Trees in South African Agriculture

Dr. Maik Veste is biologist by education. He studied biology, zoology, botany and biochemistry at the University of Münster. He received his Diploma in biology from the Department of Ecology at Münster University and his PhD in plant ecophysiology from the University of Hohenheim. His research fields include botany, ecophysiology, plant biogeochemistry, and vegetation-climate interactions of the biogeosphere. He conducted various extensive ecological field studies in the South African agricultural landscapes, fynbos and Karoo in the last 35 years. He was guest scientist at various departments of Stellenbosch University for many years. He is editor of various Springer books on agroforestry, drylands, land-use and climate change. Dr. Elmi Lötze was a senior lecturer at the Faculty of AgriSciences, Stellenbosch University in South Africa. Her research focused on the role of nutrition, root growth dynamics and climate on fruit yield and quality, resulting in several post graduate students and peer reviewed papers. She also served as chairman of the ISHS Workgroup on Mineral Nutrition of Fruit Crops. At present, she is the Head of ITEST™ CARBOHYDRATES and ITEST™ LEAF at Agri Technovation and responsible for the development of carbohydrate analysis as a physiological indicator of plant performance in various crops. Privatdozent Dr. Thomas Littmann studied geography, completed his habilitation in the field of physical geography at the Ruhr University of Bochum, and is affiliated as Privatdozent with the Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. He has led numerous research projects on climatology and environmental research during his academic career. Before founding DLC, he was head of site assessment at a leading German company in the wind energy sector. Presently he is CEO at DLC-Dr. Littmann Consulting, an international consultancy for energy yield studies and scientific applications in the fields of wind and solar energy.