TraitDivNet expedition in Ghana

Driven by the mission to tackle Raunkiæran shortfall (lack of knowledge of species traits and functions) and enhance ecological understanding, the TraitDivNet is committed to explore the world's most challenging and remote regions. This autumn, our intrepid field workers, Blanca and Juni, embarked on an expedition through the rainforests and savannahs of Ghana since Africa is one of the continents lacking plant trait data. They successfully returned with invaluable data on ten above- and belowground functional traits for approximately 120 little studied species. Blanca and Juni collaborated with CSIR - Forestry Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG) and University of Ghana (Department of Plant and Environmental Biology), and had a lot of help from local researchers, students and rangers, as well as from Philemon Gyamfi and John Yangyuro Kupagme who are PhD students in the University of Tartu Department of Botany.