Helga van der Merwe

Arid Systems Ecologist at SAEON

Honorary Research Associate at UCT

Helga is a botanist/ecologist and has worked in the arid and semi-arid lands of South Africa for two decades. Her studies include the compilation of vegetation maps, veld condition assessments, monitoring of vegetation change over time since the abandonment of ploughing, long-term vegetation change following change of land use, changes over time in vegetation following fire, biodiversity assessments and their comparison with other areas in South Africa and across the world.

Following a five-year stint as Research Career Award Fellow with SAEON as host, Helga was rated C3 by NRF. She feels that by continuing her work at SAEON, she will be able to make an important contribution to long-term ecosystem observations in arid parts of South Africa.