this.
“It’s really awesome,” remarks Robin Lyle, a senior research technician at the Agricultural Research Council, of the spider discoveries.
“Overall, the spider diversity in the Karoo is interesting and I think this is just the start of a lot of future work to be done in the area.”
The diversity of the genus stasimopus, commonly known as the African cork-lid trapdoor spider, is little studied in South Africa.
The current project uses molecular techniques and physical examination to determine the true diversity of species in the Karoo.
“Initial results show that there are nine to 12 species and some of these are new.
“Another initial finding is that there is a divide in diversity between the eastern and western part of the Karoo area sampled. With the possible new species being short-range endemics, this means they are found in small localised areas.”
The researchers have studied 30 sites across the Karoo, which Poole says were chosen randomly “to provide us with a good picture about species richness and distribution in the Karoo”.
There was a long process to secure consent from landowners.
“They got into it too. At night the farmers would go out with our scorpion experts, looking for scorpions.”
Together with the findings from these fieldwork surveys, work digitising historical collections in museums and herbaria – with the help of citizen scientists – is also under way.
Species information from both the current fieldwork and historical collections help researchers learn which species are widespread, and which are rare and in need of protection.
“This allows us to determine which habitats in the Karoo are sensitive to proposed future changes in land use and development.”
More findings will be revealed at the end of the year, while scientific papers about the discoveries will be produced as part of the project.
The public can become involved by transcribing data from museum and herbaria collections using the online platform http://transcribe. sanbi.org/.
“There are thousands of museum and herbaria specimens collected before the time of computers around the world,” she says.
Information on these specimen records is critical to understanding previous distribution patterns of species, but the information is inaccessible if it remains in hard copy only.
“By transcribing, you are helping to make species information and data collected as early as the 1830s available to scientists and the public,” Poole adds.
“We had 8 000 scorpion specimens sitting in the American Museum of Natural History.
“We even sent one of our digitisers to New York to electronically capture this as it wasn’t in an electronic format.
“South Africa is the third most biodiverse country in the world and for years people have come here to collect our specimens,” she adds.