Field Museum scientists explore biodiversity, conservation in Amazon Basin

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CHICAGO (CBS) — A team of scientists from the Field Museum of Natural History has just returned from one of Earth’s most remote, undisturbed forests.

For a month, Conversation Ecologist Dr. Lesley De Souza and Environmental Social Scientist Elliot Oakley worked in the far reaches of the Amazon Rainforest in South America. Specifically in Guyana, a small, luscious country home to less than a million people. Few have ever stepped foot in the areas that these scientists explored.

“A sea of green that just keeps going and going, and the waterways weaving through the forest, and not seeing any impact from mining or deforestation,” is how De Souza explained viewing Guyana overhead from a helicopter.

Guyana

Esteban Barrera

The expedition is considered the “largest-ever” and the most comprehensive study performed on the area’s ecology and biodiversity. The Field Museum team partnered with the Protected Areas Commission (PAC) and local Guyansene institutions.

The findings will be fundamental to the scientific understanding of forest ecosystems as they exist today, according to the museum.

“Guyana has some of the most in-tact forest on the globe, so as conservation biologists, we want to go to places where we can make the biggest impact,” De Souza said.

Geology, plants, fishes, reptiles, birds, amphibians, soils, and local ecology — all were studied.

“Some of the largest piranas I have ever seen in my life!” De Souza said, who also is an ichthyologist, or one who studies fishes.

The team discovered 20 potential new species to science—mainly fish, but also a frog and a lizard.

Esteban Barrera

With limited time in the field, the scientists conduct a “Rapid Inventory,” a survey of the landscape’s biological and cultural assets for conservation.

“We call it a rapid inventory, but it is anything but rapid in the build-up,” Oakley said.

“Through the process of working over two years really with government partners, local stakeholders — then we can have a consolidated, month-long expedition to get so much done in the field,” he said.

The scientists will give the information to Guyana’s decision-makers in hopes that they will take more action to preserve the landscape and make it a protected area. Guyana has one of the most ambitious global targets around climate and conservation, which includes protecting 30 percent of its terrestrial and marine space by 2030.

“One of the exciting urgencies of doing this scientific work is that the Government is hoping that our data generated from this project goes directly into the planning they do, both at the national level but at all levels of stakeholders,” Oakley said.

Currently, 8.4 percent of the country has protected designation, and it will take less than 6 years to reach the goal of 30 percent.

“We have this really exciting pressure to translate the data into an outcome that not only delivers for the biodiversity but also supports those communities that live near and know best these forests,” he said.

Esteban Barrera

Rapid Inventory combines social and biological sciences. “Our focus is communities and conservation,” Oakley said. In addition to Oakley and De Souza, the team has geographers, sociologists, and science studies, which look at how scientific knowledge is produced.

Working in tandem with the Indigenous is “fundamental” to their work, said Oakley, calling them the experts. “It is our privilege to be there, working alongside people who have known these forests for generations,” he said.

Their goal is to marry scientific knowledge with the indigenous knowledge of the land.

“When we look at effective conservation around the world, it really works best when it aligns with the aspirations of communities who live in or near those areas. It’s really a core value of our team,” De Souza said. “I wouldn’t have been able to collect the fishes that I collected without their support,” she said.

Esteban Barrera

Biodiversity data is more accurate and comprehensive when Indigenous people who have lived in the area for generations and know the area are involved.

“They have knowledge of the river systems and the trails. Their knowledge of that landscape lets them notice really small variations,” Oakley said.

“Right now, we’re asking how can we change the biodiversity and climate crises. So, we need to go to places with the highest levels of biodiversity,” De Souza said. Biodiversity is an ecosystem’s variety of animals and plants.

Guyana has over 8,000 plant species and 1,800 animal species. For comparison, Illinois has over 2,200 native plant species.

“One of the reasons that we, as scientists, care so much about these intact forests is because intact forests mean there’s connectivity,” Oakley said. The Guyana rainforest is connected to neighboring areas in Brazil, Suriname, and French Guiana, and he said that creates a habitat.

In Chicago, many conservation groups are working to expand connectivity across the urban wildlife corridors. “There are huge things that we connect with our colleagues in Chicago,” he said. The scientific questions they return to are how to strengthen connections across biological systems and people to those systems.

We all can start caring about conservation in our own backyards, like supporting insect and pollinator habitats, according to De Souza.

For example, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is urging the public to help save the Monarch Butterfly, which is the official insect of Illinois. Planting milkweed and nectar plants, even in small areas, can help “put them on the road to recovery,” according to the Service.

“I would encourage some connection to the landscape and the forest and the waterways that you live in right now,” De Souza said.

The Chicago Wilderness Alliance has a list of dozens of conservation efforts in and around Chicago, including Friends of the Forest Preserve, Alliance for the Great Lakes, and the Chicago Ornithological Society.

De Souza said there is still more to do and more to learn. Their report will be out in the coming months.

Esteban Barrera