Setting up Field Plots

One exciting thing about ecology is field work. Often, to get to the field one must travel, may be as close as their backyard and sometimes as far as another country or continent. Our phenology work give us some opportunity to travel in three different directions. First, only an hour to get to Tain II forest, then 4 hours to get to Bobiri forest and then 9 hours to reach Ankasa Conservation Area. A round trip to all three sites covers about 910 km.

Tain II forest is a dry semi deciduous forest type. It is in the same region as Sunyani where our lab is located. Bobiri is located in the Ashanti region. We would have to travel past Kumasi, the second largest city in Ghana, to get to Kubease where this moist semi-deciduous forest is located. Ankasa is the farthest site from our university. Our route takes us from Sunyani (Bono region) to Bibiani (Western north region), further downwards to Ayanfuri (an intersection between Ashanti, Central, Western north and Western regions). From Ayanfuri, the road leads to Tarkwa, a mining hub in Western region and continues on to Apemanim junction. From there, the road travels through Nzema townships along the coast of the gulf of guinea and soon to Ankasa.

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A stop at Esiama beach. Kwame (left) attempts to tip the boat with a finger! Is Bismark (right) trying to fly?

Plot demarcation is tedious work and requires a degree of accuracy as much as other ecological tasks. To begin, we would usually take a walk through the forest guided by local experts/forest guards to identify potential areas for plot set up. An area is selected based on forest condition (visibility). Phenological observations require access to plants in order to closely observe them. We set up two 100 m * 100 m plots in each forest for phenological monitoring. Each plot was at least 1 km away from the other.

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Plot demarcation (left). Here is Kwame (right) engulfed by the huge buttresses of Piptadenistrum africanum (local name: Dahoma)

Some interesting species from our plot layout included Manniophyton fulvum (local name: nhunuhunu) with a bloody sap, Landophia owarienses (local name: amangyedua) with a sticky white exudase, Combretum paniculatum (local name: hweremo) and Caesalpinia cucullata (local name: Akobowere) with characteristic thorns.

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The bloody sap of Manniophyton fulvum (left) and milky sticky exudase of Landophia owarienses (right)

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Combretum paniculatum (left) and Caesalpinia cucullata (right) with characteristic thorns.