I love climbing from the dark, damp forest floor into the canopy that has more sunlight and wind. In the canopy, you’re immersed in leaves, flowers, and fruits. It’s beautiful!

Many kinds of plants grow in rainforest canopies, like orchids, ferns, and mosses. These plants grow in soil that forms on the trees. They get nutrients from the canopy soil and have special leaves that absorb rain and mist containing nutrients.

Birds, mammals, and bugs feed on the flowers and fruits of these plants. When the plants die, they stay on the branches and break down. This creates soil in the canopy.

Tropical rainforests face many threats. My experiments investigate how plants in the canopy react to changes to their environment. I’ve learned that the canopy ecosystem is full of life but fragile.

I’ve studied how long it would take for canopy plants to grow back after removing them. We stripped off long patches of plants from their branches. I thought they’d come back immediately. But it took 25 years for half of the plants to regrow.

Now I’m studying how changes in the climate will affect the canopies in Costa Rica. Rising temperatures are creating longer dry seasons in tropical mountain forests there.

Back in 2003, my students and I created TreeTop Barbies, adventure dolls who climb trees and visit rainforests. Years later in 2019, National Geographic asked me to help with their new project with Mattel, the company that makes Barbies. They were creating Explorer Barbies with different science careers who explore the Earth. I suggested what clothing and tools each doll would need. I love that these dolls give kids more scientific role models.