Rainforest streams in Puerto Rico continue enjoying the tropical sun, as the forest canopy is still far from closed.
It has been almost two years since Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico and left the forest without leaves and small branches. The forest still has a very different structure than before the hurricane. There is a lot of sunlight, grasses growth in the understory, and plenty of pioneer plants are taking advantage of the new structure.
Our study streams receive a lot more sun light than they did before the hurricane. One main component of our current research is to find out if algae are able to take advantage of this and whether stream food webs are now using more energy coming from algae than from other food resources (e.g. leaf litter).
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