Monteverde: Ecology and Conservation of a Tropical Cloud Forest - 2014 Updated Chapters
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Bowdoin College Bowdoin Digital Commons Bowdoin Scholars' Bookshelf 2014 Monteverde: Ecology and Conservation of a Tropical Cloud Forest - 2014 Updated Chapters Nalini M. Nadkarni Nathaniel T. Wheelwright Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.bowdoin.edu/scholars-bookshelf Part of the Biodiversity Commons, Botany Commons, Earth Sciences Commons, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons, Entomology Commons, Forest Biology Commons, Latin American Studies Commons, Natural Resources and Conservation Commons, Nature and Society Relations Commons, Plant Biology Commons, Recreation, Parks and Tourism Administration Commons, and the Systems Biology Commons Recommended Citation Nadkarni, Nalini M. and Wheelwright, Nathaniel T.(editors), "Monteverde: Ecology and Conservation of a Tropical Cloud Forest - 2014 Updated Chapters" (2014). Bowdoin Scholars' Bookshelf. Book 4. http://digitalcommons.bowdoin.edu/scholars-bookshelf/5 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by Bowdoin Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Bowdoin Scholars' Bookshelf by an authorized administrator of Bowdoin Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 1 Introduction — Update 2014 Nalini M. Nadkarni & Nathaniel T. Wheelwright In the last three decades, Monteverde, Costa attractions to attract ecotourism as an economic Rica has emerged as a critical venue for research driver, and good infrastructure to support it; and in tropical montane biology. Over 350 scientific a rare degree of civic awareness and community articles and 10 scholarly books have been engagement (Nadkarni et al. 2013). generated. In terms of conservation and training For example, the presence of a strong young biologists, Monteverde is considered one scientific understanding of the negative effects of the premier tropical cloud forest sites in the of deforestation on soil erosion, water quality, world. and biodiversity prompted the early conservation This rich research, conservation, and movement. This helped raise awareness about education legacy exists even though the research the presence of remarkable species such as the infrastructure has been extremely limited, Resplendent Quetzal and Golden Toad and the relative to many other major tropical field threats they faced from fragmented landscapes, stations. Research has mostly been conducted by introduced species, and changing climates. The single investigators, often with little or no presence of such charismatic species, living in extramural support, and there have been few such charismatic habitats, attracted student large-scale, long-term, multi-institutional groups and tourists to the area. This led to an projects. income flow that could support continued Synergistic interactions between several preservation and additions to cloud forest distinctive features of Monteverde appear to preserve areas, which expanded opportunities explain the high research productivity in the face for scientific research. The sense of civic of limited research support: a long-time awareness and spirituality of this Quaker- emphasis on watershed protection and originated community fostered a sense of conservation; a commitment to education, from personal responsibility to carry out actions to bilingual local grade schools to graduate field benefit people, wildlife, and plants. courses offered by the Organization for Tropical Studies and other groups; outstanding natural Because montane forests comprise a much translation of this translation. We had two main smaller land area and have a lower economic objectives. The first objective was to educate, value than lowland forests, they have tended to inspire and engage as many people as possible in attract fewer scientists and less funding and the effort to protect tropical cloud forests. When research infrastructure. Monteverde provides an we were in graduate school, the standard model example – and potentially a model – for of conservation was this: acquire a lot of land, scientists in other montane cloud forests and put a big fence around it, and keep people out. other tropical ecosystem types that do not attract That approach has been discredited over the large funding and yet still can produce excellent years, and now everyone realizes the importance science (Nadkarni et al. 2013). of having people "buy in" on conservation It has been 14 years since Monteverde: projects. Our second objective was to attempt to Ecology and Conservation of a Tropical Cloud shift the culture of scientists who conduct Forest was first published (Nadkarni and research in developing countries, then return Wheelwright 2000). Given the many new home to publish their work in English in research projects that have appeared in the scholarly journals. "Education" literally means interim, we felt it was time to update the book. "leading outward" — in this case, taking More importantly, the book's cost and the fact information about tropical biology and that it was published only in English effectively conservation that is currently sequestered in put the book out of reach for many readers in expensive books in privileged libraries and Latin America. Clearly, it is time to translate the making it freely available on the web to anyone book into Spanish, particularly in light of who speaks Spanish. accelerating rates of biodiversity loss — Within six weeks of initiating a Kickstarter "defaunation" — and the paucity of conservation campaign monitoring studies in the neotropics (Fig. 1; (www.kickstarter.com/projects/768016193/rainf Dirzo et al. 2014). In addition to translating the orest-conservation-making-science-available-i) original book, we requested representatives of in December, 2014, we received contributions the Monteverde research, conservation, and from 185 individuals from all walks of life and education communities to write an actualización from all over the world—Costa Rica, of course, for each chapter. The actualizaciones are not but also New Zealand, France, Canada, the meant to describe in detail everything that has Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Mexico and transpired in each field since the original book other countries, which has made the translation, was published, but rather to inform the reader of updating and publication of this book possible. significant advances and relevant literature on We hope that readers will find it a useful that topic. resource for understanding and protecting In the spirit of Monteverde research, tropical cloud forests not just in Monteverde but education, and education, we drew upon grass- throughout Latin America. roots support — rather than applying to traditional funding sources — to fund the Fig. 1. Locations of all sources of invertebrate abundance time series data. The size of the circle is relative to the number of species studied in a given location. Note the paucity of studies in Latin America and the tropics in general (figure from Supplementary Material in Dirzo et al. 2014). Literature Cited Nadkarni, N.M., and N.T. Wheelwright (eds.). 2000. Dirzo,R., H.S. Young, M. Galetti, G. Ceballos, N.J.B. Monteverde: Ecology and Conservation of a Isaac, and B. Collen. 2014. Defaunation in the Tropical Cloud Forest. Oxford University Press. Anthropocene. Science 345: 401-6. 573 pp. (also available online at digitalcommons.bowdoin.edu). Nadkarni, N., K. Sheldon and S. Gotsch. 2013. The perfect storm: educational, conservation, and community synergisms for tropical ecology research in Monteverde, Costa Rica. Symposium: Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation, San José, Costa Rica. 2 Physical Environment — Update 2014 Kenneth L. Clark, Robert O. Lawton & Paul R. Butler The original chapter on the “Physical briefly review selected studies at the end of each Environment” had two goals: 1) review what is section. known about the climate and weather, geology, geologic history, geomorphology, soils, and Climate and Hydrology of Monteverde hydrology of Monteverde, and 2) identify areas We still lack complete information on climate where our knowledge is incomplete and further and hydrologic cycling for Monteverde, investigations will be fruitful. Since its especially long-term data on changes in wind- publication, our overall understanding of driven cloud and precipitation inputs, tropical montane regions has benefitted from evapotranspiration, and stream flow. However, global-scale comparative data. Recent recent studies are closing these information quantitative information on how variation in the gaps. Our understanding of hydrologic cycling physical environment interacts with biotic in Monteverde has benefitted from a more processes at the population, community and complete understanding of the biophysical ecosystem scales are beginning to be addressed. controls of cloud formation and persistence, and Here, I summarize some of the recent research recent measurements of cloud water and wind- on: a) climate and hydrology of Monteverde; b) driven precipitation inputs across the Caribbean recent information on geology and and Pacific slopes (Lawton et al., 2001, 2010, geomorphology, including more accurate ages Frumau et al. 2011, Hager and Dohrenbusch for recent volcanism, the large granodiorite 2011, Schmid et al. 2011). Estimates of pluton in the Monteverde area, and a refinement evapotranspiration and stream outputs have been of the tectonic interpretation of the region; c) refined using isotopic analyses of inputs, carbon, nutrients and enzymes in soils; d) the outputs, and isotopic signatures in tree