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Change of plans - extending our stay in Indonesia
While working in Brunei, we spend part of our time camping in the forest and part of our time living in a comfortable suburban house. Unfortunately the house is built on a former peat swamp forest, and...
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Life along the river
Near Pontianak, the river’s edges are bustling with industry. Further upstream there are villages along the banks and the houses are spaced further and further apart. Fishing and small-scale...
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What is peat?
Tropical peatlands are forested wetlands where dead leaves, branches and fallen trees accumulate on the ground faster than they can decompose. These forests are flooded for much of the year, limiting...
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Visit to the machine shop
The tropical peat we're studying is around 90% water. By sampling this water (known as porewater) we can get a picture of what is happening within the peat. For example, we can measure nutrient...
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Water sampling in Pontianak
This week I’m working at our team’s office at the National University of Singapore. It’s nice to have some time to get organized in the lab and make plans for our upcoming work. Below are some...
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Back in Brunei
The last two weeks have been very busy with fieldwork. I recently got back from one trip to the forest and we’re headed back in again today. To get to our fieldwork site we drive to the river, take a...
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Home improvement
We just got back from an eight-day camping trip, and it’s nice to be home again. However, long camping trips are a lot more pleasant than they once were. Since my last visit to Brunei our camping...
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Late nights in the lab
Recently I’ve been focusing on methane in the peat swamp. Methane is an important greenhouse gas produced in low-oxygen environments such as wetlands. This month a colleague is here with her methane...
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Climbing the tower
I recently climbed our group’s eddy flux tower for the first time. The tower stands 10m above the canopy and was built to measure the carbon dioxide and methane emissions from the forest. Although it...
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Spring in the swamp
This past week I witnessed a rare event in the swamp forest: the flowering of the Shorea albida tree. Shorea albida dominates the canopy of our forest. Uniquely, this species rarely flowers — the last...
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