The ecology of South African estuaries. Part XII: The Bot River, a closed estuary in the south-western Cape

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Although a considerable amount of work has been done on open estuaries in southern Africa very few studies have been on estuaries that are normally closed. The Bot River vlei is an estuary of this type, and the information presented here is the result of initial surveys carried out in 1980. The vlei, situated on the south-west coast of South Africa, has recently been opened to the sea. The salinity at the time of survey ranged from 7–12°/oo, although this is subject to seasonal fluctuations and artificial opening of the estuary. The major primary producers are the reeds Phragmites and Scirpus which may reach a biomass of 1,794 and 0,961 kg dry mass m-2 and the aquatic macrophytes Potamogeton (0,071 kg m-2), Ruppia (0,371 kg m-2), Chara (0,071 kg m-2) and Cladophora (0,140 kg m -2) growing down to water depths of 2,9 m. The invertebrate fauna is poor both in terms of biomass and diversity, but large numbers of birds, particularly herbivorous coots, and fish are found. The Bot River estuary appears to be in an intermediate stage of the evolution of coastal lakes from open estuaries.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: