SALDi Field trip activities resuming

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Dear all,

here we are waiting for depature to South Africa in one of the darkest hours in recent European history. A very ambivalent feeling to leave for the Savanna Science Network Meeting in Skukuza and field work in our six SALDi study sites (see Figure 1). We just hope that Russia stops the war against Ukraine immedeatly.

Fig. 1: SALDi study sites in South Africa (data source: ©ESRI 2013, simplified MODIS Land Cover from Friedl et al. 2010, compilation: J. Baade 2020)

TLS on it’s way back home

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The TLS is back at the forwarding company and packed to be airfreighted back to Germany (Photo: J. Baade 2021-11-12). This marks the end of the field trip.

This entry actually closes the SALDi Field and Travel Blog for this year. We are planning to continue at the beginning of March 2022 with a participation at the Savanna Science Network Meeting in Skukuza.

Field work continues

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Preparing for the resurvey of a gully erosion site using a differential GNSS setup which will eventually referenced to the South African TrigNet system of permanently recording stations. All field work is conducted under the watchful eyes of an armed game guard and additional support (Photo: J. Baade 2021-11-09).
This is now the fourth survey of this gully erosion site since Sep. 2015. Results will be presented at the next Savanna Science Network Meeting in March 2022 at Skukuza, Kruger National Park (Photo: J. Baade 2021-11-09)

Revisiting 2019 study sites in the White River area

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Pictures will follow once the connection to the internet allows for upload of pictures

In March 2020 we conducted a rainfall simulation experiment on this new Macademia farm. Meanwhile grass cover has improved to eventually reduce runoff and soil loss from the inter-dam areas. Nice progress
It is great to see Klipkopjes Dam getting close to full storage capacity following our dam siltation survey in March 2020, shortly prior to lockdown.

Replacement of damaged soil moisture data logger

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Finally we were able to come down to our soil moisture monitoring site at Augrabies Falls SANParks to replace a data logger which was damaged by heavy rains and overland flow in February 2021. Just hopeing that it will now retrieve data during the upcoming rains (Photo: C. Schmullius 2021-11-02).
Our soil moisture site is located in the Quiver Tree (Aloe dichotoma) enclosure in Augrabies Falls SANParks. We just love these iconic plant species (Photo: C. Schmullius 2021-11-02).

Visit to Benfontein Nature Reserve at Kimberley

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View of the SALDi soil moisture node close to the EFTEON flux tower in the savanna vegetation type section of the reserve one month after a quite devastation fire went through (Photo: J. Baade 2021-10-31).
Downslope view of the open Savanna at Benfontein a month after a quite devastating fire (Photo: J. Baade 2021-10-31).
A group of trees after the fire (Photo: C. Schmullius 2021-10-31).
New life after the fire and the rain (Photo: C. Schmullius 2021-10-31).