 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
     |
View From the Forest Dr. Janzen has the ambitious goal of completing a "species survey" of the Guanacaste area of Costa Rica's northwest. He plans to inventory every plant, animal and insect living in this large ecosystem.
Microbes in the jungle form an unseen web of life. Nutrients are distributed through the web as microbes decompose the dead plants and animals. Everything in the jungle plays an important part in the ecosystem. Neither the plants, animals, or microbes would be able to exist without the others.
|
 |
|
 |
|||
|
|
|||
Biosphere
He
and his wife have teamed up with Dr. Ignacio Chapela, a microbiologist,
to catalog both the larger and microbial life forms inside a single ecosystem
in Costa Rica. Dr. Janzen
realizes that microbes are everywhere, connecting all the other components
of the ecosystem.
For
a few months every year, he and his wife, Dr. Winnie Hallwachs, catalog
the creatures and plants in the jungle, but they are not overlooking the
microbes. Microbiology is not their speciality, but they appreciate their
importance to the ecosystem of the Guanacaste area. To help inventory
the microbial life, Dr. Ignacio Chapela, a microbiologist from the University
of California at Berkeley, is concurrently cataloging the microbes in
the same area.