Papua New Guinea expedition discovers largest trees at extreme altitudes
- Jul 1, 2017
- 1 min read
The first field campaign surveying Papua New Guinea's lush primary forests from the coast to clouds has revealed the high mountain tops may house the largest trees recorded globally at such extreme altitudes.
The study - which involved The University of Queensland's Dr John Dwyer and James Cook University's Professor Michael Bird - was led by Dr Michelle Venter, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Northern British Columbia, Canada.
"The study may force a re-think of what we know about the ideal environments for growing very large trees," said Dr Dwyer, a UQ School of Biological Sciences' lecturer and CSIRO researcher.
Dr Venter led seven field expeditions in areas far from roads and villages, with the help of more than 70 field assistants from five forest-dependent communities, working on slopes of up to 88 degrees.
They studied 195 forest plots in the rugged and remote Morobe province along an elevation gradient spanning from the coastal lowland forests (50m) to upper montane tropical forests (3100m).
Unexpectedly, the researchers found that the forest biomass had a major peak at altitudes of 2400-3100m, altitudes where forests struggle to reach more than 15m tall in other parts of the world.
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