Jumpstarting American Innovation Through Student Research

Deep in the treetops in the tropical montane cloud forests of Costa Rica, Franklin & Marshall College biology professor Sybil Gotsch and several students are gathering data that could answer questions about our changing global climate. Shrouded in the foggy jungle canopy hundreds of feet above ground, Professor Gotsch’s students are using sensors to track the movement of moisture through epiphytes, or “air plants,” living among the branches. As climate change lifts the average altitude of tropical clouds, the epiphytes and the microhabitats they provide for other important organisms become more vulnerable.