Post-meeting Safari, Basecamp Masai Mara – Day 1

David
Keekorok air strip, where I landed on my flight from Nairobi. I was greeted by John, my guide, who was dressed in beautiful Maasai clothing.
Driving straight from Keekorok to Basecamp Masai Mara, where I’d be staying, would normally take ~1 hr on the rough dirt road through Masai Mara National Reserve. But there was a lot to see on the way, so it took more like 2 hours, and could have taken more if I hadn’t been meeting friends at 11 a.m. Here is a herd of topis, with Kori budger (the large bird) in front. Topis were some of the most common grazers we saw, but I’d never heard of them before.
Curious warthog piglets, with mom in the background.
Herd of plains zebras. Note the colt in the foreground.
Elans, the largest species of antelope.
“Yeah, I’ve got a bird on my head. So what about it?” Cape buffalo with a yellow-billed ox pecker. This is a common mutualism: the bird eats flies and ticks off of the buffalo (and many other grazers), so the bird gets food and the buffalo gets relief from ectoparasites.
Cheetah, sitting on an old, eroded termite mound. The cheetah was making chirping and chirring noises. John, my guide, noted that he was calling to his “brothers” – four other males that this one hangs out with. Sure enough, one those emerged just a short distance away after a couple of minutes. Then they headed off together, looking for the others, still chirping and chirring.

Cheetah traffic jam in the Mara. No, we were not alone on our early morning game drive. It reminded me of the whale watching scene in the Pacific Northwest. If you saw a cluster of vehicles somewhere, you knew there would be something interesting. That said, John had such sharp vision and intimate knowledge of the area and the wildlife, that we were often the first (and sometimes only) ones on the scene. (Not this time, though.) Almost all of the info on the animals described in subsequent pictures came from discussions with John.
All that and more was what we saw just on the drive to Basecamp from the Keekorok air strip. John dropped me off to check in and have breakfast here at the bridge across the Talek River to Basecamp Masai Mara. It’s connected to a huge fig tree on the other side.
My tent by the Talek River. On the opposite side of the river is the official Masai Mara National Reserve, full of all those wild animals. No fences anywhere, so after dark, there were armed (with spears) Maasai warriors that took us to our tents from the dining tent. I was really impressed with the Basecamp philosophy: they hired almost all their help from the local Maasai community, were actively involved with local wildlife conservation, and helped local women start and run a fair trade beading cooperative. It was pricey, but at least the proceeds were going to good ends.
In the late morning, friends G & K (who asked to remain anonymous) arrived in their Land Rover to go for a game drive. We loaded up and headed for a hotel (Mara Serena Lodge) on the other side of the Mara River. Our goals: wildlife viewing and an afternoon cappuccino. Once the afternoon thunderstorms and downpour stopped, we could open the roof of the Land Rover for better viewing.
Quintessential savanna scenery: lone acacia trees amidst the sweeping plains.
Family of impala. One male oversees a harem of 20 to up to 200 (!) females. He spends lots of time and energy keeping the harem together, mating, fending off other males, and defending against predators. It takes so much energy, in fact, that he might keep control of the harem for only a few months before he’s worn out and another male forces him out. But in that time, he has passed on a lot of copies of his genes.
A group of male impalas. Males that don’t have harems hang out together in groups. They will eventually challenge the males with harems.
My first view of an elephant in the wild, a solo young male.
Giraffe family. I’d never known they could have such dark coloration as the adult on the right, but evidently the extent of spot pigmentation is a heritable trait.
G, K, & I took a wrong turn and missed the only bridge across the Mara River. Instead, we ended up at Ashnil Mara Camp, where we still got our cappuccino and a cold beer, and watched the hippos in the Mara River.
We came across a pride of five sleeping female lions on our way back from Ashnil to Basecamp.
That’s actually a yawn, not a roar. Big teeth, though…
…and, back to sleep. Yes, we felt a bit vulnerable sitting on the roof of the Land Rover. But they weren’t acting very threatening.
Ostriches and acacia.
Yes, zebras are the size of horses. Yes, ostriches are as big as zebras. Dang, those are large birds!!!

Savanna driving.

INMS 4 – General Meeting, Nairobi, Kenya, April 29-May2, 2019

David

On Sunday evening, before the general INMS meeting began, a group from the Kisumu field trip plus several others got together for dinner and a beer. Very interesting and inspiring to be sitting around a table with scientists from five continents: Asia, Africa, Europe, N. America, and S. America. We were only missing the Aussies! Clockwise from left: Felipe Pacheco (Brazil), N. Raghuram (India), Tapan Adhya (India), Cargele Masso (Cameroon), Azusa Oita (Japan), two whom I don’t know, Mark Sutton (INMS Project Lead, UK), one hidden, Xiaoyuan Yan (China), Sergiy Medinets (Ukraine), Oksana Butrym (Ukraine), Kateryna Utkina (Ukraine), Camille Nolasco (Brazil), and Jean Ometto (Brazil).

Our meeting was held at the United Nations headquarters in Nairobi. Maybe I’m a bit of a sap, but I found it inspiring to approach our meeting each day through the walkway bordered by the flags of all the member countries. After passing through really intensive security and showing ID badges, that is.

The front of the UN meeting building. The sign, “karibUNi”, has a nice play on words. “Karibu” is Swahili for “thank you”; then, of course, there’s the blue “UN”, and “UNi” is French for “united”.

We had our plenary sessions in the main meeting room, complete with alphabetical country signs and individual microphones. The first day of the meeting included an overview of the INMS goals and progress for the UN Environment Programme Permanent Representatives from many of the countries. Several of those representatives also spoke, addressing the progress of and challenges facing their respective countries for sustainable nitrogen management. One of the most touching came from the representative from Sri Lanka, who touched on their environmental issues, but also the tragedy of the recent, horrific Easter bombings in that country. The U.S. representative H.E. (Her Excellency) Ms. Lori Dando spoke predominantly about the U.S. commitment to nitrogen management as exemplified by various activities of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Reception celebrating the passage of the UNEA-4 Resolution on Nitrogen Management, hosted (on the left by Mark Sutton (INMS Project Lead, UK) and the Honorable Ms. Susie Kitchens (UK Permanent Representative to the UN in Nairobi). The new Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme, H.E. Joyce Msuya (Tanzania) stands between Mark and Ms. Kitchens, addressing the gathering.

One of the important recent accomplishments by Mark Sutton and INMS was to work with UNEP to pass a resolution addressing sustainable nitrogen management (see resolution L.16) at the Fourth UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-4). Currently, nitrogen issues are addressed in several diverse UNEP programs and policy platforms, including, for example:

  • climate change (N2O is a potent greenhouse gas);
  • biodiversity (N deposition and runoff are key causes of biodiversity loss in both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems);
  • sustainable development goals (N fertilizer is essential for agricultural productivity; excess N in many countries causes the problems just mentioned, but insufficient N in many regions with developing economies hinders crop production. The key is getting the balance right).

But none of these other platforms address N management in a coherent way. The UNEA-4 Nitrogen Management Resolution proposes, not yet another policy platform, but instead an coordinating body to help integrate nitrogen issues across all the existing platforms.

Throughout the rest of the meeting, we provided updates on our various efforts in different components of INMS, and had discussions to coordinate activities between those components.

Work hard and have fun. Mark Sutton and Emily Baker (both at Univ. of Edinburgh) lead a round of Celtic dancing after the meeting dinner on Tues. April 30.

Daniel Ddiba (Stockholm Environment Institute) leads an enthusiastic group (including me) in an African pop dance.

By Wednesday, I needed to escape hotels and meeting rooms, so Jean Ometto and I took an early morning run to the nearby Karura Forest Reserve – right within the city of Nairobi. After running past heavily guarded embassies and the UN compound, we entered a much more natural world – greeted at sunrise by crowned cranes hanging out on the soccer field by one of the Forest entrances.

Jean and I by the waterfall in the Forest Reserve.

The so-called Mau-Mau caves, in which fighters from Kenya’s quest for independence (the Mau-mau Rebellion) hid during the 1950’s. Now, this is a nesting site for a small population of bats.

There are still some large native trees in this relatively intact section of riparian forest. Other parts of the Karura Forest Reserve are dominated by forestry plantations (e.g., Eucalyptus species). I’m not used to seeing monkeys on my morning runs.

The grounds at the UN complex provided good respite from meeting rooms, and to get a quick walk to stretch my legs after lunch.

More monkeys, here scaling the UN complex walls.

Participants at INMS-4, after conclusion of a successful meeting.

Kisumu, Kenya, Day 2

David

On Day 2 (April 28) of our Lake Victoria Basin field trip in Kisumu, we went down to Hippo Point to view the local invasion of water hyacinth, a noxious invasive plant that clogs waterways worldwide. It loves nutrient-rich waters. Cargele noted that earlier this spring, water hyacinth filled the entire bay between Hippo Point and downtown Kisumu, seen in the distance in the photo below.

View from Hippo Point toward downtown Kisumu. Note abundant water hyacinth (Eichornia crassipes; dark green, lower left) and hippo grass (Echinochloa stagnina; bright green) along the shoreline.

The guide for the boat in the foreground was so knowledgeable, that he convinced our group to take an unplanned excursion to see the local hippos.

Safety first! We all got our life jackets and had just enough seats for everyone in the group.

Yes – hippos! The guide noted that this group of hippos is particularly acculturated, and therefore not very aggressive. Evidently, if we’d gotten this close to hippos “in the wild”, they would have charged our boat.  Later, on safari in Masai Mara, the guide there noted that wild hippos are one of the most dangerous animals in Africa (along with lions, Cape buffalo, and elephants). Everyone agreed this unplanned excursion was a highlight of our trip.

So, what happened to all the water hyacinth that had clogged Kisumu Bay? Evidently, changes in winds started blowing it across the Winam Gulf (the arm of Lake Victoria on which Kisumu sits) toward Homa Bay – where we’d driven the day before on our way to Mbita and ICIPE. Here, you can see rafts of water hyacinth adrift on the lake.

Next stop on our tour of the anthropogenic water cycle in Kisumu was the Kisumu Sewage Treatment Plant – a rare gem that most tourists to the area never get to see. Caroline Omolo, Safety, Health, Environment and Quality Manager of water treatment for Kisumu, led us through the facilities.

Xiaoyuan Yan (China), Cargele Masso (Cameroon), and Catherine Mathenge (Cameroon; far right) listen as Caroline Omolo explains the workings of the sewage treatment plant.
Primary treatment in settling tanks.
Mixing and filtration. Note that the egrets seem to particularly like the tree behind these tanks. Some even rode the “merry-go-round”, as the spreader arms circled around the filtration vats (rocky tank in the background).
Caroline explains results of effluent testing to Azusa Oita of Japan.
Water testing throughout the sewage treatment process: incoming sewage on the far right, treated effluent on the far left.

The sewage treatment plant is reasonably successful – effluent has only ~1-3 mg N/L, though they have more difficulty with phosphorus (20-30 mg P/L). Unfortunately, it’s not the treatment plant technology that leads to water quality difficulties. Elizabeth explained that only ~8% of Kisumu residents are hooked up to sewarage, and when treatment plant effluent is released into the adjacent river, it actually makes the river water cleaner. That’s because of large unplanned settlements just upstream that have no water or sewage infrastructure at all. Wastewater just goes directly into the river, and thence into Lake Victoria. Bottom line is that, at least in part, resolving nutrient (and other) pollution in Lake Victoria isn’t primarily a scientific or technological problem, so much as a social, economic, and infrastructure problem: how to get all those people hooked up to clean water and sewage treatment?

Kenyan kids gave us big waves and smiles wherever we drove!

Next stop was the water intake for the Kisumu drinking water treatment plant (the green pipes in the photo on the left). Note the extensive screening, in part to keep out all the water hyacinth (photo on right).

Incoming water from Lake Victoria to the drinking water treatment plant.
Cargele, Sergiy Medinets (Ukraine), and Frieda Gesing (Germany) view the water coming into the settling ponds.

After the settling ponds, much of the turbidity is gone and subsequent chlorination makes the water potable. This all looked great to me, but begged the question: why do all the guidebooks emphasize “Don’t drink the tap water anywhere (even the fancy hotels) in Kenya!”? Evidently, the answer is again infrastructure: leaky distribution pipes due to age, construction damage, etc. mean that what leaves the water treatment plant can get contaminated on the way to the tap.

Following the settling ponds, water goes into the chlorination tanks, after which it is potable and gets piped out to the city.
After a delicious lunch at the Dunga Hill Camp by Lake Victoria, we headed to the airport for our flight back to Nairobi.

As we flew out of Kisumu back to Nairobi, we got a final glimpse of large mats of water hyacinth drifting across the Winam Gulf toward Homa Bay.

INMS 4 – Kisumu and Nairobi, Kenya

David

First couple of days in Kenya

It was a long 36 hours of traveling from Bellingham to Kisumu, Kenya, for our pre-meeting field trip to tour the Lake Victoria Basin Regional Demonstration site (at least, the Kenyan portion) of the International Nitrogen Management System (INMS). This is leading up to the INMS Joint Meeting 4 in Nairobi this week. (There’s a surprisingly good overview of the geography, history, and environmental problems at Lake Victoria – the headwaters of the White Nile – on Wikipedia.)

I arrived in Kisumu mid-day on Friday, April 26, and after a nice welcome dinner with guests from the Lake Victoria Basin Commission (LVBC), the tour started Sat. morning. We toured the West Kanu Irrigation Scheme, set up primarily for rice farming, then drove another couple of hours out to see an atmospheric monitoring site at Mbita. On the way, we saw a lot of Kenyan landscape. This, however, is no longer the realm of lions, zebras and giraffes – the Lake Victoria Basin has the highest population densities outside of any major watershed in Africa. Almost every square meter is being used for grazing, agriculture, or living – with subsequent degradation of water quality throughout. Researchers are trying to figure out how to reduce nutrient pollution but still maintain agricultural production to support the population.

Hooper attends the 9th GEF International Waters Conference in Morocco

David

 

I attended IWC-9, focused on “Sustaining International Waters Cooperation”, November 5-8, 2018, in Marrakech, Morocco. I represented our Nooksack-Fraser Transboundary Nitrogen Project (NFTN), one of seven demonstration projects world-wide as part of the International Nitrogen Management System (INMS), which is funded through the Global Environment Facility (GEF). This was very different from the standard scientific meeting. Talks and workshops focused on projects aiming to address environmental problems in both freshwater and marine ecosystems, in a way that is sensitive to local needs and cultures. Just like scientific meetings, though, there were lots of acronyms! Here are some links to info about the meeting:

Conference site and agenda

Conference synopsis – video

International Waters: Learning Exchange and Resource Network (IW:LEARN) Facebook page, with conference photos.

Ms. Kusum Athukorala, of the Sri Lanka Water Partnership, addresses the plenary opening session of IWC9.
The Water Musuem of Marrakech, where we had the second day of the meeting and a tour of the museum.
The gala dinner, on night 3 of the meeting, with participants from four continents, plus two of our Moroccan hosts (on the right).
Meeting participants of IWC9, at the conference venue, the Jardins de L’Agdal hotel.

MSc graduate Mandie Carr wins prize at national meeting

David

Hooper Lab MSc graduate Amanda (Mandie) Carr won the Simberloff Award for Outstanding Student Presentation from the Invasion Ecology Section of the Ecological Society of America at the 2018 Annual Meeting of ESA in New Orleans.  Congratulations, Mandie!

By the way, Mandie also won the WWU Biology Department’s Spring 2018 Outstanding TA Award. Way to rock it, Mandie!

Find the award announcement here.

Recent paper in Ecology Letters

David

We’re excited to see our long-term efforts pay off with publication in Ecology Letters of an Ideas & Perspectives piece: “Ecosystem context illuminates conflicting roles of diversity in ecosystem carbon storage.” Our goal was to help merge the “state factors” approach from ecosystem ecology and the biodiversity & ecosystem functioning perspective. That is, how much new information do we gain if we include diversity as an interactive factor affecting ecosystem properties, in the context of other well-known ecosystem controls, such as climate, topography, time since disturbance, and organism functional traits? We used a long-term, broad-scale data set from Quebec forests to explore this question.

Find it here.

Here’s an artist’s conception of this paper by undergraduate student Rowan Day.