The earliest start to date for a field trip lived up to its expectations of a wild and wintery affair; in fact it was so wet I’m still wringing out my eyeballs. Fellow students relayed stories of only one prior trip in three years that topped this one in terms of rain.
The artificial dam. Pumlumon valley in the backdrop
After a three hour bus trip expertly navigated by Tim Jones and Christian Dunn
we arrived at out destination, Pumlumon (Plymlimon in Welsh) near Aberystwyth in mid-Wales. After a short walk we arrived at our destination. The site a former experiment ran by Bangor university and the Centre of Ecology and Hydrology to simulated drought conditions in
wetlands by damming water
and using plastic piping to bypass an area of land and
re-connect it with the gulley downstream, effectively artificially drying out an area of gulley.
The day provided ample "bad weather" field work opportunities as the group were tasked with collecting gas, soil and water samples from the former experimental site. A transect of sampling points was set up with 5 replicates in the control (upland) and treatment (droughted) sites situated 10 meters apart from each other. Gases were samples at 0 and 60 minutes for each replicate, in which time we took shelter under the "emergency shelter " built for 16. Soil samples were collected not by hand but in a syringe as not to contaminate them as samples are undergoing microbial DNA analysis. This work will attempt to match up bacterial communities with soil enzyme activity and what differences are seen between wet and droughted soils in relation to trace gases given off and feedback to climate change.
Pumlumon catchment
The Pumlumon catchment has been subject to extensive restoration by the
Montgomery Wildlife Trust who have established a payment for ecosystem
services project whereby local businesses can invest in upland
restoration with a major benefit being flood alleviation in the lowlands. When a company voluntarily gives up cash for environmental restoration they are termed as being ion the corporate social responsibility market.
This is how wet it was
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