NRF Rated Researchers

Research Profile

Stefan Foord

Dr SH Foord is Y2 rated. He obtained his BSc (Zoology and Mathematics, 1992) and BSc Honours (1993) from University of Pretoria. He was appointed as a lecturer at the University of Venda in 1997 and received his PhD in the Systematics of the Afrotropical representatives of the spider family Hersiliidae in 2005 at the University of Pretoria. He was promoted to senior lecturer in 2008 and is currently the HOD of the Department of Zoology. In this same year he was also appointed as a Core Team Member of the Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology (C·I·B).

He has an inordinate fascination with invertebrate diversity patterns (spiders in particular) and the drivers of these patterns at local and regional scales. These drivers include human induced climate change and biological invasions. As insects and spiders comprise the bulk of terrestrial diversity, provide essential ecosystem services and are sensitive to the environment at point localities, they are appropriate model organisms to study environmental change.

He has 15 years field experience in invertebrate inventories, both aquatic and terrestrial, has undertaken several collecting trips throughout the provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga in South Africa, curates a growing collection of > 3000 spider specimens at UniVen and has contributed several specimens to the largest arachnid collection in Africa at the Plant Protection Research Institute in Pretoria as part of the South African National Survey of Arachnida of which he was a team leader.

He has attended and presented papers at six international conferences, organised one national conference, reviewed manuscripts for eight journals, both international and national. He teaches evolution and conservation ecology at under and postgraduate levels.

He has an ongoing collaborative initiative with professional South African arachnologists with a large-scale focus on spider diversity in South Africa. He has also submitted a funding proposal to the NRF on Afrotropical salticid (jumping spider) systematics in collaboration with a Russian counterpart, Galina Azarkina and is currently revising the Afrotropical representatives of pirate spiders, family Mimetidae. His postgraduate collaborations include the long term monitoring of ants, spiders and beetles across an elevational gradient. The initial focus is to identify the drivers of diversity across the western part of the Soutpansberg mountain, while the impact of ENSO and climate change forms medium to longer term objectives respectively. His honours level students have several projects where aquatic macroinvertebrates and adult Odonata are used as indicators of the effectiveness of invasive alien clearing in the eastern parts of the Soutpansberg and prospective PhD students will investigate beetle and ant beta diversity patterns in the Soutpansberg mountains while the distribution and conservation status of Samango monkeys will form the focus of another thesis. Proposals have also been submitted for an outreach project at the Vuwani Outreach Programme that will see selected schools monitor ant assemblages across an elevational transect across the eastern Soutpansberg complementing the transect in the western Soutpansberg mountains.

Peer-reviewed publications

1. Javed, S.M.M., Foord, S.H., Tampal, F. 2010. A new species of Hersilia Audouin, 1826 (Araneae: Hersiliidae) from India, with notes on its natural history. Zootaxa 2010: 40-50.
2.  Foord, S.H., Mafadza, M., Dippenaar-Schoeman, A.S., Van Rensburg, B.J. 2008. Micro-scale heterogeneity of spiders (Arachnida: Araneae) in the Soutpansberg, South Africa: a comparative survey and inventory in representative habitats. African Zoology 43: 156-174.
3. Foord, S.H. 2008. Cladistic analysis of the family Hersiliidae (Arachnida, Araneae) of the Afrotropical Region with the first records of Murricia, and the description of a new genus, Prima, from Madagascar. Journal of Afrotropical Zoology 4: 111-141.
4. Foord, S.H., Dippenaar-Schoeman, A.S. 2006. A revision of the Afrotropical species of Hersilia Audouin (Araneae: Hersiliidae). Zootaxa 1347: 1-92.
5. Dippenaar-Schoeman, A.S., Van den Berg, A.M., Van den Berg, M.A. & Foord, S.H. 2005. Spiders in avocado orchards in the Mpumalanga Lowveld of South Africa: species diversity and abundance (Arachnida: Araneae). African Plant Protection 11: 8-16.
6. Foord, S.H., Dippenaar-Schoeman, A.S. 2005. First records of the genus Neotama Baehr & Baehr (Araneae: Hersiliidae) from the Afrotropical Region. African Invertebrates 45: 125-132.
7. Foord, S.H., Dippenaar-Schoeman, A.S. 2005. A revision of the Afrotropical species of Hersiliola Thorell and Tama Simon with description of a new genus Tyrotama (Araneae: Hersiliidae) African Entomology 13: 255-279.
8. Foord, S.H., Ferguson, J.W.H. & Van Jaarsveld, A.S. 2003. Coleopteran assemblages in Afromontane grasslands reflect fine-scale variation in vegetation. Environmental Entomology 32:797-807.
9. Ferguson, J.W.H., Van Jaarsveld, A.S., Johnson, R., Bredenkamp, G.J., Foord, S.H., Britz, M. 2003. Rodent-induced damage to pine plantations: a South African case study. Agriculture, Ecosystems, and Environment 95: 379-386.
10. Foord, S.H., Dippenaar-Schoeman, A.S., Van der Merwe, M. 2002. A check list of the spider fauna of the Western Soutpansberg, South Africa (Arachnida: Araneae). Koedoe 45: 35-43.
11. Foord, S.H., Ferguson, J.W.H. & Van Jaarsveld, A.S. 2002. Endemicity of Afromontane grasshopper assemblages and its implications for grassland conservation. African Journal of Ecology 40: 318-327.
12. Bredenkamp, G.J., Ferguson, J.W.H., Foord, S.H., De Frey, W.H. 1999. Floristic assessment of an Afromontane fragmentation experiment in a pine plantation. African Journal of Ecology 37: 49-60.
13. Foord, S.H., Van Aarde, R.J., Ferreira, S.M. 1994. Seed dispersal by vervet monkeys in rehabilitating coastal dune forests at Richards Bay. South African Journal of Wildlife Research 24: 56-59.