Life in the Treetops: Adventures of a Woman in Field Biology

By Margaret Lowman

Book Overview

Forest canopies have been characterized as one of the last biotic frontiers on Earth: tree crowns have been difficult to study scientifically because access to them has been so challenging. During the past two decades, however, methods for canopy access have greatly improved. In this book a pioneer canopy scientist describes the mysteries of the treetops--their inhabitants, flowers and fruits, growth and mortality, patterns of diversity, and plant and animal interactions. Margaret Lowman writes about different canopy access techniques in conjunction with the scientific hypotheses she was addressing while using each one. She also portrays the life of a field biologist from a woman's perspective: what it was like to juggle a demanding career with marriage, housewifery, motherhood, and single parenthood.
The chapters are organized chronologically, starting with Lowman's early days with ropes in Australia and progressing to the use of a cherry picker to access the canopies of eucalypt trees while she was pregnant, research by hot-air balloon in Africa, and building treetop walkways in the temperate forests of Massachusetts and in the tropical rain forests of Belize. The book also includes a lovely array of line drawings and halftones.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300084641
• ISBN13: 9780300084641
• Release Date: August 2000
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.2" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

An absolutely wonderful book.

Life in the Treetops is an absolutely wonderful book. Please take a look at the customer and press reviews for the hardcover edition of this book. They are far more eloquent reviewers that am I. This book was on the cover of the New York Times Book Review. It was an Editors Selection in Scientific American and in New Scientist(UK. Because of the book, Dr. Lowman has been featured in German GEO, in Sydney Morning Herald, in Italian Elle and in Seoul Korea's daily, all in their own languages. She has been interviewed on NPR's Fresh Air Living on Earth and the BBC. You are wondering if all of this is important? It is when the book is a memoir. I found Dr. Lowman to be a role model for me and for my child. Please read it. It will be important to you.

I'm Sorry, I've Made Other Plans

That's what I intend to tell Margaret Lowman if she phones me wanting to know if I'd like to go on a field trip with her. This amazing woman botanist hauls herself up by rope or other devices into the 150-foot high canopies of forest trees to study herbivory (process by which animals consume plant leaves). She spends weeks in tropical forests in Cameroon, Peru, Belize, Australia, and Panama patiently counting leaves, and insect damage to them. She works in 100-degree humid heat, covered with mud, bitten by botflies, and chewed on by chiggers. How does she describe these arduous adventures? Well, try words like exciting and exhilarating. All this should come as quite a shock to folks who imagine botanists work in nice little greenhouses developing a new breed of chartreuse rose. It is indeed amazing and difficult work, and we are fortunate to have people eager to do it. Normally I don't care for little biographies of this type because they are usually heavy on the personal life, and light on the science. Life In The Treetops presents a pleasant blend of the two. After receiving her Ph.D. in Sydney the author married a farmer and lived in the Australian outback. Women aren't expected to have careers there, and her story of that part of her life is fascinating. You will also learn interesting informational morsels from the world of botany. Fig trees start life as an epiphyte, their seeds germinating high in the crown of a tree. They then send tendrils down the tree, and these become roots when they touch the ground. The tree essentially grows backwards. Touch a certain Australian tree, and it stings you with venom equal to a bee sting. Some ants bring a variety of seeds to the top of the tree, and let them germinate there to form an ant garden. Ants farming? Some trees in the dark forest grow to a five inch height, and then wait for as long as 35 years for a sunny opening to develop in the canopy. Then they shoot up. Typical of most science books I read these days, this volume ends on a sad note regarding humans and the environment. Ms. Lowman wants more studies done as quickly as possible. Why? She's afraid the forests will soon be gone. An excellent book.

I love this book!

A personal inspiration - and a fine read from cover to cover

An unusual peek into a young scientific explorer's life

In one small book Dr. Lowman combines serious science, thoughtful reflections on expectations of self, family and scientific peers and fascinating descriptions of life in a threatened ecsystem. Best of all, she writes clearly and with great insight and wit.

Combining motherhood and a scientific career: a page-turner.

Dr. Lowman traces her origins from the Australian outback, raising two boys, to the pursuit of a scientific career as a world-renowned biologist specializing in the plants and insects of the rain-forest canopy. A highly personalized recounting of the travails and joys of being a female scientist and mother. A can't put-down book