The night ends early and abruptly. Right after 1:30 a.m. we hit a very rough stretch of seas where we have to cross–perpendicular to the wind and waves–a large stretch of open, rough water just south of Cape Froward (the southernmost tip of continental South America). At first the ship is tossed into the air and banged back down into the sea, awakening everyone. Our little ship, a mere 60 × 20 feet, tosses about for hours on end. Anything not tied down or already on the floor is soon there.
Quite reasonably, the crew closes the door to the bunk room so waves won’t slosh down the ladder. However, this makes the room quite warm and increases the prospects of seasickness. And then, just like that, around 4:15 a.m. it all stops; I feel a cool breeze and the seas calm. Most of the group, exhausted from fighting to stay in our bunks and not get sick (some more successfully than others) fall swiftly back to sleep. Unfortunately it is to be a short reprieve.
Ed. note: NYBG scientist and Mary Flagler Cary Curator of Botany, Bill Buck has just returned from his annual expedition to the islands off Cape Horn, the southernmost point in South America, to study mosses and lichens. For the past two years he was able to file stories from the field, but this year’s locations proved so remote he was forced to wait until his return. We will be publishing them over the course of several days.
The waiting is finally over. I arrive here Sunday evening after a grueling 36 hour trip from my home in New York. The trip is always horrible with inevitable long layovers, a 9+ hour international flight, an an additional 4-5 hour flight down to Punta Arenas. It seems somehow unjust after enduring that long flight to then be crammed into an Airbus 320 with scarcely enough leg room for someone significantly shorter than me.
I meet up with Juan Larraín (of previous trips) who is now a post-doctoral student at the Field Museum in Chicago. Juan has already been in Chile for a few weeks to visit his family over the holidays. I hardly recognize him because he has shaved his beard since I saw him last, but he hasn’t shrunk and so is still at least a head taller than most Chileans. I had asked Juan to arrive in Punta Arenas a day earlier than everyone else so he and I could start preparations for this year’s expedition. Additionally, we are welcomed to Punta Arenas by our old friend Ernesto Davis, who also acts as our local facilitator.
Scott A. Mori, Ph.D., Nathaniel Lord Britton Curator of Botany has been studying New World rain forests for The New York Botanical Garden for nearly 35 years. He has witnessed an unrelenting reduction in the extent of the forests he studies and, as a result, is dedicated to preserving the diversity of plants and animals found there.
Snow in South Salem, New York in October 2011.
“So what,” you must be saying to yourself. In spite of how obvious the title is, the lack of cold weather in the tropics contributes both directly and indirectly to tropical biodiversity, the topic of this blog.
One of the many reasons that there are high numbers of species represented by low numbers of individuals in old growth tropical forests–compared to the opposite situation in temperate forests–is because of the greater number of plant/animal interactions in the former. In one of our 2.5 acre tree study plots in central Amazonian Brazil, we registered 285 species of trees with diameters at or above four inches at breast height. Because our plots average 600 trees above this size class per plot, almost every second tree we sampled represented a different species. In contrast, there are fewer than 100 species of trees of all size classes in the entire state of Wisconsin, where I grew up.
Coming just days after 2012 was named the hottest year on record for the contiguous U.S., the draft report is unique in that it points out the impacts of climate change on specific regions, including the Northeast. It also notes economic risks and adaptive strategies for our area.
The Yale Forum on Climate Change and the Media has excerpted the report’s basic findings, which are deemed the scientific consensus. The findings underscore the human-driven causes of climate change as follows:
— “Global climate is changing, and this is apparent across the U.S. in a wide range of observations. The climate change of the past 50 years is due primarily to human activities, predominantly the burning of fossil fuels.”
— “Some extreme weather and climate events have increased in recent decades, and there is new and stronger evidence that many of these increases are related to human activities.”
— “Human-induced climate change is projected to continue and accelerate significantly if emissions of heat-trapping gases continue to increase.”
Scott A. Mori has been studying New World rain forests for The New York Botanical Garden for over 35 years. He has witnessed an unrelenting reduction in the extent of the tropical forests he studies and as a result is dedicated to teaching others about this species rich ecosystem.
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I still stand in awe each time I see the cannon ball tree (Couroupita guianensis), a member of the Brazil nut family. In fact, it is such an astonishing plant that I am nominating it as the most interesting tree on Earth (disclaimer: I am a specialist in the Brazil nut family and my nomination may be biased). After you read this essay, I would like to know if you agree with me—if not, I challenge you to nominate a tree, tropical or temperate and from any part of the world, that you feel is more interesting than this marvel of nature.
An ex-girlfriend once observed in my presence: “Chocolate and men… some things are just better rich.” Understandably, she didn’t last long. Between the basic cable package and my favorite old jeans with the hole in the knee, I figure our relationship was more than her soul could endure. But let’s be honest–you don’t have to be a millionaire to make your significant other truly happy this Valentine’s Day. Money may not buy love, but–and it pains me to say it–she was right about one thing: the chocolate. Go ahead and upgrade the cable package, because you’ll be spending plenty of time on the living room couch if you forget to pick up the good stuff.
Once you’ve secured a delicious prize for your sweetheart, what better way to accumulate a few extra points than regaling them with the epic story of chocolate; its fantastic history and that mysterious process by which cacao makes its way from the deepest rain forests to that cellophane-wrapped, heart-shaped box gathering dust on the shelf of your local drug store? The object of your desire will undoubtedly wonder at your knowledge of obscure things and immediately find you more intriguing. You’re welcome in advance, friends.
Scott A. Mori has been studying New World rain forests for nearly 40 years. He has witnessed an unrelenting reduction in the extent of the forests he studies and, as a result, has become concerned about their future. The following blog is based on a chapter in his recent book, Tropical Plant Collecting: From the Field to the Internet.
The future of plant and animal diversity in Latin American rain forests depends on an understanding of how fragile the plant and animal interactions found in this ecosystem are. The relationships between plants and animals in the tropics are so closely co-evolved that man’s utilization of tropical forests always results in loss of biodiversity. After a 40-year career of botanical exploration in the New World tropics, I conclude that human beings had little to do with the evolution of biodiversity anywhere on the planet, especially in the tropics, and, as Thomas Friedman said in his book Hot, Flat, and Crowded, “We are the only species in this vast web of life that no animal or plant in nature depends on for its survival–yet we depend on this whole web of life for our survival.”
I believe that increasing human population and consumption throughout the world is not compatible with the preservation of the world’s biodiversity, but that rings especially true in the tropics. Moreover, many tropical forests grow on soils that are so nutrient poor they will never support high human populations without massive inputs of fertilizers and pesticides. If tropical areas are not productive enough today to provide significant resources to a world population of 6.5 billion, what makes humans think that they will be able to contribute to supporting a population of nine to 11 billion humans by 2050? The consumptive power of a resident of today’s Amazon rain forest is several orders of magnitude greater than that of the pre-Colombian inhabitants who based their economy on fertilizer- and pesticide-independent agricultural systems. In short, residents of the tropics–and the world in general–will not be able to protect biodiversity at the level it needs if both human population growth and consumption are not controlled.
Winter is … well, a weird time of year. We tromp around in oversized boots, brandishing umbrellas that hardly seem useful. The trees all stand–if a touch awkwardly–in stark and naked relief, while phases of matter bounce at whim between liquid and solid. As a gardener, it’s hard to be optimistic. Sure, there’s the arrival of seed catalogs to look forward to, and bulbs to be forced indoors, but repeated trips to the backyard to peek at the soil rarely prove fruitful … most of the time.
Patience, an early rising, and a northerly location can prove that there’s beauty to be found in nature’s colder months, assuming you know where to look, because when the conditions are just right, at the edge of sunrise, frost flowers glitter.
I’m not referring to snowdrops, elegant as they are in late winter and early spring. “Frost flower” is more of a literal term. And when you see the leaves, vines, and gossamer threads formed through this unique interaction between plant and atmosphere, you’ll rightly understand how they came to earn this nickname.
Scott A. Mori has been studying New World rain forests for The New York Botanical Garden for over 35 years. He has witnessed an unrelenting reduction in the extent of the tropical forests he studies and as a result has become interested in the ecosystem services provided by them.
Hurricane Sandy left a path of fallen trees throughout its course, including over 100 at The New York Botanical Garden. Included in this devastation at the NYBG was a 101-foot-tall red oak thought to be 200 years old; this majestic tree provided the right habitat for spring-blooming plants in the Azalea Garden. Repeated storms with such force and frequency are making people ask if the storms could be related to global warming.
Climatologists have demonstrated that impressive swings in climate have taken place over the course of earth’s history—for example, the northeastern United States has been covered by glaciers during some periods and by tropical forests at other times. Because of these extremes of climate, it is difficult to say with certainty what the cause of such violent weather is. The proximate, or direct, cause of Hurricane Sandy was the convergence of three “normal” weather patterns: 1) a tropical storm with very strong winds coming from the south; 2) a trough of low pressure from the Arctic that strengthened the storm as it moved north; and 3) a block of high pressure in the northeastern Atlantic which forced the storm inland. In contrast, the more difficult question is: “What are the ultimate causes that make storms stronger and more frequent?”
Scott A. Mori has been studying New World rain forests for The New York Botanical Garden for over 35 years. He has witnessed an unrelenting reduction in the extent of the tropical forests he studies and as a result has become interested in the ecosystem services provided by them.
Manisha Sashital, a student in Environmental Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, worked on a botanical glossary under the supervision of Dr. Mori as an intern at the Garden this past summer.
Just like languages, the sciences have vocabularies that must be mastered before their literature can be understood. Without understanding vocabulary, one cannot speak or write a language—just like one can not understand the morphology and anatomy of plants; their ecological relationships with other plants and animals; and their interactions with the environment in which they live without understanding the terms that describe the features of plants and their interactions. Learning the terminology of Botany is frustrating to beginners and experienced botanists alike because the vocabulary is vast, there are many synonyms for the same terms, and terms are a combination of Latin, Greek, and English words. There are numerous botanical glossaries available, for example the classics: A Glossary of Botanical Terms by B. D. Jackson and Botanical Latin by William T. Stern, and too many others to mention in this blog. Why then is there a need for another glossary?
The answer is that electronic glossaries provide those with an interest in botany access to more information than hard copy publications. For example, electronic glossaries can be illustrated with more images than hard copy publications because of the high costs of printing, especially of images in color, and they can be immediately corrected when a mistake is brought to the attention of the authors. Electronic glossaries are instantaneously available to anyone with a connection to the internet, and links can be made to definitions of other terms related to a particular term under consideration. In addition, electronic glossaries can be attached to electronic keys to break down complex terminology used to identify unknown plants; for example, if a choice in a key asks if the ovary of a flower is superior or inferior, a link can be provided to these terms in a glossary where they are defined and illustrated.
The night ends early and abruptly. Right after 1:30 a.m. we hit a very rough stretch of seas where we have to cross–perpendicular to the wind and waves–a large stretch of open, rough water just south of Cape Froward (the southernmost tip of continental South America). At first the ship is tossed into the air and banged back down into the sea, awakening everyone. Our little ship, a mere 60 × 20 feet, tosses about for hours on end. Anything not tied down or already on the floor is soon there.
