{"id":4829,"date":"2011-03-04T12:09:10","date_gmt":"2011-03-04T17:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/?p=4829"},"modified":"2011-03-04T12:09:10","modified_gmt":"2011-03-04T17:09:10","slug":"immersed-in-the-clouds-interview-with-tropical-cloud-forest-researcher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/2011\/03\/04\/immersed-in-the-clouds-interview-with-tropical-cloud-forest-researcher\/","title":{"rendered":"Immersed in the clouds: Interview with tropical cloud forest researcher"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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There is a world within the canopy of a tropical cloud forest<\/a> that not many people get to see. In this unique ecosystem\u2014maintained by the exceptionally wet microclimate of cloud cover\u2014orchids, moss, lichens and other epiphytes<\/a> grow in every crease and pocket of the supporting tree branches. Here, hundreds of species of birds, along with monkeys and other mammals navigate the aerial landscape, scattering seeds along the way (see below video).<\/p>\n

(Resplendent Quetzal Canopy in the Clouds<\/a> from Colin Witherill<\/a> on Vimeo<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Greg Goldsmith, tropical plant ecologist from the University of California, Berkeley, spends his days harnessed in this \u201ccanopy in the clouds\u201d\u2014also the name of the interactive, educational website<\/a> he is currently working on with photographer Drew Fulton and cinematographer Colin Witherill. The website, which explores the topical montane cloud forest in Monteverde, Costa Rica, will be launching a Spanish version called \u201cDosel en las Nubes\u201d in the next couple of weeks.<\/p>\n

Goldsmith, who is the host in the Canopy in the Clouds<\/em> videos, explains the microclimates, landscape, plants, pollinators, insects and the many other fascinating aspects of the forest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am still absolutely blown away by the sheer quantity of green that you see when you first walk into one of these forests,\u201d said Goldsmith in a recent Ecological Society of America Field Talk <\/em>podcast<\/a>. \u201cI am still amazed and still totally enthralled by the idea of seeing something I have never seen before, every single day. And that is a function of the incredible biodiversity that exists in this part of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thanks to the many hours of work from the crew, Canopy in the Clouds<\/em> has numerous panoramic photographs embedded with short videos that describe a specific process or aspect of the forest. According to Drew Fulton\u2019s photography website<\/a>, \u201cThis group spent over 200 days in the field, bringing together [their] passions in pursuit of a new generation of science education media\u2026\u201d It was the first time Fulton and Witherill worked in the tropics.<\/p>\n

With the website<\/a> completed, Goldsmith can guide visitors to experience a unique perspective within and above the canopy at the highest elevation\u2014an area that is largely inaccessible without careful training. So, instead of telling a student that \u201cthe canopy is almost always immersed in this beautiful layer of clouds,\u201d as Goldsmith said in the podcast<\/a>, he is able to show them firsthand.<\/p>\n

Photo Credit: All photos copyright of Drew Fulton<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is a world within the canopy of a tropical cloud forest that not many people get to see. In this unique ecosystem\u2014maintained by the exceptionally wet microclimate of cloud cover\u2014orchids, moss, lichens and other epiphytes grow in every crease and pocket of the supporting tree branches. Here, hundreds of species of birds, along with monkeys and other mammals navigate…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[674],"tags":[287,101,1174,991,1176,96,291,1066,719,893,805,1074,434,84],"class_list":["post-4829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fieldtalk","tag-biodiversity","tag-birds","tag-canopy","tag-climate-2","tag-cloud-forest","tag-education","tag-field-talk","tag-forest","tag-interview","tag-monkeys","tag-orchids","tag-photography","tag-plant-communities","tag-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4829\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}