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Tropical montane cloud forests (TMCFs) are ecosystems with high biodiversity that are threatened by deforestation, land use changes, and climate change. One of the unique aspects of TMCFs is the high biomass and diversity of epiphytes. Epiphytes are vascular and non-vascular plants that live in tree canopies, creating arboreal micro-ecosystems. They provide ecological services by capturing and retaining allochthonous nutrients from rain and fog, and by supporting the presence of canopy pollinators and other fauna. Predicted changes in cloudiness and land conversion threaten the abundance of epiphytes, and thus their capacity to contribute to ecosystem functions. However, how losses in epiphyte abundance will affect microclimate and host tree water status is still unclear and requires the ability to simulate the role of epiphytes in canopy water storage dynamics. We developed a water balance model for epiphytes in TMCFs. We consider epiphytes in the host tree as a water store inside the canopy that is filled via precipitation from both rain and fog, and depleted via evapotranspiration and host tree water uptake. The model was used to simulate water and energy fluxes between the epiphytes and their surroundings under idealized and real dry season conditions for TMCFs near Monteverde, Costa Rica. Results from the idealized and real simulations capture how epiphytes retain water under dry-down conditions, leading to small diurnal variability in temperature, low evapotranspiration rates, and enhanced dew deposition at night. We find that dew deposition recharges up to 34 % of epiphyte water storage lost due to evapotranspiration over a 3-day dry-down event. Our results provide the first quantitative demonstration of the importance of epiphyte water storage on temperature and dew formation in TMCFs. This work sets the foundation for developing a process-based understanding of the effects of epiphyte loss on TMCF ecohydrology. 

Summary Epiphytes and their associated biota are increasingly recognized as contributing to biodiversity and to filling critical ecosystem functions in world forests. However, the attributes that have made them successful in canopy environments also make them vulnerable to natural and human‐induced disturbances. Drawing upon ecological frameworks to understand disturbance, I categorized and synthesized the drivers and the consequences of disturbances on epiphytic materials. Across all impacts, disturbance agents were significantly more likely to lead to negative, rather than positive, effects in both tropical and temperate locales. Significantly more studies reported negative effects on abundance, diversity, community composition and connectivity, but some studies showed that disturbances enhanced these attributes. Although particular disturbance agents did not differently influence individual consequences, they explained a significant portion of variation in aggregated totals. Surprisingly, relative to human disturbances, natural disturbances were more likely to lead to negative effects. Many studies provided recommendations for effective societal responses to mitigate negative impacts, such as retaining large, old trees in forestry operations, patch‐clearing for epiphyte harvest, maximizing forest fragment size, using epiphytes as bioindicators of disturbance, and applying principles of community forestry to land management. Future actions should also include communication of these results to policymakers and land managers. 

In the ongoing series of Nova Interviews, Challenges Advisory Board member Alan C. Logan meets with thought leaders, scientists, scholars, healthcare professionals, artisans and visionaries concerned about health at the scales of persons, places, and the planet. In this interview, Dr. Nalini M. Nadkarni, of the University of Utah, responds to a set of questions posed by Nova for Challenges. For over forty years, Dr. Nadkarni has been studying the fragility and resiliency of rainforest ecosystems. During this time, Dr. Nadkarni has prioritized science communication with an emphasis on highlighting the interdisciplinary relevancy of research findings. Dr. Nadkarni has worked to promote an integrative way of thinking about the various branches of science and medicine, with an eye toward shifting public policy. Her research career has taken her where only a small minority of scientists have traveled—from remote cloud forests to segregated housing within prison facilities. Dr. Nadkarni successfully challenged the Mattel Corporation to update their globally-recognized toy, Barbie, with women in science in mind. Here, Dr. Nadkarni reflects on the early influences that shaped her career, updates Challenges on the latest directions of her work, and discusses the ways in which the canopy ecosystem can help us understand the complex interconnected challenges of our time. 

Public engagement with science activities need to be extended beyond traditional learning venues (e.g., museums, schools) to increase public access. Scientists are motivated to carry out this work; however, it is difficult to scale up training to support the implementation of engagement activities in non-traditional venues. Such training would need to be applicable to different engagement contexts, while avoiding a “one size fits all” approach. We describe the guiding principles, challenges, and design choices of a training program in the United States to support scientists in designing and implementing audience-specific engagement activities in a range of non-traditional venues. 

Abstract Scientists increasingly seek to respond to urgent calls for equity in science but may be unsure how to engage with underserved public groups. Prisons, jails, and detention centers are venues in which scientists may use their educational privilege to serve and empower diverse populations that are underserved by science education and underrepresented in science disciplines. We reversed the lens that traditionally focuses on the benefits of public engagement to the audience by documenting the impacts of delivering science lectures on the scientists who offered seminars to incarcerated people. The scientists who engaged in carceral settings gained professional benefits, shifted their preconceptions of incarcerated people, raised their perceived value of community engagement, and increased their interest in social justice. Some took direct actions for social change. This program could model effective engagement for other underserved groups in our society. We provide guidance to initiate such a program in other institutions. 

This paper is the culmination of several meaning-making activities between an external researcher, PES practitioners, and social scientist researchers who considered the unique contributions that can be made through RPPs on PES (that is, research-practice partnerships on public engagement with science). Based on the experiences from three RPP projects, the group noted that the PES context may be particularly suited to RPPs, and identified the importance of working as thinking-partners who support reciprocal decision-making. Recommendations are made in support of using these approaches to advance practical knowledge-building and reduce shared frustrations about the disconnect between research and practice in PES. 

This paper is the culmination of several meaning-making activities between an external researcher, PES practitioners, and social scientist researchers who considered the unique contributions that can be made through RPPs on PES (that is, research-practice partnerships on public engagement with science). Based on the experiences from three RPP projects, the group noted that the PES context may be particularly suited to RPPs, and identified the importance of working as thinking-partners who support reciprocal decision-making. Recommendations are made in support of using these approaches to advance practical knowledge-building and reduce shared frustrations about the disconnect between research and practice in PES.