Abri’s technical and research experience to benefit SAEON Fynbos

Abri de Buys, the SAEON Fynbos Node’s new Technical Officer, inspects rain monitoring equipment at Jonkershoek (Photo: Dr Nicky Allsopp)

Abri de Buys joined the SAEON Fynbos Node in November 2010 in the position of Technical Officer.

He will be kicking off his duties with refurbishing the monitoring equipment for the seventy year old experimental catchment weirs in Jonkershoek. He was thrown in at the deep end by attending a workshop on hydrological monitoring equipment presented to the Department of Water Affairs by suppliers in his first week at work.

Abri has previously been part of a Landscape Ecology and Urban Ecosystems laboratory at the University of California, Davis where he assisted with studies investigating atmospheric deposition across rural/urban gradients, as well as a study linking suburban stream water quality to land cover and land use. He has also been involved in a project in Kruger National Park studying how riparian boundary structure interacts with flows of elephants across it and how this interaction relates to ephemeral surface water.

Abri also worked for SANParks, the River Savanna Boundaries Programme (WITS/UCT) and the Northern Plains Programme (Kruger Park Marathon Club) in various technical and research assistant capacities before he joined SAEON. He currently holds a B-Tech: Nature Conservation degree from Cape Peninsula University of Technology.