Location: London, UK
Day 6 of building Arduino FreeStation weather stations
First things first! We’re three geography nerds ready to conquer the cloud forests and learn its secrets. Currently in the summer of the second year of our degree, we’re embarking on this trip as part of our individual final year dissertations.
Why are we called Girls aCloud?! What will we be doing?
I mean, we’ve covered the female bit so… cloud forests are defined as moist tropical forests characterized by persistant low-level cloud, or fog, which rises up the sides of mountains (orographically) due to a difference in pressure.
Forests on the sides of these mountains are in the way of this cloud water and therefore intercept it. As with rain, this cloud water is therefore a source of precipitation, even if its volume is minute in comparison.
Due to climate change, however, the base of this fog is rising in height, thus avoiding the forest and causing climate drying. Particularly in the dry months when the forest is entirely reliant on the stability of this water source, we predict this issue will cause the forced migration, adaptation or death of reliant species; the latter having the greatest impact on producers less able to change at the same rate climate change is having an impact.
Unfortunately, it is incredibly difficult to measure the changes itself and thus its impacts on local ecology and hydrology; as fog droplets are too small and too dependent on external factors such as wind direction and speed to be accurately quantified!
Thus, to build upon the first of a multitude of undeserved favours, our research opportunity builds upon the collaboration between Prof. Mark Mulligan and Dan Metcalfe of the ACCA, who at Wayqecha Biological Station, have established the world’s first ever cloud-exclusion zone. This controlled sample space simplifies the fog data collection process over a five-year period, accurately simulating a fog-free future instead of estimating its impacts through inaccurate readings.
Further, utilising Prof. Mark Mulligan’s Arduino FreeStation weather stations [Re. second and third blog post], weighing sensors and soil moisture probes in addition to litterfall traps, we will each investigate the impact this reduction in precipitation will have on the leaves (tree productivity and difference in leaf interception capacity), epiphytes (interceptive capacity) and soil moisture/ pH/ depth.
girls aCloud 