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Raymond Glover’s Diary
Tidal Forests of Kenya
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July 29, 2009: Biomass work
 Today, after a reasonable night's sleep and a filling breakfast, it was
off to Kinondo. Because of the tides we were concentrating on getting
the fauna work completed before the area became too dry (if it is too
dry the crabs will not surface). While we were making more equipment
to mark out the plots, I went with Langat and Bronwyn to do some biomass
work. This involved identifying randomly selected trees in a plot,
measuring the height of the tree, the stem diameter and then (the fun
part) counting the leaves on the tree. If it is a small tree it is
possible to count each one, but on the larger trees we take a typical
size branch, count the leaves, count the number of branches on the tree
and then multiply up. We also had to count the number of dead leaves on
the tree and all those that had been eaten or damaged by snails and
insects. We also had to record the species of tree. The plots are
planted with varying combinations of 3 species, Avicenina, Bruguiera and
Ceriops. After this we continued with the fauna work from yesterday.
The madafu break was welcome today as it was very dry and hot in the
field and we were all glad when it came. Early afternoon we returned to
the  village for lunch and all helped with the lab work, entering the
mass of data collected this morning and continuing with the soil sample
preparations from yesterday. We had to remove the samples from the oven
and log the dry weight; then put approximately 25g of soil into a container, add
water and a special solution and stir each sample for 10 minutes in
order to completely separate the sediment. The samples then have to stand for
at least four hours before the next process can take place. This will be
done tomorrow.
This evening's pre-dinner talk was by Bernard Kirui from KMFRI on the
CAMARV project. This stands for capacity building for mangrove,
assessment, restoration and valuation. Essentially the aim of the
project is to map, using field data and satellite technology, the
physical areas of mangroves in Kenya to measure the extent of forest.
This can then be used to calculate a value for the government for
potential revenue for CO2 offsetting from other countries and
organisations.
After dinner of noodles, chicken, mchicha and ugali, we had a general
discussion regarding what to do on our day off the day after tomorrow.
1 comment
Hey Ray,
Glad you are finally getting these epic essays uploaded onto the website! Did you manage to get a camera before heading on safari? On our last day in Nairobi we saw lots of places selling cameras so we hoped you would have no problems. Lucky you got that early flight!
Regards
Bron
Bronwyn Larner | Posted Tue 11 Aug 2009 5:35PM
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