Doctoral Students

Grant Joseph MBChB, MSc (UCT) Tel:+27 (0)21 650 3290 Fax: +27 (0)21 650 3295 Email: grant.joseph@uct.ac.za / karoogrant@gmail.com

Grant recently completed his MSc in Conservation Biology, which complements his concurrent career as a medical practitioner. His dissertation hinted at how spatial heterogeneity might influence cavity-using bird biodiversity. In an effort to bolster his data set he returned to his study site and the landscape, set within the bounds of north-west Zimbabwe’s beautiful Chizarira National Park, refuses to set him free. The miombo woodland of this area is dotted with spectacular termite mounds, and provides an ideal opportunity for exploring the extent to which landscape heterogeneity affects the system. Grant is currently investigating the influence of termitaria on biodiversity and resilience in miombo woodland; his focus incorporates the impact of disturbed landscapes on cavity-using birds, and plant functional diversity.

When not surrounded by the flush of miombo, Grant can be found surfing the break in front of his house, delivering lectures to non-biological departments on the realities of consumption, extinction and a burgeoning global population, or suturing unfortunate patients. He believes that through education and shared knowledge with the general public and commercial institutions, scientists can play a decisive role in achieving a sustainable future in which the wonder of four billion years of life is deeply respected, and better understood by all.

Thesis

The influence of termitaria on biodiversity and resilience in herbivore-impacted miombo woodlands: an exploration of the extent to which spatial heterogeneity affects species and functional diversity in disturbed landscapes (Supervisors: Graeme Cumming & David Cumming).

Recent peer-reviewed publications

2012

Dean, W.R.J., Franke, U., Joseph, G., Gonçalves, F.M.. Mills, M.S.L., Milton, S.J., Monadjem, A. and Oschadleus, H.D. (in press). Type specimens in the bird collection at Lubango, Angola. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club IP

2010

Joseph, G., Cumming, G.S., Cumming, D.H.M., Mahlangu, Z., Altwegg, R. & Seymour, C. 2011. Large termitaria act as refugia for tall trees, deadwood and cavity-using birds in a miombo woodland. Landscape Ecology 26:439-448. IF 3.2

2010

Child, M.F., Milton, S.J., Dean, W. R. J., Lipsey, M. K., Puttick, J., Hempson, T. N., Mann, G. K., Babiker, H., Chaudrey, J., Humphrey, G., Joseph, G., Okes, N. C., Potts, R. and Wistebaar, T. 2010. Tree-grass coexistence in a flood-disturbed, semi-arid savanna system. Landscape Ecology 25(2):315-326.  IF 3.293

Mills, M.S.L., Franke, U. Joseph, G., Miato, F., Milton, S., Monadjem, A., Oschadleus, D. & Dean, W.R.J. 2010. Cataloguing the Lubango Bird Skin Collection: towards an atlas of Angolan bird distributions. Bulletin of the African Bird Club 17:43-53.

Seymour, C.L., Milton, S.J., Joseph, G.S., Dean, W.R.J., Ditlhobolo, T. & Cumming, G.S. 2010. Twenty years of rest returns grazing potential, but not palatable plant diversity, to Karoo rangeland, South Africa. Journal of Applied Ecology 47:859-867. IF 4.197