Gorongosa 2024-FULL-FINAL - Flipbook - Page 22
E N V I RO NM EN T
GORONGOSA SPECIAL
ecosystems, bacteria, and viruses. Naskrecki estimates there are
10,000 species of spiders and their relatives in the park. What role
do they play in the ecosystem? “There isn’t one specific goal that
we want to achieve with the project,” Naskrecki says. “We just want
to create a data set that can be endlessly explored and used to make
connections between these different elements.”
at Gorongosa is investigating what is
living in the soil. Naskrecki recently worked with a visiting scientist from Poland, who grabbed a scoop of woodland soil and flew it
back to his lab, where he put it under a microscope. It was literally
alive, bursting with biodiversity. It included more than 50 species
of detrivorous soil mites, which feed on decaying organic material,
in just that single scoop. Then there was another group of mites
that fed on those detrivorous mites—and yet another group feeding on the predators of the mites. The layers of species and their
unexplored interactions in the richness of the soil left Naskrecki
with a feeling of astonishment. “It shows how nature in general is
so fractal that at any given spatial scale you will find similar relationships,” he says.
ONE PROJECT UNDERWAY
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COURTES Y OF GORONG OS A N AT IO NA L PA RK
SURVEYORS Piotr Naskrecki leads
a team of young scientists at work
on the Gorongosa Map of Life. From
left: Berta Guambe, Norina Vicente,
Naskrecki, Dennyse Amade, and
Mateus Castene.
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