Research

Vegetation Survey in the Living Msunduzi Waterways Conservancy

Tshipiwa and James getting equipment for the day’s work

Daniel, Su and Tshipiwa with James on site

James explains the procedure for making two field herbaria

Collecting and annotating samples

(From back to front) Nicky, Tshipiwa, Gabriel and Simeon with the morning’s work

James

A vegetation survey is in progress on the Duzi between Boshoff and Chief Albert Luthuli roads. We are marking and sampling permanent 1m by 1m quadrats to provide baseline data on vegetation composition and allow monitoring of change in the future. We aim to sample 40 quadrats, 20 on each bank. Of these, half will be on the bank itself and half on the flat area above the bank. For each quadrat we are recording latitude, longitude, whether the quadrat is above the bank or on the bank and total aerial cover. The identity and aerial cover of all species are being recorded in each quadrat. The first sampling session was conducted on Saturday the 24th of February 2007 and eight quadrats were completed. Many thanks to everyone who is helping James Rodger!