> etcetera. One interesting news clipping that I picked up in Lima last month > was the following. A detailed study was done on the orchid flora in seven of > the relatively level hectares surrounding the M Picchu site, which is of > course one of the most visited and most studied places in the entire Andes. > Unhappily I have lost the clipping itself, but the burden of it was the > following: that the investigators identified around 270 species, of which no > less than seven were new. That is, more than one in forty were new to science, > in a place with nearly one million visitors per annum. Twenty miles away, the > same river that flows past the Picchus breaks a mountain range to enter the > lowland jungle, at the Pongo de Manique. This is supposed to be one of the > most biodiverse regions on earth. Quilabamba, at one end of the Manique ca?on, > gets about 20 foreign visitors every year. Who knows what may lurk there? > ______________________________ > > Oliver Sparrow
And opposed to that is a study (by Koopowitz??) that says the more a place is studied the more species disappear. I haven't found the exact article yet, only a reference to it in "Victoria Sosa and Teodoro Platas 1998. "Extinction and Persistence of Rare Orchids in Veracruz, Mexico," in: Conservation Biology 12(2): 451-455." - at http://www.jstor.org/pss/2387515 Sorry, it only gives the first page. Perhaps your secluded valley hides 'The stuff that dreams are made of." K Barrett N Calif, USA _________________________________________________________________ Want to do more with Windows Live? Learn “10 hidden secrets” from Jamie. http://windowslive.com/connect/post/jamiethomson.spaces.live.com-Blog-cns!550F681DAD532637!5295.entry?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_domore_092008 _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) orchids@orchidguide.com http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
