In the Field: Garden Scientist Reports from Brazil
Posted in People, Science on May 25th, 2010 by Plant Talk – 1 CommentWayt Thomas Collaborating on Research in Tropical Forests
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Wayt Thomas, Ph.D., is the Elizabeth G. Britton Curator of Botany in the Institute of Systematic Botany. |
I’ve been studying the flora of the Atlantic coastal forest in northeastern Brazil for 20 years. These forests are one of the world’s “biodiversity hotspots” because of the heavy deforestation, high species diversity, and large number of species that occur nowhere else. Much of my work has been focused on the forests of southern Bahia, near Ilhéus, but I recently was awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation to study the forests farther to the northeast.
As you read this, I am again in Brazil, having left New York on May 9. The purpose of my trip is several-fold: to check up on the field work of my student, Daniel Piotto, near Ilhéus, Bahia; to meet with professors at the State University of Santa Cruz in Ilhéus; to travel inland to Jequié, Bahia, to meet with a collaborator at the State University of Southern Bahia; to visit the Guaribas Biological Reserve in Paraíba; and to organize the newly funded project with my Brazilian collaborators, an essential element in field research.
I will file reports such as this one and photos from Brazil as access to the Internet on my end allows.
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