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Great progress at the second milestone of WP 2.3!

26.11.2013

 

During mid-September until the end of October a workgroup of the two German researchers Etienne Bahr and Alexander Tischer, accompanied by the two bachelor students Richard Neumann and Nils Knüppel, traveled in the course of WP 2.3: "Site assessment and nutrient cycling" for the third time to the ECTF in Pingxiang.

During the previous visit a new guideline for soil description was elaborated and has been in use since then. The second milestone in this project is to quantify about 500 plots spotted in an area of more than 3.000 hectares at Shaoping Forest farm. Since the Chinese researches have begun acquiring the data this summer, the aim for this trip was to examine the process of describing site profiles and to improve the workflow if necessary.

Happily the Chinese partners have made excellent progress. Mr. Bahr and Mr. Tischer were satisfied of the work done and will begin evaluating and interpreting the available data.

 

 

Picture 1: Before the soil can be described, a profile of one meter in depth has to be dug.

Picture 2: Example of a soil profile in a stand of Pinus massoniana

Picture 3: If possible, samples are taken for every soil horizon. Approximately 400 samples have been gathered during the stay.

Picture 4: At every plot a Chinese ecologist is evaluating the vegetation at three points in 15 m distance.

Picture 5 and 6: Ms. Sun and Mr. You have our special thanks since they helped us throughout the whole stay.