Travel Work Expedition Photo

Epiphyte

AUSTRALIA | Sunday, 7 July 2013 | Views [297]

The task at hand is at times daunting because of the combination of long hours of technical climbing, relentless poor weather and the sheer amount of epiphytes found. While the national park welcomes more than 2 million visitors per year surprisingly little research has been done into its epiphytic inhabitants. On this branch alone more than 30 samples of moss were taken to be identified at the Queensland herbarium a task that will take months to complete.

Tags: epiphyte, research, rainforest, tree climbing, orchid

Tree Climbing for science in the Border Ranges national park of Northern New South Wales. Epiphyte diversity lead researcher Jen Sanger reaches out to retrieve a sample of a newly discovered orchid 25m from the forest floor. In many of the worlds rainforests the number, distribution and ecology of these elusive plants is largely unknown to science. This project aims to form an extensive data set of distribution information so that these highly sensitive plants might be used as climate change indicators.

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The technique of climbing 50 meter high rainforest trees is laborious but offers truly unique perspectives. Ascending to the canopy of these emergent trees is a journey that might take as long as 20 minutes. Climbers begin in the undergrowth then pass the vine growth and several layers of lower canopy just to reach the lowest branches of the trees in the study group.

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Epiphyte

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