Two agronomy students defended their research projects yesterday. Stevia is a plant from which people extract a natural, no-calorie sweetener. It is popular in Asia, and some U.S. and european companies are looking into using it in place of sweeteners like aspartame (Equal). Student Emilio Condarco looked at soaking stevia cuttings in coconut juice to increase transplanting success (it worked: only 60% of the plants without the coconut treatment survived, but 75% with the coconut juice soaking). Congratulations, Emilio!
Then Pedro Cruz defended his project examining trees on the mountain that overlooks the university, Uchumachi. He identified 1587 trees with a diameter of 10 centimeters or less in about an acre, finding 38 families of trees. He compared unmanaged forest (primary forest) with forest that has been managed by people (secondary forest), and found that the unmanaged forest has higher diversity and bigger trees. He also found that some key species like bolivian cedar (Cedrela fissilis) and incence trees (Clusia flaviflora) are not regenerating in the secondary forest. These conclusions will help communities here and in the whole Cloud Forest region manange their forest so that it remain a resource for food, fuel, forrage, medicine and construction.
Pedro spent a year climbing Uchumachi to examine the trees, and sampling them when they were in bloom to get samples to identify in the National Herbarium of Bolivia. His dedication to his long but fruitful project is astounding to me, and I have to say that I am especially proud of this young man. Felicidades, Pedro.
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