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Ecology and Evolution
South Africa
2026

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Ecology and Evolution

D-Index
113
Citations
45017
World Ranking
146
National Ranking
3

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2026 - Research.com Ecology and Evolution in South Africa Leader Award
  • 2025 - Research.com Ecology and Evolution in South Africa Leader Award
  • 2022 - Research.com Ecology and Evolution in South Africa Leader Award
  • 2012 - Fellow of the Ecological Society of America (ESA)
  • 2008 - Member of the National Academy of Sciences
  • Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa
  • Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa

Overview

Richard M. Cowling is affiliated with Nelson Mandela University in South Africa. Their research spans multiple fields including Environmental Science, Agricultural and Biological Sciences, and Earth and Planetary Sciences. Within these broader disciplines, Cowling's work focuses particularly on Nature and Landscape Conservation, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Global and Planetary Change, Ecology, and Anthropology.

Cowling has contributed to a range of topics in their research portfolio, emphasizing Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies, Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology, Geology and Paleoclimatology Research, Fire effects on ecosystems, Plant Diversity and Evolution, Rangeland and Wildlife Management, as well as Plant and animal studies.

The scientist has published frequently in several academic venues, with the highest number of publications appearing in PeerJ, followed by Quaternary Science Reviews, Proceedings of the Geologists Association, Land, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Frequent collaborators in Cowling's research include B. Adriaan Grobler, Curtis W. Marean, Tiaan Strydom, Tineke Kraaij, and Jan C. De Vynck.

Some recent notable papers authored or co-authored by Cowling include:

  • The Palaeo-Agulhas Plain: Temporal and spatial variation in an extraordinary extinct ecosystem of the Pleistocene of the Cape Floristic Region, 2020, Quaternary Science Reviews
  • Plant richness, turnover, and evolutionary diversity track gradients of stability and ecological opportunity in a megadiversity center, 2020, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
  • Fire severity effects on resprouting of subtropical dune thicket of the Cape Floristic Region, 2020, PeerJ
  • Return rates from plant foraging on the Cape south coast: Understanding early human economies, 2020, Quaternary Science Reviews
  • A biome-wide experiment to assess the effects of propagule size and treatment on the survival of Portulacaria afra (spekboom) truncheons planted to restore degraded subtropical thicket of South Africa, 2021, PLoS ONE

Cowling's professional recognition includes being named a Fellow of the Ecological Society of America (ESA) in 2012, membership in the National Academy of Sciences since 2008, and Fellowship of the Royal Society of South Africa.

Best Publications

  • Effectiveness of the global protected area network in representing species diversity

    Ana S. L. Rodrigues;Sandy J. Andelman;Mohamed I. Bakarr;Luigi Boitani

  • Conservation planning in a changing world

    Robert L. Pressey;Robert L. Pressey;Mar Cabeza;Matthew E. Watts;Richard M. Cowling

  • Plant diversity in mediterranean-climate regions.

    Richard M. Cowling;Philip W. Rundel;Byron B. Lamont;Mary Kalin Arroyo

  • Preserving the evolutionary potential of floras in biodiversity hotspots

    Félix Forest;Félix Forest;Richard Grenyer;Mathieu Rouget;T Jonathan Davies;T Jonathan Davies

  • Knowing But Not Doing: Selecting Priority Conservation Areas and the Research-Implementation Gap

    Andrew T. Knight;Richard M. Cowling;Mathieu Rouget;Andrew Balmford

  • An operational model for mainstreaming ecosystem services for implementation

    Richard M Cowling;Benis Egoh;Andrew T Knight;Patrick J O'Farrell

  • Vegetation of southern Africa

    R. M. Cowling;D. M. Richardson;Shirley M. Pierce

  • One Hundred Questions of Importance to the Conservation of Global Biological Diversity

    W.J. Sutherland;W.M. Adams;R.B. Aronson;R. Aveling

  • The ecology of fynbos: nutrients, fire and diversity.

    R. M. Cowling

  • An Operational Model for Implementing Conservation Action

    Andrew T. Knight;Richard M. Cowling;Bruce M. Campbell

  • A conservation plan for a global biodiversity hotspot— the Cape Floristic Region, South Africa

    R.M Cowling;R.L Pressey;M Rouget;A.T Lombard

  • Canopy seed storage in woody plants

    Byron B. Lamont;D. C. Le Maitre;R. M. Cowling;N. J. Enright

  • Integrating ecosystem services into conservation assessments: a review.

    Benis Egoh;Mathieu Rouget;Belinda Reyers;Andrew T. Knight

  • Formulating conservation targets for biodiversity pattern and process in the Cape Floristic Region, South Africa

    R.L. Pressey;R.M. Cowling;M. Rouget

  • The Cape Peninsula, South Africa: physiographical, biological and historical background to an extraordinary hot-spot of biodiversity

    R. M. Cowling;I. A.W. MacDonald;Mark T Simmons

  • Current patterns of habitat transformation and future threats to biodiversity in terrestrial ecosystems of the Cape Floristic Region, South Africa

    Mathieu Rouget;David M Richardson;Richard M Cowling;J.Wendy Lloyd

  • Predicting the Landscape‐Scale Distribution of Alien Plants and Their Threat to Plant Diversity

    Steven I. Higgins;David M. Richardson;Richard M. Cowling;Terry H. Trinder-Smith

  • The invasive potential of Australian banksias in South African fynbos: A comparison of the reproductive potential of Banksia ericifolia and Leucadendron laureolum

    M. A. Honig;R. M. Cowling;D. M. Richardson

  • Fusion or failure? The future of conservation biology.

    Andrew Balmford;Richard M. Cowling

  • Can We Defy Nature's End?

    Stuart L. Pimm;Márcio Ayres;Andrew Balmford;George Branch

  • The Ecology of Fynbos: Nutrients, Fire and Diversity.

    C. H. Gimingham;R. Cowling

Frequent Co-Authors

Andrew T. Knight
Andrew T. Knight Imperial College London
Curtis W. Marean
Curtis W. Marean Arizona State University
Karen J. Esler
Karen J. Esler Stellenbosch University
Mathieu Rouget
Mathieu Rouget Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement
David M. Richardson
David M. Richardson Stellenbosch University
Amanda T. Lombard
Amanda T. Lombard Nelson Mandela University
Robert L. Pressey
Robert L. Pressey James Cook University
Belinda Reyers
Belinda Reyers University of Pretoria
Byron B. Lamont
Byron B. Lamont Curtin University
Philip W. Rundel
Philip W. Rundel University of California, Los Angeles

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