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The bioregionalization of wetland vegetation in Southern Africa by determining the distribution range of metacommunities by means of maximum entropy modelling

Mkhize, Yoliswa1; Sieben, Erwin1

Research facility: Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
Published Oct 20, 2026 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.98sf7m0x8

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Abstract

Wetlands are critical ecosystems that provide many ecosystem services but that also consist of high biodiversity, mostly because of the steep environmental gradients within them and large differences between them. Conservation planning of wetland vegetation is problematized by the dynamic nature of wetland vegetation across a region, and therefore a bioregional classification of wetland vegetation is needed. In this paper, we develop a method for devising a bioregional classification of wetland vegetation by taking three steps. Firstly, a hierarchical clustering of co-occurring plant communities was made whereby ‘metacommunities’ were determined. Secondly, the distribution ranges of these metacommunities were determined by species distribution modelling using maximum entropy whereby species are replaced by vegetation types. Then lastly, an overlay is made between all off these distribution models and this leads to a bioregional classification map. The initial step leads to 15 metacommunities and the overlay creates 22 wetland bioregions. Many of the mapping units on this bioregional map correspond with earlier bioregional classifications in the region, which validates the usefulness of the resulting classification. Wetland bioregions differ from terrestrial bioregions and this highlights that wetlands respond differently to climate than the surrounding terrestrial vegetation.