In mid-September, AGRI-DRY members travel to North West Province, South Africa, to core a several-thousand-year-old peatland and explore its vegetation history.
While AGRI-DRY explores dryland agriculture over time, one aspect of this work involves establishing the history of land use and land cover through studying peatlands as palaeoenvironmental archives. The fieldwork in South Africa hence aimed at collecting peat cores for pollen analysis to gain insights into the land cover evolution of the region.
Alexandra from the University of Glasgow and Dr. Bianca Cavazzin from Canterbury Christ Church University travelled to Potchefstroom, South Africa, to collect a 4-metre-long sediment core. The fieldwork was made possible through collaboration with North-West University, South Africa, and was especially supported by Prof. Frank Neumann and his students.
The team is surveying the peatland before coring. Left to right: Prof. Frank Neumann, Dr. Bianca Cavazzin, students Tshiamo Mmatladi, and Thokozani Mahlangu.
The team examines one of the drives.
The researchers visited North-West University’s Botanical Garden and collected modern pollen for reference collections from a few plants that were flowering in South Africa’s early spring.
Prof. Frank Neumann gives the guests a tour.
Read more about Alexandra’s research
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