Professor Lowman and New college undergraduates studying herbivory and Ethnobotany in the forest canopy of the Amazon rain forests in Peru. Lowman’s field class tested a hypothesis that medicinal plants in this region would have lower herbivory levels than non-medicinal plants. Working with the local shaman, students measured 20 species for herbivory, and their hypothesis was based on the assumption that plants used for medicinal purposes may also contain a relatively high level of chemicals (which infer the medicinal properties). The results are still being analyzed, but students will take a poster to the Ecological Society of America annual meeting in Milwaukee, WI.
