Lize Joubert-van der Merwe

PeerJ Reviewer

Summary

I am a postdoctoral researcher at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. My primary interest is the reconciliation of commercial development and biodiversity conservation. As part of the Mondi Ecological Network Programme (MENP) based at the Department of Conservation Ecology and Entomology, we currently focus our efforts on the South African forestry sector.

Biodiversity Conservation Biology Ecology Ecosystem Science Environmental Impacts Natural Resource Management

Past or current institution affiliations

University of Stellenbosch

Work details

Postdoctoral researcher

University of Stellenbosch

January 2014

Dept of Conservation Ecology and Entomology

I am developing an easy-to-use biodiversity assessment tool, specifically for grasslands in South Africa. It has been an interesting journey so far, with a shift from a purely biodiversity focus (with quantitative methods to assess such diversity) to a more integrative approach that incorporate qualitative methods of measuring threats to such diversity. Our argument is that it is not necessarily the level of diversity that translates into ecosystem function, but rather the CHANGE in level of diversity when viewed within the context of historical changes over space and time. I will fine-tune and test this tool in 2018, after which my postdoctoral fellowship will come to an end. I hope to take this tool into other commercial sectors (e.g. agriculture) in the future, but with the specific aim of extracting some economic benefit for land owners from the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services.

PeerJ Contributions

Reviewed 1

Signed reviews submitted for articles published in PeerJ Note that some articles may not have the review itself made public unless authors have made them open as well.

February 25, 2019

Effects of narrow linear clearings on movement and habitat use in a boreal forest mammal community during winter

Colin A. Pattison, Carla P. Catterall

https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.6504 PubMed 30828496