Posts

DJL Seasonal South East Monitoring Camp

-
Image
Last week we went on our first monitoring camp of the south east monitoring season here on Aldabra. Our camp took place at Dune Jean-Louis (DJL), between 12/07/2026 – 15/07/2026, a total of three nights and four days of monitoring. The camp team included myself (Field Research Officer), William (Aldabra Science Coordinator), Rona (Assistant Aldabra Science Coordinator), Clarisha (Ranger), Angela (Trainee Ranger) and Norisha (Health and Safety Officer/helping hand to make up our numbers for the camp). Across the entire camp we carried out reptile transect surveys, land crab transect surveys, arthropod monitoring (deploying malaise traps x 3 , pitfall traps x 6 and carrying out beating x 3 sites), landscape evolution (taking photos at specific sites to monitor changes in landscape across seasons and years, and we also started the brand new mangrove fauna monitoring and soil ecology monitoring (Soil testing (3 replicates at two different habitats – Grassland (GRS) and Open Mixed Scru...
1 comment
Read more

Tortoise Faecal Decomposition Monitoring

-
Image
As part of the Pre RaCE seasonal monitoring here on Aldabra one of the focusses of our studies is on Soil Ecology. Soils underpin terrestrial ecosystems, and their ecology is key to understanding ecosystem health and the impacts of environmental changes. Soil anchors roots, holds water, stores nutrients and carbon, and is home to numerous macro- and micro-organisms that fix nitrogen, decompose organic matter and are essential to many other species and processes. As part of this monitoring, litter decomposition is being investigated, and one branch of this includes monitoring Aldabra Giant Tortoise Faeces decomposition. The monitoring will track changes in tortoise faecal decomposition rates pre- and post-eradication. The Aldabra giant tortoise (Aldabrachelys gigantea) is the largest vertebrate on the atoll. It is likely to play key functional roles much like continental herbivores and can be considered an ecosystem engineer. Tortoises are known to modify their habitats through seed...
1 comment
Read more