Page 14 - Dainfern issue 10 2021

NATURE

its potential effects on such a finely of Lovegrove’s book embraces
tuned ecosystem. He is worried his thoughts on ‘global heating’
because, during the years he has (he prefers this phrase to ‘global
worked in the deserts, retrograde warming’) which, he avers is a threat
changes have already manifested. to this nation that few South Africans
take seriously. Its quite rapid onset
He writes for fellow scientists as well has been scary and Lovegrove is
as for students and for the growing concerned by the changes he has
mass of people interested in natural witnessed during his working life as
history. He writes of the amazing a biologist.
adaptations shown by creatures
in order to survive in desiccated The author devotes a chapter to
environments. a topic that was underplayed in
his previous book on the desert
One of the most astonishing biomes. The new chapter provides
adaptations he mentions concerns a fascinating view of the Karoo’s
the Namaqua sandgrouse. Although beginnings and its extraordinary
its chicks are able to run around and yield of magnificent fossils of its
feed on seeds from the day they prehistoric population of vertebrates
hatch, they cannot drink. They can’t from the Middle Permian around
drink because they can’t fly and the 270 million years ago and including
nearest water might be 50 to 60km the bizarre early Jurassic around
away. The male sandgrouse then 190 million years ago.
has to carry water to them. It sits in
the water fluffing out its feathers to The 300-page book provides a
absorb as much as possible – these highly readable account of this
feathers can hold more water per unit unbroken 80 million year fossil
weight than a kitchen sponge. Daily record of the ancestors of today’s
it flies back to its young, which take mammals and birds, which are
the wet feathers in their beaks and being unearthed in the Karoo. His
strip the water. Very little water is lost account also includes the greatest
during the return flights to the nest extinction event in the planet’s
because the bird holds the soaked history.
feathers against its body effectively
reducing the airflow over them. The Karoo Basin formed 320 million
years ago when there was only one
Southern Africa has nine biomes, giant continent on Planet Earth –
ranging from four desert biomes Pangea. The South Pole was then in
in the west to the greener wetter the middle of the slab that eventually
biomes east of here. Yet, whether became Southern Africa.
rainforest or arid land, each biome
is rich in its variety of creatures Living Deserts contains spectacular
and plants. Deserts take up 50% of photographs and many handy maps
Southern Africa’s land mass and the and drawn illustrations.
four desert biomes have as many
species as the moist biomes.
Mary and I described a visit to
one of them in 2019 – the Tankwa
Karoo, which despite its baking,
gravelly plains, is part of our
largest desert biome, the plant-rich
‘Succulent Karoo’ which includes
Namaqualand and the Richtersveld.
As a desert region of this size, it
has the largest number of succulent
plants in the world. This150km
wide belt running parallel with the
Atlantic coast starts not very far
north of Cape Town and extends
into Namibia. Its rainfall is between
20 and 290mm a year, yet it has
6 356 known species, many of them
dependent on the nightly fogs.
Biologists across the world are
fascinated by the Succulent Karoo
which is considered to be one of the
planet’s most interesting and diverse
arid ‘hot spots’.
One of the most interesting parts
12
DPL