Doctor Bugs is back! In this talk scientist and explorer Mark Moffett will take us into the treetops to observe how canopy biologists study these ecosystems and how they are put together. Most of the world’s terrestrial species, from flying birds to crawling ants, live within communities of trees. How so many species are able to live together in the canopy in some ways resembles the concerns of human architects and urban planners. He will conclude by comparing forest canopies to similarly structured ecosystems ranging from coral reefs to bacteria biofilms (such as the plaque on teeth). Moffett, once described as “the Indiana Jones of entomology,” is a research associate at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. He studied with conservation biologist Edward O. Wilson, has received the Explorers Club’s Lowell Thomas Award, is a regular contributor of photographs to National Geographic Magazine, and is the author of The High Frontier: Exploring the Tropical Rainforest Canopy (1993) and Adventures Among Ants: A Global Safari with a Cast of Trillions (2010).
