Transect 104

Field crew at Phong Dien Nature Reserve in the Truong Son Mountains of Central Vietnam marking the start of transect 104 in their rattan inventory (see Song Thanh N.R. and  Field Books). This is 104 out of a total of 160 transects that they were required to sample. Image below provides a little context as to where the crew actually was. There's a road, a lot of forest - and not much else. Yellow line in the upper left is the border with Lao P.D.R. Spatial coordinates are included in case anyone wants to visit the site.  

More Rattan Counting

The field crews from the rattan survey (Where are Those Transects and Field Books) sent a lot of images together with their data files. The shots provide a good overview of what the inventory work in the Central Truong Son mountains was like.

There was, for example, a lot of slogging around to locate the transects,

some confusion trying to figure out the identity of all the different rattan species that were encountered,

the tedium of setting up a new base camp every night,

and the occasional bit of fun when the rain stopped and the transect passed through a nice, i.e. flat, piece of forest. These guys did an amazing job with this survey. Deep bows of gratitude.  [NOTE: I love the plastic sandals and the leech socks].