Sue Milton's career (MSc, 1981) at the University of Cape Town began with research on the reproductive ecology and seed banks of invasive Australian Acacias on the Cape Peninsula. After gaining experience in factors influencing the population ecology of indigenous Acacias in savanna and ferns in Afromontane forest, she migrated to the Karoo to research plant-herbivore interactions and the effects of livestock ranching on Karoo vegetation (PhD, 1992). Together with her ornithologist husband, Dr Richard Dean, and graduate students, she has been involved in studies of plant populations, animals, resource use and seed dispersal in the Karoo and Kalahari, as well as in central Germany and southern USA. She retains a keen interest in processes and effects of alien plant population growth. Understanding gained has been applied to the development of conceptual models of vegetation change and management, the rehabilitation of surface mines and abandoned fields and to assessment of environmental health and grazing capacity of Karoo veld.

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

2011

Ndhlovu, T., Milton-Dean, S.J. & Esler, K.J. 2011. Impact of Prosopis (mesquite) invasion and clearing on the grazing capacity of semiarid Nama Karoo rangeland, South Africa. African Journal of Range & Forage Science 28:129-137. IF 0.262

2010

Aronson, J., Blignaut, J., de Groot, R.S. Clewell, A., Lowry II, P.P., Woodworth, P., Cowling, R.M., Renison, D., Farley, J., Fontaine, C., Tongway, D., Levy, S., Milton, S.J., Rangel, O., Debrincat, B., & Birkinshaw, C. 2010. The road to sustainability must bridge three great divides. Ecological Economics Reviews 2010. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1185:225-236. IF 2.67

Aronson, J., Blignaut, J.N., Milton, S.J., Le Maitre, D.M., Esler, K.J., Limouzin, A., Fontaine, C.A., de Wit, M.P., Mugido, W., Prinsloo, P., van der Elst, L. & Lederer, N. 2010. Are socio-economic benefits of restoration adequately quantified? A meta analysis of recent papers (2000-2008) in Restoration Ecology and 12 other scientific journals. Restoration Ecology 18: 143-154.
IF 1.665

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. & Wistebaar, T. 2010. Tree-grass coexistence in a flood-disturbed, semi-arid savanna system. Landscape Ecology 25:315-326. 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. No IF

Milton, S.J. & Dean, W.R.J. 2010. Plant invasions in arid areas: special problems and solutions: a South African perspective. Biological Invasions 12:3935–3948. IF 3.074

Rahlao, S.J., Esler, K.J., Milton, S.J. & Barnard, P. 2010. Nutrient Addition and Moisture Promote the Invasiveness of Crimson Fountaingrass (Pennisetum setaceum). Weed Science 58:154-159. IF 1.451

Rahlao, S.J., Milton, S.J., Esler, K.J. & Barnard, P. 2010. The distribution of invasive Pennisetum setaceum along roadsides in western South Africa: the role of corridor interchanges. Weed Research 50:537-543. IF 1.451

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

Sharma, G.P., Muhl, S.A., Esler, K.J. & Milton, S.J. 2010. Competitive interactions between the alien invasive annual grass Avena fatua and indigenous herbaceous plants in South African Renosterveld: the role of nitrogen enrichment. Biological Invasions 12:3371–3378. IF 3.074