Chapter 08: The Forest and The Trees

As we move on from chapter 7, in chapter 8 we start to focus on biodiversity in several places like in the Americas such as Peru and Vermont, carrying around different species of tree. At the start of the chapter, Elizabeth Kolbert introduces us to Miles Silman who works at Wake Forest University calling himself a variety of things such as a tropical ecologist, community ecologists, etc. The more Elizabeth Kolbert explores this topic it leads her to several plots showing different forms of biodiversity. As she goes to the first plot, she describes that “the farther we descended the denser the forest became. The trees were not just trees; they were more like botanical gardens, covered with ferns and orchids” (p. 155). This would allude to the theme that the nature systems change overtime and space, which can be shown through the different plots that are described as the chapter progresses.