South Africa’s Greater Cape Floristic Region (GCFR) has intrigued biologists for centuries. It has achieved iconic status as a locus of megadiversity – a place to study the ecological underpinnings of massive evolutionary radiations in fynbos and associated vegetation types. Advances over the past two decades in unravelling the complexities of GCFR ecology and evolution are presented. The region has yielded significant contributions on adaptive radiations of large lineages (from an evolutionary perspective, the fynbos flora is the best studied in the world), conservation science, pollination b ... More

South Africa’s Greater Cape Floristic Region (GCFR) has intrigued biologists for centuries. It has achieved iconic status as a locus of megadiversity – a place to study the ecological underpinnings of massive evolutionary radiations in fynbos and associated vegetation types. Advances over the past two decades in unravelling the complexities of GCFR ecology and evolution are presented. The region has yielded significant contributions on adaptive radiations of large lineages (from an evolutionary perspective, the fynbos flora is the best studied in the world), conservation science, pollination biology, invasive plant biology, and palaeoanthropology (modern humans evolved along the Cape coast some 160,000 years ago). Lessons from the GCFR offer much of value for understanding the origin, maintenance, and conservation of diversity anywhere in the world. The megadiverse vegetation systems of the GCFR and its animal biota offer alternative paradigms for understanding and testing ecological theory. The relative climatic stability of the Cape region has allowed its biota to be assembled over long time frames (much of the Cenozoic), its evolution possibly most strongly influenced by the effects of fire, soils, topography, and biotic interactions. This research challenges and refines the models used to understand the natural world and how it will respond to global change. Research on the sustainability of Cape social-ecological systems and its influence on biodiversity management is covered in several chapters. South Africa is a world leader in mainstreaming biodiversity conservation into sectors that have traditionally ignored this, for example land-use planning, agriculture, tourism, and retailing.