I knew from the first mention of a project that I would want to work on cloud forests. It is the most relevant to my major (atmospheric science), but is also a new area for me seeing as I had no idea they even existed before reading the itinerary!
For those who still don’t know what a cloud forest is (from Wikipedia), “A cloud forest, also called a fog forest, is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud cover, usually at the canopy level.”
Photo taken from www.colorado.edu
What I would like to focus my project on is answering the following questions:
- What impacts do our current habits have on these forests?
- What ways are the Costa Rican community attempting to preserve the forests, and are they working?
- In what ways can we, when back in the U.S., also help to sustain these forests?