Sabah

• November 2013 - January 2014
• Sabah field campaign

Funded by T-FORCES (European Research Council grant), Lan Qie (aka Lainie) led the recensus of three 1-ha permanent plots in Danum Valley Conservation Area (DVCA). Michael Schwarz (funded by the Imperial College London) provided valuable assistance in carrying out systematic soil sampling including a 2m soil pit for each plot. This work benefitted greatly from the support from the Royal Society’s South East Asia Rainforest Research Programme (Dr. Glen Reynolds, Johnny Larenus and MinSheng Khoo), and help from the experienced research assistants at DVCA.

Lainie and Michael then spent several weeks working in another one of Sabah’s research intensive forests, the Kabili-Sepilok Forest Reserve. The team re-measured the 2-ha permanent plot first measured in 1958 by D. I. Nicholson, one of the oldest in its kind in the world, and carried out soil sampling in this and other six plots on different edaphic conditions in the reserve. Lan Qie thanks her local collaborator Dr Reuben Nilus (Forest Research Centre, Sabah Forestry Department) and his team (Felix, Gabriel, Gamisi, Sadil and Raymond).

Lainie also enjoyed working with Dr Terhi Ruitta (Unversity of Oxford) in the field, discussing standardising soil sampling protocols, as well as visiting some of her intensive carbon plots in Sabah’s Lost World – Maliau Basin Conservation Area.