BU students complete rainforest studies

18 October 2007

BU students have completed an expedition to Ecuador to study the decreasing diversity of rare animals.

Seven environment students joined the Andean Mammal Mapping Project – a six week expedition to Ecuador – to complete studies of flora and fauna and rare animals.

The students were based in three of the remotest places on Earth for their studies during the summer, analysing the natural habitats in two protected rainforest areas, and one that has been subjected to deforestation and replanting.

They studied the proliferation of epiphytes in the rainforest trees and found that there's a strong link between the forest tree diversity and the epiphyte diversity. Bigger, older trees encourage the proliferation of rare plants and flowers in the canopy, but there's less plant life where older forest has been replaced by new.

Epiphytes are a key part of the rainforest and although often overlooked, they actually form 80% cent of all of the diversity of a rainforest.

"What we have found is that we have got lots of these too in areas that are heavily protected, but fewer where there is less diversity," said Dr Anita Diaz, Senior Ecology Lecturer in the School of Conservation Sciences at BU.

Dr Diaz and Dr Mika Peck, the Director of the Darwin Initiative Primenet Project advised the group who worked with local people to develop a rapid assessment technique to protect the rainforest from excessive development and deforestation.

"It works really well to have a team of enthusiastic but not specialised people doing rapid assessment work," said Dr Diaz. "They can identify the areas most in need of protection and that need turning into a reserve before it is too late."

"We are still analysing the data we collected but it is likely to show that primary forest is best for the survival of epiphytes and other wildlife, where the forest is just left alone and not managed," she added.

The team now plans to compile a report on their findings and will suggest that selective logging is much preferred to clean felling an area, and still enables land owners in remote areas to make a living.