science

SABAP2

SABAP2 is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand SABAP2 rather than just read about it. In short: SABAP2 is the acronym for the Southern African Bird Atlas Project 2, which is the follow-up to the Southern African Bird Atlas Project (for which the acronym was SABAP, and which is now referred to as SABAP1). The first atlas project took place from 1987 to 1991.

Key takeaways

SABAP2 belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect SABAP2 to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of SABAP2 from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

SABAP2 is the acronym for the Southern African Bird Atlas Project 2, which is the follow-up to the Southern African Bird Atlas Project (for which the acronym was SABAP, and which is now referred to as SABAP1). The first atlas project took place from 1987 to 1991. The current project was a joint venture between the Animal Demography Unit at the University of Cape Town, BirdLife South Africa, and the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI). Following the closure of the Animal Demography Unit, the project is now managed by the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town. The project aims to map the distribution and relative abundance of birds in southern Africa, and the original atlas area included South Africa, Lesotho, and Eswatini, although since 2012 the project has expanded to include Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. SABAP2 was launched on 1 July 2007. The field work for this project is conducted by more than 1700 volunteers, known as citizen scientists – they collect the data in the field at their own cost and in their own time. As such they make a huge contribution to the conservation of birds and their habitat. By June 2015, the SABAP2 database contained more than 128,000 checklists, and a total of 7.4 million records of bird distribution in the project database. In June 2015, the number of SABAP2 records exceeded that of SABAP1 for the first time. More than 72% of the original SABAP2 atlas area (i.e. South Africa, Lesotho and Eswatini) had at least one checklist by that time. This information is updated continuously on the project website; see §External links below. A number of postgraduate research projects have been based partially or completely on SABAP data, either from SABAP1 only, SABAP2 only, or comparing the changes in bird distributions and reporting rates from SABAP1 to SABAP2; and many scientific research articles have also been published on these and other analyses.

Atlassing protocol In SABAP1, bird lists were collected for quarter degree grid cells, which are 15 minutes by 15 minutes, or approximately 27 km by 25 km in size. In SABAP2, the resolution is far higher: the unit of data collection is the pentad – five minutes of latitude by five minutes of longitude – i.e. squares with sides of roughly 9 km, one ninth the size of quarter degree grid cells. There are 17,000 pentads in the original atlas area of South Africa, Lesotho and Eswatini, and a further 10,000 in Namibia. SABAP2 accepts data submitted either as ad-hoc records, or "full protocol" cards. For a full protocol card, a minimum of 2 hours and a maximum of 5 days can be spent adding birds to a checklist (card) for a pentad. An effort should be made to visit all available habitats. Ad-hoc records do not meet the criteria of time spent or coverage. Contributors are encouraged to submit 'full protocol' cards, as the information is used to calculate measures of relative abundance, e.g. reporting rate. Reporting rate is how often a species is recorded across a set of full protocol cards, usually expressed as a percentage. For example, if a pentad has 10 cards submitted, and a species is recorded for 4 of these, then the reporting rate is 40%. Ad-hoc records and full protocol cards help map species distribution, while only full protocol cards can be used to measure abundance, and changes in abundance. Since 2015, most data to the project is contributed using the BirdLasser app, developed by Lejint.

References

External links SABAP2-website BirdLife South Africa SANBI BirdLasser Slideshow demonstrating range changes of seven species between SABAP1 and SABAP2

Bibliography of articles and theses Available at https://sabap2.birdmap.africa/media/bibliography#pgcontent

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with SABAP2

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what SABAP2 claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to SABAP2 before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about SABAP2 ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of SABAP2

In research: SABAP2 appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses SABAP2 in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: SABAP2 is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Environmental organisations based in South Africa, Nature conservation in South Africa, Ornithological atlases, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for SABAP2 outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study SABAP2 in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what SABAP2 means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain SABAP2 out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is SABAP2 in simple terms?

Why does SABAP2 matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study SABAP2?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on SABAP2.