Samuel Motitsoe

Entomology Lecturer 

Office: F17.2, Life Science Building
Email: s.motitsoe@ru.ac.za
Phone: +27 46 603 7680

BSc (Hons), Zoology, University of the Free State (2013)
MSc, Entomology, Rhodes University (2016)

Samuel Motitsoe is an Entomology Lecturer under the New Generation of Academics Programme – nGAP (Department of Higher Education Initiative) and a PhD Candidate at the Centre for Biological Control (CBC), Department of Zoology and Entomology, Rhodes University. Samuel is an entomologist by training and he has done most of his research on freshwater ecology, using aquatic insects and other aquatic organisms as biological indicators for freshwater water health and habitat quality. Samuel’s main focus is on freshwater threats such as pollution (urban & industrial), invasive riparian and aquatic weeds and their impacts on freshwater conservation (water quality & quantity) and biological diversity. Samuel has also interest in restoration and mitigation studies post disturbance. Some of his recent research and collaboration is with Albany Museum, Grahamstown on temporary wetlands of the Afromontane (Maluti-Drakensberg Mountain), looking at aquatic invertebrates diversity patterns found on these high altitude temporary habitats. Samuel has over 5 years’ experience in the field, supervised entomology; third year, honours and Master projects, served as a the River Health - South African Scoring System Practitioner for 3 years (2015 - 2017), involved in citizen science programmes like the mini-stream assessments (MiniSASS), which promotes environmental stewardship amongst high school learners and communities on the importance of water and water quality. 

Research interest
  • Freshwater research including pollution and biological monitoring
  • Freshwater & terrestrial insect’s conservation,
  • Biodiversity and restoration
Recent publications

Popular articles

Motitsoe, Samuel. “Ecological monitoring leading to decision making the use of stable isotopes technique for freshwater biological monitoring of two river systems in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa”. Special Edition Newsletter - 2nd National Global Change Conference, held in Port Elizabeth from the 1st-5th December 2014. (http://www.saeon.ac.za/enewsletter/archives/2014/december2014/doc14) 

Motitsoe, Samuel. “Rhodes University MBA students to ‘Administer’ Bloukrans Rivers systems”. Grocott’s Mail [Grahamstown, South Africa], 03 February 2017. Published: Environ News, volume 147 Issue 005.

Research reports

Hill, J.M., Motitsoe, S.N. & Hill, M.P. 2015. Pollution mapping in freshwater systems: using aquatic plants to trace N-loading. WRC Report No. KSA 2262/14.

Peer-reviewed articles

Dalu, T., Wasserman, R.J., Tonkin, J.D., Alexander, M.E., Dalu, M.T.B., Motitsoe, S.N., Manungo, K.I., Bepe, O. & Dube, T. 2017. Assessing drivers of benthic macroinvertebrate community structure in African highland: an exploration using multivariate analysis. Science of the Total Environment 601-602: 1340-1348. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.06.023

Motitsoe, S.N., Hill, M.P., Avery, T.S. & Hill, J.M. (Under review). Stable isotopic analysis: A newapproach in biological monitoring of freshwater systems, South African perspective.

Last Modified: Fri, 04 Dec 2020 10:50:26 SAST