Vegetation analysis of wetlands in the Klerksdorp Municipal Area, North West Province, South Africa

Motivation for investigations of urban wetlands lies in the fact that wetlands probably contain some of the most vulnerable plant communities in South Africa. Urban wetlands are also situated in some of the most disturbed environments and are, therefore, desperately in need of a well-formulated management policy. Vegetation information in planning and management programs should be accurate and scientific in terms of floristic detail and actual community distribution. It is, therefore, important to do a comprehensive vegetation analysis of any area before management programs are formulated. Releves from the Klerksdorp wetlands were processed by TWINSPAN and Braun-Blanquet classification procedures, using the BBPC package, while DECORANA was used to identify gradients in vegetation in correlation with certain habitat parameters. The aim of this study was to classify the vegetation of the wetlands and to identify and characterize the different areas where the disturbances, resulting from human impact, were the highest. A total of nine plant communities, four subcommunities and three variants were described. This study could contribute to compile a guideline for a development and conservation management plan for the area, but also created new knowledge on the reaction of indigenous and ruderal plant species under disturbed conditions in wetlands.