PhD candidate from the University of Johannesburg investigates the relationship of plant-pollinator interactions and climate change across South Africa
PhD candidate Ross Stewart from University of Johannesburg (UJ) has been named as one of two winners of the 15th edition of the GBIF Graduate Researchers Award.
Selected by an expert jury led by Enrique Martínez Meyer of the GBIF Science Committee, Stewart’s research combines DNA barcoding data on flying insects with phenological data on flowering plants to explore how climate change may be changing the timing of interactions between these species across South Africa, resulting in the first national-scale assessment of spatial and temporal trends in plant-pollinator interactions.
Phenology—the study of the timing of life history events—reveals the spatial and temporal links between species, for example, flowering plants and insect pollinators. Disruptions like those emerging through climate change, could have potentially far-reaching effects on these deep evolutionary trends linking the flora and fauna of native ecosystems.
Stewart’s research provides a macro-view of South African insect and plant phenological interactions. His study combines data from the National Botanical Garden Malaise Program which identifies flying insects across 11 South African National Botanical Gardens through using DNA barcoding, with a machine-learning model developed using from images of flowering plants published through the GBIF network. His incorporation climatic factors of precipitation and temperature with the datasets begins to uncover the drivers behind South Africa’s plant and insect phenology and helps estimate the effects of climate change on South Africa megadiverse biota.
“South Africa is megadiverse, home to more than 21,000 flowering plant species and 44,000 insect species, and many of these have already been affected either directly or indirectly by climate change,” said Stewart. “By assessing phenological trends across South Africa, I hope my research will help improve our understanding of how major environmental predictors affect biodiversity richness and abundance.”
Nominated through the efforts of the SANBI-GBIF Graduate Researchers Award Advisory Panel, and subsequently the GBIF South Africa delegation with support from UJ, the University of British Columbia (UBC), and Western Sydney University, Stewart’s application for the programme reflects an outstanding academic record and background in plant systematic and bioinformatics.
“The importance of this research can’t be underestimated,” said Dr Jonathan Davies a biodiversity scientist in the Departments of Botany, Forest and Conservation Sciences at UBC. “As climate change poses increasing pressures on biodiversity by altering species distributions and timing of life history events, we risk disrupting the complex network of ecological interactions that underpin many of the ecosystem services that biodiversity provides, such as pollination of our crops and the regulation of plant pests. Ross’ work will help to fill critical knowledge gaps on biodiversity responses to these drivers of global change.”
“Ross Stewart’s selection marks an important milestone for the African continent, as this is the second year in a row that a young researcher from the African region has received this prestigious award, which demonstrates increased use and uptake of GBIF-mediated data across the African community to achieve key research outcomes,” said Fatima Parker-Allie, deputy director and biodiversity informatics scientist at the South African National Biodiversity Institute and node manager for GBIF-SANBI. “Providing catalytic research awards like this enables young researchers to meet their goals and enhances our efforts to grow biodiversity informatics as a science. Advanced skills and informatics approaches those Stewart has used—machine learning, text mining, and natural language processing techniques—serve to enhance the understanding of ecological interactions and will support more systemic efforts in biodiversity informatics research.”
Stewart is the second South African to receive the GBIF Graduate Researchers Award, which Parker-Allie herself received in 2015. He shares the 2024 award with Master’s student Paola Monguilod Brun from Spain’s University of Zaragoza. Both award winners will receive a €5,000 prize in recognition of their research achievements.
About the University of Johannesburg Vibrant, multicultural and dynamic, UJ shares the pace and energy of cosmopolitan Johannesburg, the city whose name it carries. Proudly South African, the university is alive down to its African roots, and well-prepared for its role in actualising the potential that higher education holds for the continent’s development. Learn more
About the National Botanical Garden Malaise Program The National Botanical Garden Malaise Program is a joint project of UJ’s African Centre for DNA Barcoding (ACDB),the Centre for Biodiversity Genomics at the University of Guelph in Canada, and SANBI. The project aimed to use DNA barcoding to identify and develop an inventory of Malaise-trappable arthropod species in all eleven South African National Botanic Gardens by sampling every two weeks for a year. This programme collected more than 370,000 specimens and nearly 30,000 species BINS (barcode identifier numbers) from all the gardens. Learn more.
About SANBI-GBIF SANBI-GBIF was established in 2003 by the South African Department of Science and Technology in collaboration with the National Research Foundation, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and members of the scientific community. SANBI-GBIF is a network consisting of key national partners and stakeholders who provide and publish data through the SANBI-GBIF portal or directly to GBIF, enabling the node’s support of national biodiversity reporting.Learn more.
About the Award The GBIF Graduate Researchers Award (formerly Young Researchers Award) is an annual scholarship programme that promotes and encourages innovation in biodiversity-related research using data shared through the GBIF network. Since bestowing its first awards in 2010, the programme has recognized outstanding achievements in original biodiversity research by more than two dozen Master’s and PhD students around the world.
Jury for 2024 Young Researchers Award
• Enrique Martínez Meyer
Jury chair, GBIF Science Committee
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico
• Marlon Cobos
University of Kansas, United States
• Yoan Fourcade
Institute of Ecology and Environmental Sciences of Paris (iEEES), France
• Katie Irvine