"A single tree in the Peruvian Andes... thrive in this cloud forest microclimate... 114 species of orchids.
What will happen to the orchids when global warming causes the cool, nourishing clouds to disappear? Damian Catchpole, a Tasmanian graduate student working on his doctoral thesis, is trying to answer that question with help from the South Florida Orchid Society, which has given him two grants to pay his young Peruvian field assistants. When the 62nd Miami International Orchid Show plays out Friday through March 4, proceeds support the society's research grant program. Robert Fuchs, president of the South Florida Orchid Society, says the organization has supported education and research for more than 50 years. ''Orchid education is our mission,'' Fuchs says. ``It was the reason the society formed in the first place, and it continues today.'' In Homestead, Wagner Vendrame, an associate professor at the University of Florida's Tropical Research and Education Center, used a SFOS grant to help with his orchid studies. ...Vendrame wanted to find a way to preserve the dust-like seeds of orchids at extremely low temperatures. Since orchid seeds don't survive well in cold, Vendrame experimented with ways to prepare the cells for the shock of sub-zero temperatures created when stored in tanks of liquid nitrogen. Without pretreatment, the seeds can be killed when ice crystals form in their cells. Vendrame hired graduate student Virginia Caravalo from Brazil to help with the project. At the suggestion of SFOS research chair Sandra Schultz, Vendrame applied for a grant to cover supplies and travel expenses. ''We found that if we kept seeds in ice for one to three hours prior to putting them in liquid nitrogen, we got good results,'' he said. After the pretreatment and sub-zero temperature storage, Vendrame and Caravalo found that 90 percent of the seeds germinated, while only 38 to 68 percent of the untreated seeds germinated. The $1,000 grant was ''great,'' he said. ``Funding through other sources has been very limited. It's highly competitive as well. If we can get a graduate student involved and get support from local societies and local growers, it's a major accomplishment.'' Catchpole, from the University of Tasmania, says no research has been done to validate the claim that 10 percent to 15 percent of wild orchids will disappear in the next 50 years. That's why he is gathering data to show how vulnerable orchids and their ecological companions are to climate change in this area of south-central Peru. ''I first decided to devote my career to Andean cloud forests when, as an undergrad, I discovered they hold more species of plants and animals and have a higher rate of deforestation than the Amazon,'' Catchpole wrote... By diligently counting and recording which orchids occur where and measuring the atmospheric conditions for each, Catchpole can determine the conditions each species needs to survive. He is measuring the microclimate inside the tree canopies where the orchids live as well as the atmospheric conditions above and around the trees. Long-term measurements were begun in 2003 and will require years of monitoring to detect atmospheric change. While the SFOS contribution has been relatively small, Catchpole says, ``it is still one of the only grants I have ever received for the project despite many applications. With the level of interest in climate change over the last weeks [!?], I wish I were beginning this project now and not six years ago, when people were still in disbelief.'' Students interested in the SFOS scholarship and research programs should contact the Society office" article URL : http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/home/16768876.htm **************** Regards, VB _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) orchids@orchidguide.com http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
