Field of research

• Ecosystem Stability and Resilience
• Systems Ecology
• Natural Resource Management

Profile

Growing up in a rural township where grass patches were often burned around homes in order to provide cows with good grazing grass, Linda learned early in life about the importance of suitable management of natural resources. Linda studied environmental science at the University of KwaZulu-Natal where she grew to love invasion biology and the impacts of ecosystem change. Her research interests are around regime shifts (large, abrupt, long-lasting change in the structure and function of social-ecological systems); specifically what drives the shifts, and their impact on ecosystem services and human well-being. She is currently using the process of bush encroachment to assess the resilience of savanna systems to regime shifts.