Mission Statement

     "Develop a way to characterize and monitor the well-being of one of the last true frontiers on Earth - the Amazon Basin rainforest - and devise a set of practical strategies to ensure its preservation."

Project Description

We, as a class were given a semester to achieve the above mission statement.  Originally we divided into ten groups, each intended to address a different aspect of the problem as we saw it.  We developed our overall characterization while in those original groups, but then  recognized that they were probably not the best divisions to determine strategies for the preservation of the rainforest.  We reorganized into new groups, each one intended to address a specific problem facing the Amazon Rainforest.

My Role

I was originally in the Flora group, and the research you can find on my page is all directly related to the Rainforest flora , and - more specifically - how to monitor it.  When we reorganized, I joined the characterization editing group, which essentially compiled the information from all the various characterization groups into one comprehensive document.  I also spoke in the final presentation, on our various monitoring techniques.

Flora Group's Definition of an A

We should be able to mantain constant open lines of communication with the other teams in order to work succesfully as a team and as a whole group. We will satisfy the needs of other teams and we expect them to satisfy ours in terms of information related with the different environmental aspects that may affect the life of the plantas, fungi and algae.

We want to determine the current  state of plant, fungi and algae life in the Amazon rainforest. We are aware of the impossiblity of doing this for every individual plant and even for every species, so we will chose exemplary cases to study within the different layers. We will measure this state by measuring the efficiency of biological processes such as the amount of light received to drive photosyntesis, the amount and quality of water, temperature, etc. We also need to know how these lives are changing and why they are changing. In this case we will focus in finding the rate of change of the efficiency of the biological processes mentioned before and we will identify the major threats. We will develope strategies to preserve plant, fungi and algae life. First we will determine a realistic ideal state, which will direct these strategies.

Our final goal is to develope a content rich website which will characterize our understanding of the previous goals and we want our product to be comprehensive and practical enough to be implemented by someone.