April 12, 2002

1230 - 1530

Soufriere Volcano, Guadeloupe

Tropical Volcano

    Small scrubby brush, along with thick spongy moss, cover the ground, with many big rocks. At the top of the volcano, there are less plants and more rocks, due to the cold air, elevation, and sulfur gasses. Not many birds fly up there, but at the base, around the campsites, lesser Antillean bullfinches flit around, asking for food.

    When the volcano was created, that pretty much created its own ecoregion. The higher elevation, sulfuric gasses, and rocky terrain are all different from the neighboring ecoregions.

    The plant-life (and animal life, though there wasn't much) has to be adapted to practically everything in the ecoregion - sulfuric gasses spewing from the summit, rocky soil, sometimes not even defined as "soil," and higher elevation, with colder weather, and frequent fog.

     - Some sort of groundcover - Adapted to sulfur, as it lives right next to an active vent that is constantly spewing sulfuric gasses.

     - Moss - collects moisture from the air (fog), when there is none in the ground to help it grow.

Dominant species -

 - Banana flower (Maybe)

 - Mosses

April 12, 2002

About half an hour of early evening

Guadeloupe

Tropical semi-rain forest

    Lush, green trees, waterfalls, buttressed roots, all spread along the ground. Tree-ferns and tall pine (?) trees stretch towards the sky, as groundcovers and mosses stay content on the forest floor.

    I think the change in ecoregion was caused by the nearby waterfalls and tall cliffs providing a water table and groundwater for the forest

    I wasn't in the ecoregion long enough to really identify specific adaptations, but the had to be adapted to humid air and mist from waterfalls, frequent rain, frequent humans, and soil full of roots.

    I didn't see many animals, and I couldn't recognize/identify any plants, though we did see a couple of mongooses.