Background

Situated in the Kwazulu-Natal Province of South Africa, the St. Lucia system forms part of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. It enjoys both UNESCO World Heritage and Ramsar Site status and is considered the most economically and ecologically important estuary within South Africa. The recent history of the system with respect to human interventions is well documented (iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority, 2011). There has been active research in the area since the 1950's. This research has established a reasonable and growing conceptual understanding of the functioning of the system. The significant body of data and understanding of the system presents a solid foundation on which to build long-term ecological research programmes.

The system contains a variety of interconnecting land forms, and impacts on these, across the terrestrial and marine interface. While the area has enjoyed scientific attention, the potential impacts of global change on the system are not well understood. The combination of these factors provides a strong case for utilising the area for investigating the systems responses in relation to both human interventions and global change drivers. It provides an opportunity for attempting to disentangle natural variability from human impacts (both positive and negative) and in doing so, identify opportunities for appropriate mitigation. The importance of long-term monitoring in elucidating long-term trends and the identification of cause-effect relationships has been also emphasised as a critical need in the St Lucia system (Lawrie and Stretch, 2011. Published in volume 95 of the Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science journal, pp 67-76).  SAEON is therefore exploring the St Lucia system as a potential sentinel site for developing integrated long term monitoring program that spans across the terrestrial and marine nodes within SAEON.