Chapter 9 - Michael Torres

In Chapter 9, Kolbert introduces the reader to the organization Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project and the reservations it has secured for rainforests in developed areas in Brazil.  Kolbert meets ornithologist Mario Cohn-haft in one of these reservations.  While exploring the forest, it is noted that there is not as much diversity than there used to be.  It is suggested that this is something that occasionally happens to small habitats that have much biodiversity.  This connects to the theme that natural systems change over time and space because the reservation as a natural system is changing over time with its inhabitants.  

This theme is further explored when Kolbert describes how she was supposed to watch an army ant march that turned out to have been delayed.  At this point, Kolbert makes the realization that the Earth is an interconnected system when she notices that the birds of the rain forest are waiting for the ant march as well.  In page 192, Kolbert quotes Cohn Haft by writing, “When you find the one thing that depends on something else that, in turn, depends on something else, the whole series of interactions depends on something else.”  This quote is significant because it underscores the fact that some animals rely on others for survival, thus, proving that the earth itself really is one interconnected system.