We have received brilliant news. The Royal Society awarded us a grant of 11,805 GBP, which allowed us to buy essential equipment (including a thermal imaging camera, a full-frame digital camera with fish-eye lens and a NDVI camera) and to run a short-term pilot field study in the coastal lowlands of Mozambique measuring and mapping variation of crop and forest quality along climate and disturbance gradients. For updates on this project, which will run until March 2018, check our website for new posts and the project webpage for outputs.
This work will provide us with the chance to develop baseline maps and test some methodological approaches for subsequent larger-scale studies (proposal currently in review with the Leverthulme Trust) involving biodiversity components (i.e. trophic network modelling) and hydrology components (i.e. SWAT modelling).