Trade.Information

Topic Name: Biodiversity : An airborne equipment to study the canopy of the forest

Category: Environmental engineering

Research persons: Prof. E.O. Wilson, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University

Location: Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Panama

Details

As was done in several tropical regions, a team will use an airborne equipment to study the canopy of the forest of the Shire, in the Puy-de-Dome. Together with other studies, conducted from the ground, this exploration will comprehensively measuring biodiversity. This is the first time that such work is completed in mid temperate.
To the south of Clermont-Ferrand but north of Issoire, not far from the Allier, two steps away from Vic-le-Comte, lies the beautiful forest of the County. This massive discreet did pointed out by its size, which is small (1,500 hectares) but by its fauna and flora. The birds are plentiful, like oaks and charms, which are several ecosystems typical of a temperate. It is here that a team has just begun this week an exhaustive study of biodiversity, through the extensive programme Ibisca (Biodiversity Inventory of Insects of Sol and the Canope). Conducted over the past several years, this operation is an initiative of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), Pro-Natura International, Ocean and Operation Green Canopée, with funding from Solvin / Solvay, STRI and the Global Canopy Project . This project brings together environmentalists and taxonomists (who are interested in the species) and even amateurs.
The campaigns Ibisca focused so far on tropical forests in temperate zones but they also deserve to be explored. Even very popular as Europe's forests contain fauna and flora imperfectly understood. This is particularly true of the canopy, the upper deck of vegetation, which houses only species that live there. The project Ibisca-Auvergne, which brings together some twenty scientists from academic research, and has focused on the forest of the County, led by Bruno Corbara, a specialist in ethology at the University Blaise Pascal in Clermont-Ferrand . Biologists at all stages
The exploration began this week. The first will last until the end of June but studies will continue until 2010. It is a work in determining a patient to a living species of lichen to the bird, from arthropods (insects, spiders, millipedes ...), worms, plants and flowers mushrooms. Scientists will look at all stages, starting with the ground.
To study the canopy, the team will use a cousin of the famous Raft peaks. This broad light structure, consisting of nets stretched over one or several inflatable boots (depending on model), is transported by an airship and can land on the treetops of a forest. Juchés on this craft, scientists have a place of exceptional work and can take such animals (especially insects).
The first shipment date of 1989. In Guyana, it had proved wealth and especially the specificity of the canopy of tropical forests, a natural environment virtually unexplored at the time. Since then, the raft landed on many forests around the world. In 2006, shipping Santo has allowed 160 scientists from 25 countries to study in detail the species from Santo island in the archipelago of Vanuatu, Melanesia in the Pacific Ocean south, near the New Caledonia. On each occasion the harvest of new species has been copious.
In the forest of the County, environmentalists will use the Bull, a tethered balloon sliding along a rope and bearing a basket in which a person can work its way and even use a mechanical arm to operate at greater distance the gondola. Scientists have not, as in the tropics, hoping to find unknown species. Partly funded by the Auvergne regional council and the General Council of Puy-de-Dome, the campaign will establish an inventory of biodiversity, a zero point, as Bruno Corbara said the journalists, and serve Then reference to study the evolution of ecosystems.
About Researchers:
Prof. E.O. Wilson, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University:
Cambridge, MA 02138
U. S. A.
TEL: (617) 495-2315
FAX: (617) 495-5667
About Research Center:
IBISCA (Investigating the Biodiversity of Soil and Canopy Arthropods) is an international research programme which aims at studying the spatial (horizontal, vertical, altitudinal) and temporal distribution of the organisms which constitute a major part of forest biodiversity: arthropods. Interactions with plants and selected other organisms are also studied. Our approach is based on highly integrative research projects and the use of state-of-the art canopy access techniques. Field projects are conducted worldwide in tropical, subtropical and temperate forests. Supporting institutions are Universities, Museums, networks and other research groups. Our sponsors are both public and private partners. In parallel to our scientific publications and meetings, we are also engaged in public outreach activities in order to improve public awareness of biodiversity studies.