BIOMIMICRY

Timber monoculture is the creation of an ecosystem with a single species of tree. In Mpophomeni timber monoculture is a result of humans cutting indigenous trees and planting a single species for commercial timber. This practice destroys the ecosystem and culminates in loss of biodiversity. Without some insects, birds and other animals that would normally be present, timber monoculture has few natural predators.

Whilst this allows the trees to grow much faster than they would without human intervention, eventually the soil becomes depleted of nutrients and the reduced land cover makes the soil susceptible to erosions. Furthermore, monoculture lacks resilience provided by diversity and an attack by some beetles or disease can affect the entire plantation.

Biodiversity is the variety of life in all of its forms. It arises from three interacting levels of organization: 1) diversity within species, 2) diversity of species and 3) diversity of ecosystems. The three together determine the biotic health of an area. Biodiversity includes a huge variety of species like bacteria, birds, mammals, fish, trees etc.

They provide many services like pollination, photosynthesis, natural pest control, etc. Preserving biodiversity is important to maintain ecosystem balance. Furthermore, natural habitats like wetlands, forests, and grasslands provide critical services that humans dependent on. For example, they sequester and store carbon, they help regulate water quality, they provide habitats for pollinators, and they support the agricultural products humans eat.

The KZN Scaly Yellow Fish is a tropical freshwater fish (similar to a buffalo fish found in the United States). It is endemic to KwaZulu Natal province in South Africa and thrives in lakes, backwaters and slow-moving rivers. The KZN Scaly Yellow Fish is an endangered species, due to its highly restricted habitat range and the small number of individual fish.

When the rains fall, and temperatures reaches about 20 degrees Celsius the KZN Scaly Yellow Fish moves upstream (like Salmon and Trout) to spawn. The young hatchlings drift downstream over time and when the water level in the river declines, towards the end of the rainy season, they return to the main water body where they can survive the winter.

Traditional hydroelectric power involves building a dam that holds back a river as it lets water flow through turbines for energy. Unfortunately, this process can kill a lot of marine life, flora and fauna in the vicinity of where the water is taken from. Water from Mpophomeni flows eastwards to the Indian Ocean via a series of streams and large river systems including the Umgeni system, on which Mpophomeni lies.

As described in the story of place, “the flow of the water from escarpment to sea in a horizontal plane is only roughly 150kms, with a drop of over 3000m in vertical flow. This water drop ratio of 1:50, together with the abovementioned sedimentary nature of much of the base rock in the coastal plain (including the Midlands), leads to great erosion of the underlying sand- and mudstone (shales)”.When the rains fall, and temperatures reaches about 20 degrees Celsius the KZN Scaly Yellow Fish moves upstream (like Salmon and Trout) to spawn. The young hatchlings drift downstream over time and when the water level in the river declines, towards the end of the rainy season, they return to the main water body where they can survive the winter.