**Author details**

species assemblages will therefore not be limited or exclusive to a specific wetland system (also the reason why the sandy IDD and PL systems are more associated with each other than with the somewhat duplex MS System). Vegetation composition of a specific wetland zone can

Plant species assemblages (communities) and species richness are therefore characteristic for the different wetland zones. However, zone delineation using vegetation composition varies between the different wetland systems in terms of amount and types of zones present, and should be evaluated according to the specific system in question. Not only can the different plant assemblages be used for the successful identification of the different zones within certain wetland types on the MCP, but all could be related to environmental conditions in the field.

**Figure 10.** Examples of wetland degradation on the MCP with a) cultivation in wetlands in the PL System; b) slash and burn and subsequent cultivation in the swamp forests; c) a destructed wetland now known as a 'fossil garden'; and d)

one of numerous *Eucalyptus* plantations in a wetland on the MCP.

therefore be influenced and driven on two levels:

**2.** by the wetland system it occurs in.

292 Biodiversity - The Dynamic Balance of the Planet

**1.** by the substrate type and hydrological regime; and

M.L. Pretorius1 , L.R. Brown1\*, G.J. Bredenkamp1 and C.W. Van Huyssteen2

\*Address all correspondence to: lrbrown@unisa.ac.za

1 Applied Behavioural Ecology and Ecosystem Research Unit, University of South Africa, Republic of South Africa

2 Department of Soil, Crop, and Climate Sciences, University of the Free State, Republic of South Africa
