Vietnam field work 2017

From 19th Sept to 6th October, PJ Matthews will join Dr Nguyen Van Dzu (Institute for Ecology and Biological Resources, Hanoi) for field surveys of wild taro population in the Mekong and Red River deltas, in southern and northern Vietnam.

This will be the first field work funded by our JSPS project grant (2017-2020).

Our aim is to begin testing the hypothesis that such delta regions are zones of high genetic diversity and hybridity in taro.

Since the Mekong River may be in flood, boat transport may be needed. I am taking simple inflatable life jackets for this trip as a precaution. They may not be needed, but it is better to have them in case they are.