Blogger Profile: Christa Horn
As a research coordinator in the Applied Plant Ecology division of the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, Christa Horn works to conserve the beautiful flora that animals and people depend on for food, shelter, and more. Her main research project takes her to the rain forests of Peru where she is helping an indigenous group sustainably harvest fruit from a palm for sale in the local markets. When not working on the Peru project, Christa helps the other members of the Applied Plant Ecology team restore habitat for threatened or endangered species, including the coastal cactus wren and Stephens’ kangaroo rat. With both a bachelor's and master's in Earth Systems from Stanford University, Christa draws on ecology, botany, anthropology, and geography to carry out her research.
Insects Don’t Bug Me
…because despite their small size as individuals, invertebrates as a group far outweigh mammals in total biomass. read more
The Right Tools
In August 2010, I spent three weeks trudging through swamps in the Peruvian Amazon to assess the aguaje palm population on the lands of an indigenous group known as the Maijuna. read more
A Grand Experiment for Palm Trees
Each year we hope to see how the palms are responding to the different treatments and what these responses may mean for the palm population as a whole. read more
Conserving Threatened Palms
The protected area where we are working represents the northernmost stretch of tropical deciduous forest in the Americas, and possibly the most intact. read more
Observing Nature as a Child
Neither of my parents would consider themselves naturalists, of even the amateur variety, and I rarely learned the names of the plants or animals I saw. But they encouraged me to observe and explore. read more
