Scientists Find Megadiversity at Top of Amazon Forest

The Carnegie Institution Spectranomics project debut study collected and analyzed foliage from 3,560 canopies across 19 forests in Peru, including this lowland area. (Greg Asner)

The tropical mountain forests are a complex patchwork of different chemicals that evolved over time to help them adapt to geological conditions, land use and pests. (Greg Asner)

Clear waters run through the unpolluted Andean forest. (Greg Asner)

Ecologist Greg Asner leads the Carnegie Institution Spectranomics project to map canopy function and biological diversity throughout tropical forests of the world. (Robin Martin)

A Carnegie Institution botanist in the Peruvian rainforest begins his 45-meter climb to collect foliage from the tree canopy. (Jake Bryant)

Tree climbers in the Amazon use rope ladders, bridges and towers to get to the canopy and move from canopy to canopy once they are up there. (Greg Asner)

A Carnegie Institution tree climber high in the canopy. (Greg Asner)

The view of the Amazon forest looking down from the tree top. (Greg Asner)

A Carnegie Institution scientist analyzes cytogenetically preserved tropical tree foliage for various chemical traits that can predict how it will survive. (Greg Asner)

Lesya Litvinova shows a rubber bullet that she wears to remind herself why she is a volunteer, ​June 3, 2015. (Daniel Schearf/VOA)

A sample from the canopy of a Peruvian rainforest in the Spectranomics library at Carnegie Department of Global Ecology, which Greg Asner heads at the campus of Stanford University. (Robin Martin)