'What Happens in the Rainforest'
The Amazonian research of University of Arizona ecologist Scott Saleska and his students, of UA Biosphere 2 soil scientist Joost van Haren and that of their colleagues around the world is featured in a photo exhibit in the Ironwood Gallery at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum until Sunday, Oct. 25.
The exhibit, titled "What Happens in the Rainforest Doesn't Stay in the Rainforest," features the artistic and photographic vision of scientific photographer Jake Bryant, who accompanied the scientists and their students over a period of four years to their scientific campaigns and their field courses in the Amazon, photographing as he went.
The researchers are finding out how different parts of the forest — the leaves in the canopy, the roots below ground and the greenhouse gases emitted by microbes in soils underfoot — respond to droughts like those caused by the currently developing El Niño. (In contrast to Arizona, where El Niño brings rain, it causes droughts in Amazonia.) This work will enable a better understanding of how climate change may affect forests in the Amazon and Arizona.
For more information about the exhibit, go to www.crpasaleskalab.com. For more about the research, go to www.saleskalab.org. The National Science Foundation is funding the research and the exhibit.