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WHEN Nalini Nadkarni first ventured into the cover of a cloud forest, nearly nothing was recognized about this distinctive ecosystem. To discover it, she and a small group of pioneers needed to develop particular tree-climbing strategies, which, over the intervening 4 a long time, have allowed her and others to unlock the mysteries of forest cover biology. Monteverde in Costa Rica, the place Nadkarni does a lot of her fieldwork, is dwelling to some outstanding species, together with the resplendent quetzal. Nevertheless it seems that the whole ecosystem depends upon a extra modest and unlikely group of organisms known as epiphytes. These tree-dwelling crops – which embody a dreamy array of wonders from ephemeral mosses that drip off branches and luscious ferns that nestle in crevices to a stunning number of orchids – act like nutrient sponges, extracting chemical compounds from mist and rain and conveying them to the forest ground.
Seven years in the past, Nadkarni, who’s on the College of Utah, fell from the cover and broke her again in 5 locations. Nonetheless, she was again in her tree-climbing harness a few years later. Such grit is a trademark of her profession, which, in addition to reaching the forest heights, has taken her to another uncommon locations. As a self-professed secular “missionary” for ecology, she has worked with prisoners to breed threatened plants and animals, and has delivered sermons in churches and synagogues. Now, aged 68, Nadkarni acknowledges that her tree-climbing days are nearing an finish. However she additionally is aware of that local weather change poses unprecedented challenges to cloud forests and is decided to doc how it’s affecting the epiphytes on which they …
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