Frank Valoy- Chapter 9: Islands on Dry Lands

             Elizabeth Kolbert starts chapter 9 by talking about her trip to Reserve 1202 in the Brazilian state of Amazonas. She describes Reserve 1202 as an almost perfect square with 25 acres of trees surrounded by a “sea” of scrubs.
             This reserve represents the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project (BDFFP) founded by biologist Tom Lovejoy. Before this project, Brazilian officials gave money to ranchers to chop down trees and raise cows. Lovejoy had the idea that scientists should tell the ranchers what trees to chop down and he introduced this idea to these Brazilian officials. They agreed and the project was formed.
             Kolbert drove to Reserve 1202 with Mario Cohn-Haft. She learned that Cohn-Halt could identify different bird species based on their calls. He claimed that this was the best way to accurately know how many bird species are present in the reserve. It was noticed that deforestation will lead to a decrease in these bird species.
             Kolbert began talking about land-bridge islands and how they lack diversity because the land isn’t suitable for many species to live in. A small population of species in these islands could eventually lead to local extinction because not many species will be able to adapt to the environment, causing most of the population to be gone.
             Cohn-Haft and Kolbert went to Camp 41 and explored deeper in the forest where they saw many species of insects. On their way back to Camp 41, Kolbert saw army ants and she learned that many species like birds and butterflies depend on them for food. After seeing these ants, it was calculated that there are between 2 million and 7 million tropical insect species.
             Most of the findings of the BDFFP were the loss of species. It was said that since humans are changing the environment with cities and roads, animals that need to migrate in order to cope with climate change won’t be able to, connecting to the theme “Humans have had an impact on the environment for millions of years”. This connects to the theme because humans are altering the environment for their own benefit.
             (C) This chapter connects to chapter 8 because Silman suggested the idea that there is a need for more well-placed reserves in order to better preserve animals and plants and Reserve 1202 is an example of one.