Description: A team of researchers, students, and local staff surveyed the vertebrate and invertebrate species in four areas of the Okavango Delta in northwestern Botswana. The survey reports water quality as benign and healthy with the exception of low dissolved oxygen levels. About a fourth of the 1250 plant species known from the Delta were recorded and were found to have moderate diversity and surprisingly uniform populations. The findings of diversity in the fish communities and a breeding colony harboring fourteen endangered bird species provide substantial support for the report's recommendations on conserving this ecologically significant area.
Brief description: Leeanne E. Alonso is director of Conservation International's Rapid Assessment Program. Jessica Deichmann is a research associate with Conservation International's Rapid Assessment Program in Arlington, Virginia. Sheila A. McKenna is a marine ecologist and senior research scientistwith SEAlliance. Piotr Naskrecki is an entomologist, invertebrate conservationist, and nature writer and photographer, currently with the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. Stephen Richards is managerof Conservation International'sRAPbiodiversity assessmentprogram for theAsia-Pacific region, aResearch Associateat the South AustralianMuseum, and a member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature'sAmphibian Red-list Authority.