It is a Jungle Up There

I recently posted about The January Series at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI. This is the only lecture we were able to attend and what a great lecture and topic. Imagine yourself floating 100 feet above the Amazon rainforest floor, plucking leaves & flowers, photographing bugs, seeing tropical birds literally where they live. All in a day’s work for Canopy Meg……. forest canopies book by M D Lowman As with most researchers, Margaret D. Lowman is not well known publicly. Her nickname is Canopy Meg. She is a biological researcher in the forests’ canopy- or in simple terms – her work is done at the very top of 500 -5000 year old trees over 100 feet off the ground, sometimes on a canopy crane, ropes & pulleys, or even a hot air balloon. She has studied the canopy biology of the Peruvian Amazon for over 20 years.

More than 70% of the species living in a tropical forest reside in the canopy, the uppermost layer of the forest, and one of the least understood environments on Earth.

The canopy is important because it serves as the interface between the biosphere and the atmosphere, and is physically and biologically the most active part of the forest.

life in the treetops book by M D Lowman

As Director of Environmental Initiatives for New College Florida, she is a Professor of Biology & Environmental Studies. She also gives lectures, takes students on field trips to the Amazon to educate young people about the rainforests and their role in the balance of life on our planet. She is a delightful speaker, keeps her audience interested and amused. She had many amusing anecdotes about being the only woman researcher living in primitive conditions! She has also taken her 2 sons on many jungle expeditions and into the canopy with her.

The way she explained it, the rainforests are ancient. They used to cover vast distances in South America, Africa, and South East Asia -Australia. They act as the lungs of our planet, giving off life giving oxygen and taking in carbon dioxide in massive amounts. (remember Biology 101?) The rainforests are under attack. We are losing thousands of acres of irreplaceable trees. To illustrate her point, she told us about the seedlings of a rainforest tree. They grow excruciatingly slowly. A seedling 6 inches high on the rainforest floor is approximately 50 years old. You do the math.

its a jungle up there book by m d lowman The insects, birds, and flowers that grow and thrive at the canopy level have just started to be cataloged and identified. Most of the jungle research up to 20 years ago was on the forest floor. Realizing she wouldn’t be able to get enough done in her lifetime to scratch the surface, her mission now is to educate young people, especially young girls and encourage them to become field biologists.