On Jan 8th, a group of us (Shizhen, Jianchu and Weiru) went to Futian mangrove national nature reserve for pilote study. It was the first time that they need to recognize species of trees for sampling. With the help of Dr. Gao from Guangdong Academy Of Forestry, they successfully collected young leaves and old leaves of kandelia candel （秋茄）, aegiceras (桐花), bruguiera (木榄) and acanthus ilicifolius (老鼠簕), which are usually found in mangrove forests of coastal areas of Southeast Asia and southern China. Also, they collected one paired of surface water sample and sediment sample as well as two tree ring samples of kandelia cande.

Us in the marsh to collect tree ring samples.

The reason why mangrove is so called “red forest”: Tannins appear red when oxidized.

We were collecting the leaves.

Apparent salt excretion.

We were collecting the water sample and sediment sample.

mudskippers and snake 🙂