Nalini Nadkarni

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Nalini Nadkarni is an American ecologist who became a pioneer in the study of Costa Rican rain forest canopies. Nalini Nadkarni took an inventory of the canopy in 1981, and two inventories in 1984. She was one of the first people to explore the ecology of rain forest canopies, and did so by using mountain climbing equipment so that she could safely make the ascent to study the canopies.

Nalini Nadkarni's interest was first drawn to rain forest ecology due to the contradiction offered by its plant life. There was a great abundance and variety of plant life within the rain forest despite its nutrient poor soil, and her goal was to discover how the plant life was sustained. Her studies within the canopy revealed that the epiphytes, which are non-parasitic plants such as orchids and ferns, that live on the branches and trunks of other plants, were trapping organic material beneath their root system. This organic material eventually formed a nutrient rich mat, and trees in the rain forest had developed aerial roots, stemming from their trunks and branches, in order to absorb these nutrients as well. The aerial roots growing into the mats aided the rain forest trees by providing the nourishment that they did not receive from the nutrient poor soil.

[edit] External links

• Bio details, Evergreen State College, Washington
• Fischer, Adelheid. 2005. Moss Conservation behind Bars. Conservation in Practice 6(3):35-36. Article on Dr. Nadkarni's project to involve prison inmates in moss cultivation and conservation.