The Chobe Enclave, north of Botswana, is located along the Chobe National Park and the Chobe Forest Reserve. By this situation, it shelters many large herbivores, especially during the dry season because of the proximity of the Linyanti Swamps. Simultaneously, it is grazed by small herds of cows coming from one of the five villages.
Located in the Kalahari Basin, the substrate is dominated by sand. But the geomorphology is marked by a former alluvial fan and disappeared wetlands, with fossile islands and channels. On this almost flat area, it created a rich diversity of soils, developped from sand, lacustrine carbonates or natrium rich sediments, all more or less influenced by water fluctuations.
As a first approach of the region, the diversity of the soils and the plant communities was described and mapped. They showed a surprisingly high diversity, calling for future developments, enjoying the very convenient and research center located in the heart of the Chobe Enclave.
A second project, with Prof. T. Vennemann (ISOLAB), aims to improve the understanding of the groundwater circulation between the Chobe Enclave and the close Namibia and to assess the origin of the water used by the trees in the dry and rain seasons. The stable isotopes are measured with a high resolution in slices of trunks and, when tree rings are visible, they are measured. At the end of the project, we hope to be able to reconstruct the former climatic conditions (mainly precipitations) in the region.
Cross section of a camel thorn (Vachellia erioloba): the white dots are rows of crystals of calcium oxalate.
Active project members
Rémy Romanens
Federico Pellacani
Elsa Bernauer
Eric Verrecchia
Pascal Vittoz
Publications
Mokatse T., Diaz N., Shemang E., Van Thuyne J., Vittoz P., Vennemann T. & Verrecchia E.P. (2022). Landscapes and Landforms of the Chobe Enclave, Northern Botswana. In F.D. Eckardt (Ed.), Landscapes and Landforms of Botswana. Springer International Publishing, Cham, pp. 91-116.
Romanens R., Pellacani F., Mainga A., Fynn R., Vittoz P. & Verrecchia E.P. (2019). Soil diversity and major soil processes in the Kalahari basin, Botswana. Geoderma Regional 19: e00236.
Vittoz P., Pellacani F., Romanens R., Mainga A., Verrecchia E.P. & Fynn R.W.S. (2019). Plant community diversity in the Chobe Enclave, Botswana: Insights for functional habitat heterogeneity for herbivores. Koedoe 61: a1604.