Ecology of the past

Today we were based back at FORIG getting export permits, sorting out import licenses, Lottie was running through her presentation for a final time and catching up with the Oxford group who returned from a 10-day field campaign at Kogyae. We celebrated the end of the our respective fieldwork with dinner out at the Noda hotel – always a treat!

Ghana 2014 – Day 13 (28/10)

Cascades of vivid green ferns flowing down steep-sided banks on both sides (image below), branchless tree trunks extending upwards through a dense canopy to a point beyond sight – this can mean only one thing, we are in a tropical rainforest.

The morning started in a typical fashion for a rainforest – visibility down to approximately 20m due to a thick mist engulfing everything (image below). We had a big day ahead of us, so a very early start was necessary; 05:30 rise for a 06:30 breakfast and in the truck and rolling by 07:00 heading for Ankasa Game Reserve less than 100km from the border with Cote d’Ivoire. Having never been to a rainforest before, I was not entirely sure what to expect other than lots of lush green vegetation and high humidity, and the vague hope of catching a glimpse of a…

And so the journey to Ankasa begins…

And 5 hours later we have arrived at the Cape Coast. Still a while to go yet though….

Finally arrived at the Ankasa national park at 17:30 after enjoying some of delights of the trans-African highway (work in progress). What a drive! Just time for our evening meal then early to bed for a 07:00 start in the morning.

Today is a day back at base preparing for the week ahead. The countdown to the end of this years fieldwork has begun with just the rainforest plots at Ankasa remaining. Ankasa will be a three day stint away from FORIG, thus will require us to fully pack up and leave FORIG, returning on Wednesday evening. Preparation work entails the labelling and sorting of new pollen traps (image below), the cleaning up of used pollen traps that are going to be deposited with workers at FORIG for re-use, and general planning of finer itinerary points.

Lottie is busy polishing her presentations for next Thursday (image below), and I am busy, well, writing this!

Adele has been assisting Lottie by dissecting flowers too.

Hopefully will have internet connection over the next couple of days to continue updating this blog, if not, I will post on Day 14.

Lake Bosumtwi. An impact crater created by the collision of a meteorite with Earth nearly 1.1 million years, and subsequently filled with water to form the lake that exists today. The lake is hydrologically isolated, fed only by precipitation falling on the lake and within the crater catchment. Along with the filling with water comes weathering, erosion and resultant sedimentation of the surrounding landscape depositing into the lake.

The lake and its sediment is the focus of the main NERC-funded project (NE/K005294/1) we are working on, was the basis of Lotties PhD (2013), and underpins Adeles current doctoral work. For her doctoral research Lottie used palynological evidence locked within the lake sediment to reconstruct the past 540,000 years of vegetation in and around the Lake Bosumtwi cathcment, providing a framework for our NERC project that is investigating past vegetation transitions in relation to climatic change and attempting to reconstruct past…

Today we are based at FORIG. Lottie is preparing for her workshop delivery next week on the Palaeoecology of Lake Bosumtwi and outreach activities in local communities. Adele is updating some spreadsheets that quantify an estimate of percentage basal area within the study plots. Sadly for me, I have a backlog of emails that need addressing.