Establishment of Epiphytic Bromeliads in Successional Tropical Premontane Forests in Costa Rica

Persistence of rock-derived nutrients in the wet tropical forests of La Selva, Costa Rica.

We used strontium isotopes and analysis of foliar and soil nutrients to test whether erosion can rejuvenate the supply of rock-derived nutrients in the lowland tropical rain forest of La Selva, Costa Rica. We expected that these nutrients would be depleted from soils on stable surfaces, a result of over one million years of weathering in situ. In fact, trees and palms in all landscape positions...

Bacillus thuringiensis in caterpillars and associated materials collected from protected tropical forests in northwestern Costa Rica

Bacillus thuringiensis in caterpillars and associated materials collected from protected tropical forests in northwestern Costa Rica.

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) synthesizes crystalline inclusions that are toxic to caterpillars (Lepidoptera) and other orders of invertebrates. Materials associated with 37 caterpillars from 16 species, collected while feeding on 15 different species of host plants in dry, cloud and rain forests located in the Area de Conservación Guanacaste in northwestern Costa Rica, were examined for the pres...

How Can Carbon Sequestration in Tropical Forests be Rewarded? Evidence from Costa Rica

As empirical evidence that human activities are affecting the global climate increases, so do efforts to identify and evaluate climate mitigation and adaptation options. Forest managers and policy makers around the world are increasingly participating in and following such efforts, since forestry activities (e.g., reforestation, slowing deforestation, or improved forest management) could in pri...

A new species of Erythrodiplax breeding in bromeliads in Costa Rica (Odonata: Libellulidae).

We describe a new species, Erythrodiplax laselva (Libellulidae), that breeds in bromeliads and Cochliostema (Commelinaceae) in the eastern lowlands of Costa Rica. The closest known relative is thought to be E. castanea, widespread in Central and South America, and not E. bromeliicola, which is known to breed in bromeliads in Cuba and Jamaica. The male, female, genitalia, and larva are described...