Why Canopy Research is Important - Essay Example

Ecology education through canopy science can be fostered and this can be done via the Jason Project which includes the challenges of access and data collection in the treetops. Students can also learn about the complex linkages among biodiversity, biogeochemical cycling, and global environmental conditions through the Science curricula developed specifically for the canopies of Panama. In addition, Live broadcasts of researchers conducting canopy studies into classrooms throughout the world, provides a unique model that integrates research with ecology education.

Canopy research has also created local economic incentives for the conservation of forests through ecotourism. The modern technology of creating a swaying bridge, for instance, allows the public to personally experience the treetops. While this may have slightly negative consequences to some wildlife, ecotourism does more good than harm by educating a new generation about the canopy. For example in Western Samoa, a canopy walkway was built and the profits from this successful venture paid for school construction without logging local forests.

Forest canopies are important mediators of global environmental change and this can be seen from new areas of canopy exploration such as nutrient cycling and decomposition from the canopy to the forest floor and back again, and experimental studies of climate change at the canopy-atmosphere interface which illustrates the overarching global significance of current canopy research. Such detailed analysis of interactions cascading through the canopy to the forest floor, and cycling back again, will facilitate better management of forest ecosystems, and also help to quantify global cycles essential to life on earth.

The growing number of options for safe, replicated canopy research has also facilitated expanded studies of forest processes. Finally, the relatively young, emerging science of canopy ecology has inspired new and innovative research to solve global environmental challenges. Even more importantly, the wonders of treetop exploration can serve as a catalyst for ecology education and effective local conservation initiatives.