When Nalini Nadkarni was a young scientist in the 1980s, she wanted to study the canopy – the part of the trees just above the forest floor to the very top branches.

But back then, people hadn’t figured out a good way to easily reach the canopy so it was difficult to conduct research in the tree tops. And Nadkarni’s graduate school advisors didn’t really think studying the canopy was worthwhile. “That’s just Tarzan and Jane stuff. You know that’s just glamour stuff,” Nadkarni remembers advisors telling her. “There’s no science up there that you need to do.”

They couldn’t have been more wrong. Over the course of her career, Nadkarni’s work has illuminated the unique and complex world of the forest canopy.

She helped shape our understanding of canopy soils — a type of soil that forms on the tree trunks and branches. The soil is made up of dead canopy plants and animals that decompose in place. The rich soil supports canopy-dwelling plants, insects and microorganisms that live their entire life cycles in the treetops. If the canopy soil falls to the forest floor, the soil joins the nutrient cycles of the whole forest.

She also discovered that some trees are able to grow above-ground roots from their branches and trunks. Much like below ground roots, the aerial roots can transport water and nutrients into the tree.

During Nadkarni’s early work as an ecologist she began to realize something else: There weren’t many women conducting canopy research.

Nadkarni was determined to change this. In the early 2000s, she and her lab colleagues came up with the idea of TreeTop Barbie, a canopy researcher version of the popular Barbie doll that could be marketed to young girls.

VIDEO: Tree Scientist Inspires Next Generation … Through Barbie

Video: NPR