More Fieldwork!

For the past two weeks our mornings have been spent in the field. We finished the majority of our vegetation plot regrowth measurements at the end of last week and will soon have results with which we can calculate per habitat aboveground biomass for the farm. These findings will serve as part of our final projects for the program. 

This week we began working on a new project looking into vegetation differences on and off of the Ghanzi ridge, a limestone geologic feature that cuts through Thakadu. This data has been sampled using a line intercept technique that stretches from the northwest to the southeast of the property, allowing us to cover greater areas than possible with plot sampling, over six kilometers in total. Along with vegetation cover measurements, at each site we've taken soil depth measurements using an auger, with some sites off of the Ghanzi ridge having a soil depth of nearly three meters!

Jack, Kevin, Shelby, and Zoi collecting regrowth measurements in the fenced vegetation plot.

Sara, Mike, Ashley, and Cullen taking line intercept readings.

Alec taking soil depth measurements with the auger.

Once bedrock is hit, the height of the soil layer is measured.