Friday, January 25, 2008
Mexico’s tropical cloud forests are known for their diverse plant and animal species.
But, as with many complex ecosystems, environmental change has threatened the survival of those life forms and their habitats.
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The forests are normally bathed in moisture because of the clouds, but there is some indication that the cloud layer is becoming unlinked from the forest because of increased temperatures.
-Jorge Soberon, senior scientist at the Biodiversity Institute
Because of this, researchers at the University of Kansas’s Biodiversity Institute have taken innovative steps toward conserving Mexico’s species-rich cloud forests with the help of an $850,000 research grant from Microsoft Research.
Jorge Soberon, senior scientist at the Biodiversity Institute, has led the team of scientists working to protect the fragile tropical forests, which grow on the slopes of mountains and often are steeped in low cloud cover.
“Cloud forests are amazing places,” Soberon said. “Many of the species there are endangered. If the forest disappears, they will disappear as well.”
Soberon and Townsend Peterson, curator of the Biodiversity Institute, have been compiling data such as species distribution and climate patterns in the cloud forests. They will use the money from the Microsoft Research grant, the first corporate grant ever awarded to the Biodiversity Institute, to forecast the future of the cloud forests’ unique life forms in the wake of global warming.
“The forests are normally bathed in moisture because of the clouds,” he said. “But there is some indication that the cloud layer is becoming unlinked from the forest because of increased temperatures.”
Environmental change is one focus of the project, which is comprised of three parts. First, Soberon said, the researchers want to develop a conservation strategy to help protect species living in the cloud forest. They will also use the grant money to create a computer program, that can analyze the environmental data at the push of a button. The third part of the project, Soberon said, will involve hiring programmers to develop a virtual world that will predict the future of the forests.
Once developed, the virtual world will be reprogrammable to fit the needs of other scientists, Soberon said. It could even be used to predict the spread of disease, he said.
Despite the project’s benefits, Microsoft’s involvement has raised a few eyebrows.
“Some people are wondering if we are selling our souls to the dark side,” Soberon said. “But they’re concerned, like everybody is, about the future of the world’s ecosystems.”
Leonard Krishtalka, director of the Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center, said corporate funding would benefit KU researchers.
“Corporations often get slammed for not being environmentally conscious,” Krishtalka said. “But this is a win-win because it allows scientists and students to receive more funding and allows corporations to contribute to research.”
Peterson said the research team would continue gathering data for a year before computer modeling would begin.
Until then, he said, the cloud forests will be protected almost solely by Mexico’s system of natural land reserves.
— Edited by Samuel Lamb
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