Several people have asked about our expectations for the individual proposal. Here is a brief clarification:
The individual proposal is a one-page paper that introduces a specific question about temperate rainforests, explains its significance (why is this question important?), and proposes an experiment or study that might effectively answer the question (brief summary of the experimental design and/or methods that you would employ to answer the question).

The main goal of the proposal is 1) to encourage you to conduct preliminary research on a topic and articulate a research question that you are interested in, and 2) to give us a sense of the specific interests of students that we can use as the basis for putting together the groups that will be writing longer and more formal proposals.