Richard M Cowling
Biographic Data
| ID | 85868 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Richard M Cowling |
| GIVEN NAMES | Richard M |
| FAMILY NAME | Cowling |
| SIGNATURE | COWLING R M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Nelson Mandela University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 139 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 24 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1997 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Spatial and temporal variation in the diversity, abundance, and energetic returns of underground storage organs on the coastal lowlands of the Cape Floristic Region, South Africa
A new MIS 5 to MIS 2 speleothem record from Sandkraal Cave on the South African Cape south coast
We present new stable oxygen and carbon isotope composite records (δ 18 O, δ 13 C) of speleothems from Sandkraal Cave 1 (SK1) on the South African south coast for the time interval between 104 and 18 ka (with a hiatus between 48 and 41 ka). Statistical comparisons using kernel-based correlation analyses and semblance analyses based on continuous wavelet transforms inform the relationships of the new speleothem records to other proxies and their c…
Late Pleistocene records of speleothem stable isotopic compositions from Pinnacle Point on the South African south coast
Highly resolved, well-dated paleoclimate records from the southern South African coast are needed to contextualize the evolution of the highly diverse extratropical plant communities of the Greater Cape Floristic Region (GCFR) and to assess the environmental impacts on early human hunter-gatherers. We present new speleothem stable oxygen and carbon isotope ratios (δ 18 O c and δ 13 C) from two caves at Pinnacle Point, South Africa, covering the t…
Modern soil phytolith assemblages used as proxies for Paleoscape reconstruction on the south coast of South Africa
Return rates from intertidal foraging from Blombos Cave to Pinnacle Point
Foraging potential of underground storage organ plants in the southern Cape, South Africa
A new research strategy for integrating studies of paleoclimate, paleoenvironment, and paleoanthropology
Paleoanthropologists (scientists studying human origins) universally recognize the evolutionary significance of ancient climates and environments for understanding human origins. Even those scientists working in recent phases of human evolution, when modern humans evolved, agree that hunter-gatherer adaptations are tied to the way that climate and environment shape the food and technological resource base. The result is a long tradition of paleoa…
Opportunities and challenges for mainstreaming ecosystem-based adaptation in local government
Foraging potential of underground storage organ plants in the southern Cape, South Africa
Underground storage organs (USOs) serve as a staple source of carbohydrates for many hunter-gatherer societies and they feature prominently in discussions of diets of early modern humans. While the way of life of hunter-gatherers in South Africa’s Cape is no longer in existence, there is extensive ethnographic, historical and archaeological evidence of hunter-gatherers’ use of such plants as foodstuffs. This is to be expected, given that the Cape…
Seasonal availability of edible underground and aboveground carbohydrate resources to human foragers on the Cape south coast, South Africa
The coastal environments of South Africa's Cape Floristic Region (CFR) provide some of the earliest and most abundant evidence for the emergence of cognitively modern humans. In particular, the south coast of the CFR provided a uniquely diverse resource base for hunter-gatherers, which included marine shellfish, game, and carbohydrate-bearing plants, especially those with Underground Storage Organs (USOs). It has been hypothesized that these reso…
Stone Age people in a changing South African Greater Cape Floristic Region
The human origins story (palaeoanthropology) is often set in the African Palaeotropics, yet the Greater Cape Floristic Region (GCFR) plays an internationally prominent role that surpasses its small size. Some of the earliest evidence for the complex behaviours associated with fully modern humans is found here, with prehistoric stone age hunter-gatherers adapting to a unique and changing environment from about 1 million years ago to near-present. …
Facing the heat
Designing Conservation Corridors in Production Landscapes
Lombard, A. T., R. M. Cowling, J. H. J. Vlok, and C. Fabricius. 2010. Designing conservation corridors in production landscapes: assessment methods, implementation issues, and lessons learned. Ecology and Society 15(3): 7. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-03325-150307
The Role of Participatory Modeling in Landscape Approaches to Reconcile Conservation and Development
Sandker, M., B. M. Campbell, M. Ruiz-Pérez, J. A. Sayer, R. Cowling, H. Kassa, and A. T. Knight. 2010. The role of participatory modeling in landscape approaches to reconcile conservation and development. Ecology and Society 15(2): 13. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-03400-150213
Ecosystem Services, Land-Cover Change, and Stakeholders
Reyers, B., P. J. O’Farrell, R. M. Cowling, B. N. Egoh, D. C. Le Maitre and J. H. J. Vlok 2009. Ecosystem services, land-cover change, and stakeholders: finding a sustainable foothold for a semiarid biodiversity hotspot. Ecology and Society 14(1): 38. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-02867-140138
Knowing But Not Doing
Conservation assessment is a rapidly evolving discipline whose stated goal is the design of networks of protected areas that represent and ensure the persistence of nature (i.e., species, habitats, and environmental processes) by separating priority areas from the activities that degrade or destroy them. Nevertheless, despite a burgeoning scientific literature that ever refines these techniques for allocating conservation resources, it is widely …
An operational model for mainstreaming ecosystem services for implementation
Research on ecosystem services has grown markedly in recent years. However, few studies are embedded in a social process designed to ensure effective management of ecosystem services. Most research has focused only on biophysical and valuation assessments of putative services. As a mission-oriented discipline, ecosystem service research should be user-inspired and user-useful, which will require that researchers respond to stakeholder needs from …
Integrating ecosystem services into conservation assessments
Effectiveness of the global protected area network in representing species diversity
Using the Species-Area Relationship to Set Baseline Targets for Conservation
This paper demonstrates how the power form of the Species-Area Relationship (SAR) can be used to set conservation targets for land classes using biodiversity survey data. The log-transformation of the power model is a straight line; therefore, if one knows the average number of species recorded per survey site and can estimate the true species number present in the land class, using EstimateS software, it is possible to calculate the slope of the…
An ecological economic simulation model of a non-selective grazing system in the Nama Karoo, South Africa
Special section
A dynamic ecological-economic model as a tool for conflict resolution in an invasive-alien-plant, biological control and native-plant scenario
An ecological economic simulation model of mountain fynbos ecosystems
Foraging potential of underground storage organ plants in the southern Cape, South Africa
Modern soil phytolith assemblages used as proxies for Paleoscape reconstruction on the south coast of South Africa
Return rates from intertidal foraging from Blombos Cave to Pinnacle Point
Seasonal availability of edible underground and aboveground carbohydrate resources to human foragers on the Cape south coast, South Africa
The coastal environments of South Africa's Cape Floristic Region (CFR) provide some of the earliest and most abundant evidence for the emergence of cognitively modern humans. In particular, the south coast of the CFR provided a uniquely diverse resource base for hunter-gatherers, which included marine shellfish, game, and carbohydrate-bearing plants, especially those with Underground Storage Organs (USOs). It has been hypothesized that these reso…
Facing the heat
Ecosystem Services, Land-Cover Change, and Stakeholders
Reyers, B., P. J. O’Farrell, R. M. Cowling, B. N. Egoh, D. C. Le Maitre and J. H. J. Vlok 2009. Ecosystem services, land-cover change, and stakeholders: finding a sustainable foothold for a semiarid biodiversity hotspot. Ecology and Society 14(1): 38. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-02867-140138
Using the Species-Area Relationship to Set Baseline Targets for Conservation
This paper demonstrates how the power form of the Species-Area Relationship (SAR) can be used to set conservation targets for land classes using biodiversity survey data. The log-transformation of the power model is a straight line; therefore, if one knows the average number of species recorded per survey site and can estimate the true species number present in the land class, using EstimateS software, it is possible to calculate the slope of the…
Designing Conservation Corridors in Production Landscapes
Lombard, A. T., R. M. Cowling, J. H. J. Vlok, and C. Fabricius. 2010. Designing conservation corridors in production landscapes: assessment methods, implementation issues, and lessons learned. Ecology and Society 15(3): 7. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-03325-150307
The Role of Participatory Modeling in Landscape Approaches to Reconcile Conservation and Development
Sandker, M., B. M. Campbell, M. Ruiz-Pérez, J. A. Sayer, R. Cowling, H. Kassa, and A. T. Knight. 2010. The role of participatory modeling in landscape approaches to reconcile conservation and development. Ecology and Society 15(2): 13. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-03400-150213
Special section
A dynamic ecological-economic model as a tool for conflict resolution in an invasive-alien-plant, biological control and native-plant scenario
An ecological economic simulation model of mountain fynbos ecosystems
An ecological economic simulation model of a non-selective grazing system in the Nama Karoo, South Africa
Effectiveness of the global protected area network in representing species diversity
Using the Species-Area Relationship to Set Baseline Targets for Conservation
This paper demonstrates how the power form of the Species-Area Relationship (SAR) can be used to set conservation targets for land classes using biodiversity survey data. The log-transformation of the power model is a straight line; therefore, if one knows the average number of species recorded per survey site and can estimate the true species number present in the land class, using EstimateS software, it is possible to calculate the slope of the…
Integrating ecosystem services into conservation assessments
Knowing But Not Doing
Conservation assessment is a rapidly evolving discipline whose stated goal is the design of networks of protected areas that represent and ensure the persistence of nature (i.e., species, habitats, and environmental processes) by separating priority areas from the activities that degrade or destroy them. Nevertheless, despite a burgeoning scientific literature that ever refines these techniques for allocating conservation resources, it is widely …
An operational model for mainstreaming ecosystem services for implementation
Research on ecosystem services has grown markedly in recent years. However, few studies are embedded in a social process designed to ensure effective management of ecosystem services. Most research has focused only on biophysical and valuation assessments of putative services. As a mission-oriented discipline, ecosystem service research should be user-inspired and user-useful, which will require that researchers respond to stakeholder needs from …
Ecosystem Services, Land-Cover Change, and Stakeholders
Reyers, B., P. J. O’Farrell, R. M. Cowling, B. N. Egoh, D. C. Le Maitre and J. H. J. Vlok 2009. Ecosystem services, land-cover change, and stakeholders: finding a sustainable foothold for a semiarid biodiversity hotspot. Ecology and Society 14(1): 38. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-02867-140138
Designing Conservation Corridors in Production Landscapes
Lombard, A. T., R. M. Cowling, J. H. J. Vlok, and C. Fabricius. 2010. Designing conservation corridors in production landscapes: assessment methods, implementation issues, and lessons learned. Ecology and Society 15(3): 7. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-03325-150307
The Role of Participatory Modeling in Landscape Approaches to Reconcile Conservation and Development
Sandker, M., B. M. Campbell, M. Ruiz-Pérez, J. A. Sayer, R. Cowling, H. Kassa, and A. T. Knight. 2010. The role of participatory modeling in landscape approaches to reconcile conservation and development. Ecology and Society 15(2): 13. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-03400-150213
Facing the heat
Stone Age people in a changing South African Greater Cape Floristic Region
The human origins story (palaeoanthropology) is often set in the African Palaeotropics, yet the Greater Cape Floristic Region (GCFR) plays an internationally prominent role that surpasses its small size. Some of the earliest evidence for the complex behaviours associated with fully modern humans is found here, with prehistoric stone age hunter-gatherers adapting to a unique and changing environment from about 1 million years ago to near-present. …
A new research strategy for integrating studies of paleoclimate, paleoenvironment, and paleoanthropology
Paleoanthropologists (scientists studying human origins) universally recognize the evolutionary significance of ancient climates and environments for understanding human origins. Even those scientists working in recent phases of human evolution, when modern humans evolved, agree that hunter-gatherer adaptations are tied to the way that climate and environment shape the food and technological resource base. The result is a long tradition of paleoa…
Opportunities and challenges for mainstreaming ecosystem-based adaptation in local government
Foraging potential of underground storage organ plants in the southern Cape, South Africa
Underground storage organs (USOs) serve as a staple source of carbohydrates for many hunter-gatherer societies and they feature prominently in discussions of diets of early modern humans. While the way of life of hunter-gatherers in South Africa’s Cape is no longer in existence, there is extensive ethnographic, historical and archaeological evidence of hunter-gatherers’ use of such plants as foodstuffs. This is to be expected, given that the Cape…
Seasonal availability of edible underground and aboveground carbohydrate resources to human foragers on the Cape south coast, South Africa
The coastal environments of South Africa's Cape Floristic Region (CFR) provide some of the earliest and most abundant evidence for the emergence of cognitively modern humans. In particular, the south coast of the CFR provided a uniquely diverse resource base for hunter-gatherers, which included marine shellfish, game, and carbohydrate-bearing plants, especially those with Underground Storage Organs (USOs). It has been hypothesized that these reso…
Modern soil phytolith assemblages used as proxies for Paleoscape reconstruction on the south coast of South Africa
Return rates from intertidal foraging from Blombos Cave to Pinnacle Point
Foraging potential of underground storage organ plants in the southern Cape, South Africa
Late Pleistocene records of speleothem stable isotopic compositions from Pinnacle Point on the South African south coast
Highly resolved, well-dated paleoclimate records from the southern South African coast are needed to contextualize the evolution of the highly diverse extratropical plant communities of the Greater Cape Floristic Region (GCFR) and to assess the environmental impacts on early human hunter-gatherers. We present new speleothem stable oxygen and carbon isotope ratios (δ 18 O c and δ 13 C) from two caves at Pinnacle Point, South Africa, covering the t…
A new MIS 5 to MIS 2 speleothem record from Sandkraal Cave on the South African Cape south coast
We present new stable oxygen and carbon isotope composite records (δ 18 O, δ 13 C) of speleothems from Sandkraal Cave 1 (SK1) on the South African south coast for the time interval between 104 and 18 ka (with a hiatus between 48 and 41 ka). Statistical comparisons using kernel-based correlation analyses and semblance analyses based on continuous wavelet transforms inform the relationships of the new speleothem records to other proxies and their c…
Spatial and temporal variation in the diversity, abundance, and energetic returns of underground storage organs on the coastal lowlands of the Cape Floristic Region, South Africa
Geography (20 works) · Biology (17 works) · Ecology (16 works) · Environmental resource management (13 works) · Environmental Science (12 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (9 works) · Archaeology (8 works) · Ecosystem (8 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (7 works) · Computer Science (7 works)