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Peruvian Orchid Expedition 2008
Latin America is home to over 20,000 orchid species, with Peru accounting for 10% of this number, based only on minimal botanical activity. Because orchids are highly evolved with their pollinators and require a specific relationship with fungus to germinate, they are intimately intertwined with the ecology of their habitat, being excellent indicators of overall biodiversity in an area. Moreover, the precarious life of an epiphyte makes orchids especially sensitive to climate change, making them useful as a base-line indicator for ecosystem health. This Oxford 2008 expedition will take advantage of the construction of the Inter-Oceanic Highway – a transcontinental roadway that crosses the Amazon Basin and links the Pacific and the Atlantic coasts of South America – to evaluate the diversity of orchids in the Peruvian Andean transects of this highway (transects II and IV).
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