Mattie Biddulph
In July this year I travelled to Grahamstown, on
the Eastern Cape of South Africa for an international conference
indulging purely in sediment water science. I had never been to such a
specific conference before, so was looking forward to perhaps
understanding most of what was going on for a change! Myself, Simon
Pulley and Ian Foster took the long journey down south (two planes and
many, many hours of waiting in airports) to arrive in a freezing cold
but bright and sunny South African winter, which suited Simon and I just
fine, as that’s when the spiders decide to stay hidden… Rhodes
University had a beautiful campus, and the town itself was a quirky mix
of South African and British settlers.
The conference itself was
slightly daunting as we both had to chair a session, as well as
presenting. Themes covered: sediment fingerprinting, vegetation-sediment
relationships, biogeochemistry, connectivity and catchment scale
processes, finishing with “framework and tools for management”, which is
where my talk slotted in. I presented my PhD research on finding the
best methods for testing the effectiveness of mitigation measures, which
have been put in place to reduce agricultural sediment pollution and
their associated pollutants in England and Wales. River systems in South
Africa and the UK are very different, particularly due to climate and
geology; despite this, there were some useful ideas to be shared, as
there is a strong argument for landowner control, using cheap,
sustainable materials and low maintenance methods.
For one day
of the conference, it was “fieldtrip day”. Simon and I chose to go on
the trip to Addo Elephant Park, where we drove around the game reserve
and were lucky enough to see dozens of animals that we definitely would
not see at home, including: meerkats, warthog, zebra, kudu, springbok,
giraffe and of course, elephants. It was a lovely day out, and
apparently Ian’s boat trip along the Mansfield River was equally
enjoyable.
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| Elephants at Addo Elephant Park |
We were lucky enough to join some postgrads (Kat and
Jordan) and Bennie, a PhD student, for a trip to Compassberg and Nieu
Bethesda, a beautiful part of the country where you can be the only
souls for at least 10 km around you. It was very interesting to work on
some unfamiliar river systems and geomorphological features. We also did
some sample collection for Ian’s research, followed by a night in a
farmhouse without electricity but a very warm fire and a bottle of
brandy!
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Ian testing the nitrate and
phosphate of this incredible clean river near Nieu-Bethesda
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| Bennie, Jordan and Kat from Rhodes University,
after some disturbance experiments |
It was a fantastic experience, so much so that Simon is
still out there, about to begin his post-doc. So far he’s learnt how to
use a washing machine but has been without water for 4 days!
