All life is here

摘要

There's nothing quite like dank tree holes full of murky rainwater and rotting leaves for research students Diane Srivastava and Jill Birch. Where a casual observer might see only decay, they see a miniature ecosystem that is an ideal place to test ecological theories. Srivastava and Birch, who are based at Imperial College's Centre for Population Biology, are interested in the mechanisms that govern biodiversity in natural communities. They are part of a growing band of ecologists working on "container habitats" such as water-filled tree holes and other small pools held by plants (phytotelmata), plain old rain puddles or even water-filled tyres.