A collaboration between Dr Adrian Spence, Dr Donovan Campbell and Mrs Tiffany Wallace saw the scientists collecting soil cores in the Blue Mountains for erosion analysis and inventory to identify soil mass as well as nutrient loss. The team also evaluated gas flux measurements in the area.

The project ‘Agrobiodiversity, Indigenous knowledge and protected Area Management in the Rio Grande Valley, Jamaica and KwaZulu-Natal, South

Africa’ serves to understand the National Park, its dynamics and potential requirements for improved management.

Mrs Wallace and the team also authored an accepted abstract for this years Goldschmidt Conference (postponed due to COVID-19). The abstract highlighted the

work done on the ‘Impact of erosion on the nutrient and chemical profiles of agricultural soil in the Upper Rio Grande Valley, Jamaica’. Additionally, Prof Barker

from the UWI Geology Department, along with Dr Spence and others apart of the team; authored an abstract for the American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting originally slated for early April in Colorado but had also been affected due to COVID-19. The abstract highlighted ‘Small-scale farming, rural change and traditional knowledge in Millbank, Upper Rio Grande Valley, Jamaica’.