Mitch Thompson Biology 373 Test #1; Cloud Forest Ecology 1) Bellavista is built on the top of a ridge within

a cloud forest ecosystem. In your reading, you read about a watershed. Please define the term watershed and then explain how the Bellavista area functions as part of a larger watershed (5 pts) A watershed is the same as a drainage basin in that it is the area of land in which surface water drains to a single point. This surface water can come from rain, melting snow/ice, or in the case of Bellavista, condensation from the clouds/fog onto the cloud forest. The single point where the surface water converges can be a river, lake, ocean or others. In Bellavista, surface water from rain and condensation flows down valleys into streams, creeks and rivers. These different rivers converge into larger rivers that flow out of the Andes into the Pacific Ocean. 2) Tell me three ecosystem services provided by the cloud forest. Answer in detail One ecosystem service that the cloud forest provides is that of watershed protection. Cloud forests are able to obtain water from clouds through a process called cloud-stripping. Research has shown that this cloud stripping ability increases water yield for available for domestic use and irrigation. It has also been found to stabilize the water flow from cloud forests during times of drought (Hostettler et al, 25). Richard also mentioned this during his talk on ecotourism and said that he was able to show the government the negative effects of cutting down cloud forests during a drought year when there was a shortage of water. Another ecosystem service is soil protection. Cloud forests that are chopped down experience erosion which causes sedimentation in rivers and can block lakes or reservoirs (Hostettler et al, 25). The roots of plants in the cloud forest help to prevent erosion. A third ecosystem service of the cloud forest is medicine. Many medicines have been discovered by researching different chemicals in plants of the cloud forest. Hopefully, many more medicines will be discovered in the future. In addition, many plants are used by the indigenous people for remedies. According to Nelson, one plant we saw during our hikes was used as a cure for women problems. Another plant we saw was the angels trumpet in which the fruit contains a drug which can make you high. In higher doses it can cause death. 3) Describe one epiphyte that you saw in the cloud forest One epiphyte that I saw was a bromeliad with a bright red fruit. I saw it multiple times on trees, usually 20-40 feet in air. It had green sword like leaves which peeled away from the center and a bright red fruit in the center that stuck straight up. The fruit seemed to have bright red thorns that alternated sides and were a couple of inches long. The plants in general ranged from two feet in diameter to five or six feet in diameter.

4) What are the key threats to the cloud forest ecosystem (include at least two) One threat to cloud forests is their conversion into grazing land. Worldwide, this cause has resulted in the most deforestation of cloud forests (Hostettler et al, 25). Once deforested, the land isnt able to provide ecosystem services such as cloud stripping, erosion prevention, and conservation of biological diversity. Another threat to cloud forests is climate change. More specifically, global warming results in clouds forming at higher altitudes. With higher clouds, forests wont be able to strip as much water from the clouds and will receive a smaller water input. The change in water impact can have a dramatic impact on species that are specifically adapted to their climatic and soil conditions. Species that exist near a mountain top and arent able to move to a higher elevation could easily be forced into extinction. Other threats to the cloud forest are mining, timber harvesting, introduction of alien species, construction of telecommunications, and conversion of cloud forest to temperate vegetable cropping. These causes and others have resulted in the deforestation of cloud forests at a rate two times faster than the deforestation of average global deforestation (Hostettler et al, 25). 5) What is a hotspot? Why was this concept developed? Hotspots are areas with high concentrations of endemic species and are undergoing a high amount of habitat loss (Myers, 853). The concept was designed to protect the most amount of species for each dollar designated to conservation. By identifying the areas with the highest amount of diversity, it allows conservation efforts to maximize the number of species that can be protected with the resources available. The study found that 25 hotspots contain 44 percent of all plant species and 35 percent of all vertebrate species despite being on only 1.4 percent of the Earths land surface. 6) Opinion question: after reading the papers on hotspots, do you think they are a suitable way to maximize our conservation dollars? I like the idea of hotspots and maximizing the most amount of species that can be protected for ones conservation dollars. I think that it is unfortunate that some threatened species exist in coldspots but I feel that money designated towards conservation is already difficult to come by and it should be put towards protecting the most amount of species. I also think that areas with high amounts of biodiversity are important because there may be species that we have not discovered yet or do not fully understand. In addition, although some species in hotspots may not be threatened, I feel that since so many of them are endemic to a small area they could easily become threatened especially with the threats of climate change and deforestation due to cattle and crops. 7) Explain one hypothesis that attempts to explain why the Andean region is so biodiverse? One hypothesis that tries to explain why the Andean region is so biodiverse is mountain uplift. The hypothesis argues that the Andean mountains increased biodiversity by increasing habitat heterogeneity and allowing for adaptive radiations on new mountains. It also argues that the mountains provided a corridor for

species adapted to mountain conditions and allowed them to increase their range. While it allowed for species to increase their range, the mountains and valleys allowed for allopatric speciation, which is when one population of a species gets physically separated from the original species and evolves to form a new species. This speciation due to genetic isolation could have also occurred in lowland species that were separated by the emerging Andean mountains. Diversification could have also arisen after species had evolved in the Andes and dispersed to other ecosystems. Lastly, diversification could have arisen due to higher nutrient levels in the Western Amazon following the denudation of the Andes (Antonelli and Sanmartin, 408). 8) You read a thesis from an undergraduate about diversity (McCourt). I asked you to come up with a study design to answer the same question that she asked (assuming you had unlimited time, money, and personnel). Please describe this study. Include the hypothesis (re-state it), your study design (justify this particular study design), and what you expect to see in your results. The study was done at the Las Tangaras Reserve which is a protected area in a cloud forest in the western Andes of Ecuador. The study was done for 12 days in September which is during the dry season. Two hummingbird feeders were placed at each of three different type of forest and painted red to imitate and flower. The forest types were secondary growth forest, secondary riparian forest, and primary forest. Each site was visited once a day at various times. The times ranged from 6:00am to 3:00pm. The feeders contained sugar water and vegetable oil was smeared on the feeding holes in order to prevent wasps from entering. Sites were chosen along the trail when the feeders could be hung about two meters apart. All sites were over a kilometer from a cabin and the observer would stand about five meters from the feeder. One observer would identify the species of hummingbird while the other would write it down. In order to tell whether hummingbirds were visiting more than one site, birds were captured and marked with a colored piece of felt. The hypothesis of the experiment was that there would be a difference in abundance of hummingbirds at different types of forest and that there would be a difference in the number of visits hummingbirds would make at different times in the day. The prediction of the experiment was there would be a variation in the species of hummingbirds that were found in different forest types. If I had unlimited resources, I would catch a proportional amount of each species of hummingbird using mist nets. After catching the hummingbirds, I would place the tiniest GPS tracker available on them and let them go. Using this GPS tracker, I would then track their movements in order to study their behavior. I would conduct the experiment in the dry and rainy season and at several different sites in Ecuador. I would also make sure that the birds that were being studied had limited, if any, human contact.

I think that I would find similar results in that the hummingbirds would be found more often in the secondary and riparian forests. I think I would find similar result because secondary growth forest allow for more light at the understory and therefore more flowers for hummingbirds to use as a source of food. The secondary riparian forest is right on the bank of a stream which creates a high diversity of plants due to the constant supply of water and nutrients. The primary forest however, has a dense canopy and doesnt allow light through to the understory which prevents growth. This probably results in fewer flowers which is why the primary forest was found to have fewer visits from the hummingbirds. I also expect that I wouldnt find variation in the times at which hummingbirds visited a certain forest. I feel this way because just the like the hummingbird feeders, the flowers that they feed on would be there all day.