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Life at the top
| Getting there: A construction crane in Panama City's Metropolitan Park carries scientists up into the tree tops. |  |
| Greg Gilbert (visiting scientist) prefers to use mountain climbing gear to reach the highest branches. |  |
| Gerhard Zotz (visiting scientist) measures photosynthesis from the construction crane: Intense tropical sunlight makes the forests here some of the most productive plant communities in the world. |  |
| Very little light reachs the soil under the canopy. Bettina Englebrecht (graduate student) is interested in the ability of plants to survive in different environments. |  |
| Milton Garcia (research technician) collecting insects: An amazing variety of insects, some of them still unknown, live in this leafy world. |  |
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A kinkajou...some of the animals living in the tree tops are almost never seen on the forest floor. |
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Cactuses, orchids and other plants that can survive a dry season with almost no water live on tree branches. Patricia Bermejo (project assistant) records information about greenhouse-grown plants. |
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