| WHERE WE WORK |
Most of our work takes place where the Andes meet the Amazon in southeastern Peru. The focal study area is a gradient running from the glaciers of the high Andes down to Amazonian lowlands in and near Manu National Park. The Andes Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research Group (ABERG) has a series of inventory and ecosystem ecology plots running from 3700m at Andean treeline down to 200m in the Amazonian plain. The region is wild, forming the border of the largest remaining tropical wilderness, and largest network of tropical forest protected areas, stretching from the Alto Purus National Park through Manu and down through the protected areas of Bauaja-Sonene, Tambopata-Candamo, Beni, and Madidi. At middle elevations we are fortunate to work with conservation NGOs and ecotourism lodges in the San Pedro area. Pantiacolla Tour's Posada San Pedro Lodge and InkaNatura's Cock-of-the-Rock Lodge have been central partners in the execution of our research. And, of course, none of this would have been possible without Don Demetrio. In the lowlands, we work at the Amazon Conservation Association's Hacienda Villa Carmen. It has access to elevations from 500-1200m and is also the location of our agroforestry and tropical sustainability work on biochar. Pantiacolla Lodge is our research base for work on the last foothills and the beginning of the Amazon. It has a wide range of elevational and edaphic conditions and beautiful scenery. It is also one of the main stops on the Wake Forest summer study abroad. And then there is the crown jewel, Cocha Cashu Biological Station. Remote, full of life, and full of the history of tropical investigation and exploration, it is a veritable zoo without walls. This is the base for much of our lowland tropical forest research. |