This is a great topic! Unless you've been in the tropics before, you won't imagine how much stuff grows on the trees there!
This is a reminder that your final outline submission is due April 1. You have a good start on your outline, but it will be helpful to have more details in your outline. You'll need more information to complete your five page paper (which isn't due until later though).
I'd like to suggest that you not delve too much into seagrass epiphytes (your last reference). That is a whole other can of worms, and you should have plenty of information to give us a great presentation on arboreal epiphytes.
One of the most important aspects of the epiphytes is the ability to overload their hosts. Sometimes the epiphyte load is so much that trees lose branches or simply fall over because they can't take all the additional weight from the epiphytes. This introduces another topic, tree gap dynamics, which you may or may not want to get into. Also, many of the epiphytes are habitats for little creatures (especially frogs) and when they fall from the trees, they introduce more habitat and good substrate for other creatures.
We'll definitely see a lot of these epiphytes and lianas (vines and ropes). Last year, we even had a little "Tarzan" time while swinging on a big vine through the trees. It's more tricky than you would expect!
Good luck with the outline!
Becky
It is 6:59:07 PM on Saturday, October 11, 2008. Last Update: Saturday, May 4, 2002
Return to Main Discussion Topic Article
Article complete. Click HERE
to return to the Field Course Discussion Menu.