Gobabeb-50 years of Namib Desert research

The Namib is a relatively well-studied hyperarid desert. Much of the research effort was coordinated through the institutional framework of the Gobabeb Research and Training Centre, which was established in the middle of this desert fifty years ago. The initial discoveries focused on the. Namib's remarkably high biodiversity and adaptations to desert conditions, analysed against the foundations of research into this desert's particular climate, geomorphology and geology. The antiquity of this desert, its extreme hyperaridity, and strong climatic gradients provided unusual windows into ecosystem drivers in arid lands, past and present. The Gobabeb Centre itself evolved to translate much of its knowledge into application and is today geared to increase this trend even further, driven by the urgent need for knowledge-based environmental management, such as ecological restoration of mining areas. The current volume collates nine papers which review a cross-section of Namib research, with special focus on projects conducted through Gobabeb. These papers concern different facets of geomorphology where Namib research has led global understanding, reviewed in three papers, and one climatological review of the moisture regime. A review of reptile research illustrates the relationship between biodiversity processes and environmental factors, which is further sharpened in a comparison of dune lizard ecology between continents. The review of botanical research in the Central Namib fittingly binds much of the accumulated knowledge of desert plants into a detailed vegetation map. A review of research on the highly variable ephemeral river systems of the Namib illustrates how academic knowledge accumulated at Gobabeb connects to applied research, which is also the topic of the final paper concerning the knowledge gaps and research needs to provide the information required for ecological restoration. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.