New species found on a mountaintop
A ‘‘dream team’’ of scientists scaled Mt Lico in Mozambique and found a wealth of new species, reports Jeff Barbee ,of The Observer.
STANDING in a pit in the red soil of a mountaintop forest in northern Mozambique, Dr Simon Willcock was dirty but very excited.
‘‘Undisturbed forest is incredibly rare,’’ he said. ‘‘That is why we scaled a 125mtall cliff with a pickaxe.’’
Willcock, from Bangor University in Wales, knew of no other rainforest in Africa that scientists could confidently say had not been disturbed by humans.
‘‘It’s a unique site in Africa,’’ he said.
Mt Lico rises vertically from the land around it, the ancient centre of a volcano with the forest nestled in its crater. It was discovered by Dr Julian Bayliss, who examined satellite imagery looking for an undisturbed tropical rainforest. When he spotted Lico on Google Earth, he said, the forest on top ‘‘was isolated and appeared totally undisturbed’’.
With a smile, he added: ‘‘That makes it very exciting.’’
Bayliss, from Oxford Brookes University, found Mt Mabu, the largest rainforest in southern Africa, as well as new species of butterflies and other creatures in the area since then.
Rainforests are the oldest living biomes on Earth and contain roughly half the known species of life. They also store more carbon for longer than any other living system. Some tropical rainforests date back to the dinosaur age, but virtually all show signs of past human activity. Bayliss wondered if there were mountaintop forests that might be untouched.
The answer was Lico. But the mountain’s formidable geography — its circling rock wall rises 700m above the plain — raised a whole new series of questions in terms of accessibility. Bayliss decided to focus on a ‘‘shorter’’ cliff of about 125m on one side, and to put together an expedition that would place scientists on the top of Lico via that vertical rock.
It took two years to assemble the 28person dream team of biologists, logistical crew, plant experts and researchers for the first expedition that took place last month, led by Bayliss and assisted by professional climbers. The project was an academic partnership between 13 universities, museums and research institutions on three continents.
Bayliss believes Lico could be one of the most pristine forests on Earth. Willcock and his colleague, Dr Phil Platts from the University of York, dug for two days to get to the forest bedrock to read the soil layers like a history book of Lico’s past. Every fire that ever burned here, many of the plants that grew, even millions of caterpillar droppings are all recorded in the soil.
‘‘This forest provides a unique insight into the effects of climate change on forests over time,’’ Platts said.
After 10 days of discovery, the team was back at base camp. The hole in the forest had been refilled, the topsoil replaced, and Colin Congdon, a veteran lepidopterist, was comparing finds with Bayliss.
Among them was Lico’s first confirmed new species: a butterfly. The scientists expect it will be far from the only one. There is a lineup of potential new species to be confirmed in the months to come, from snakes to frogs, toads, a snakelike amphibian called a caecilian, a shrew, a snubnosed rodent, more butterflies, crabs and even a flowering plant.
Cataloguing potential new fish species, Vanessa Muranga, a marine biologist from Mozambique’s Natural History Museum, had two wrapped in gauze in front of her.
‘‘It’s so exciting when you find something that might be new.’’
Lico contains other mysteries, including partly buried ancient pots the team discovered near the source of the main stream. According to the local community, noone has ever been on top of the mountain. How did the potmakers get up the sheer cliff? Was the land around Lico higher then? Could the soil analysis help date them? Anthropologists from Mozambique’s Natural History Museum are investigating.
On the last night of the expedition, the scientists gathered around the base camp’s fire to share a celebratory drink. Perched on a crate with a big smile, Bayliss expressed satisfaction everyone had made it off the mountain with their precious samples. —