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TEAM Captures Photo of Jaguar The TEAM (Tropical Ecology Assessment and
Monitoring) Project at La Selva is thrilled to share their latest photo of an individual jaguar in Braulio Carrillo National
Park. The photo was taken by a monitoring system located at 1785 m.a.s.l., which is considered to be high elevation habitat for
jaguar.
According to Johanna Hurtado, the Volc�n Barva TEAM Site Leader, the jaguar looks very healthy and curious. She compared the spot patterns with the jaguar caught on camera in 2005 and concluded that it appears to be
a different individual.
The Volc�n Barva TEAM site is located within both the La Selva Biological Station and the adjacent Braulio Carrillo National Park. The Organization of Tropical Studies (OTS) manages this TEAM site, which was established in 2003. The TEAM project is run by Conservation International with a mission to generate real time data for monitoring long-term trends in tropical biodiversity through a global network of field stations, providing an early warning system on the status of biodiversity to effectively guide conservation action. |
. | La Selva Holds Two Workshops Addressing Climate Change
On April
14-17, Dr. Catherine Pringle and Dr. Chip Small coordinated a workshop on "Carbon Cycling in Tropical Streams". The workshop brought together together 22 researchers to share their research updates on small streams and large rivers (Amazon, Mekong, and Congo
Rivers), as well as several planning sessions that will result in synthesis
papers and a special session at the 2011 annual meeting of the American Society
for Limnology and Oceanography in Puerto Rico. This workshop was supported by the NSF Research Coordination Network (RCN)
grant "Tropical Forests in a Changing World."
Rivers and streams transport large amounts of dissolved carbon away from local
watersheds but this phenomenon has been largely overlooked in many regional and
global carbon budgets. Warm tropical streams have particularly high rates
of carbon processing by microbes and are often located in areas with rapidly
developing economies, and yet relatively few studies have focused on carbon
dynamics in tropical streams. Any attempt to understand the biosphere's
response to global climate change must consider the role of the tropical
world's rivers and streams.
"Carbon Cycling in Tropical Streams" Participants, April 2010
| Most recently, a workshop entitled "Communicating Climate Change to the Public," was held from May
6-9. This workshop was sponsored by the NSF Panamerican Advanced Studies Institute (PASI)
"Global Change and Tropical Ecosystems."
The two
goals of this workshop were to provide the latest updates on climate research,
including "Geoengineering," "Ocean Acidification," "Latest Climate Results from
La Selva," and "Communicating Paleoclimatology," from leading experts and to explore the dynamic interface
between science and the public. The sessions and informal
gatherings proved to be both productive and provocative. Workshop participants
included 18 young ecologists, primarily graduate students and postdoctoral
fellows, from the United States and Latin America, in addition to a panel of climate
scientists and the New York Times environmental journalist Andrew C. Revkin,
who said "It was great to see young scientists from two hemispheres
working together to improve understanding of the interface between biology and
climate and to explore fresh ways to communicate their work to various publics.".
This
workshop was organized by Dr. Deedra McClearn,
Dr. Delphine Farmer, and Paul Foster. The climate panelists included
Dr.
Juliane Fry (Reed College), Dr. Delphine Farmer (NOAA), Dr. Deborah Clark (La Selva), and Dr. Kim Cobb (Georgia Institute of Technology).
L-R: Deborah Clark, Kim Cobb, Juliane Fry, Delphine Farmer, Andrew Revkin
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OTS strengthens
relations with the Costa Rican Ministry of Foreign Affairs
On April 8th, 2010, OTS signed
an agreement with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to promote Costa Rican best
practices abroad. This agreement is within the framework
of the Best Practices Program, which was developed with the support of the
German Cooperation Agency (GTZ), and the Spanish Agency of International
Cooperation for Development (AECID). The ultimate goal of this venture is to connect
governments with organizations which have the experience and vision to share their knowledge of a particular field. Through this program, OTS will provide
the Ministry with details about our activities and the Ministry will promote
our activities as an example of good practices throughout the world. Whenever a
government of any country demonstrates interest on these experiences, the
Ministry may support OTS' work with the government in question to provide an assessment
and implementation of practices. The Ministry is providing institutions,
such as OTS, with a powerful and innovative opportunity for exposure, fundraising,
and the dissemination of knowledge in a broad and agile way; especially when
the world economies are still in a recovery process. The spread out of scientific
knowledge focused on nature constitutes today an important issue among the
countries. Dr. Liana
Babbar, OTS Director for Costa
Rica, who signed the agreement on behalf of OTS,
stated, (translated) "The opportunity
provided by the Foreign Affairs Ministry will allow OTS to support the
development of the region. One of the projects will consist of inviting Central
American countries to visit OTS biological stations in order to replicate our
models of management and research developed from OTS' 47 years of experience on
the promotion of education, research, and the responsible use of natural
resources in the tropics, as well as the experience we have on biodiversity
data".
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Comb Duck Sighting - A Deeper Look Reveals
a Classic OTS Experience: Collaboration
In the
April edition of the E-Canopy, we ran a short article on the recent sighting of
a new avifauna species at Palo Verde. The original article failed to recognize all
of the participants involved in the sighting and identification of this
species. This omission was a lost opportunity to celebrate the true spirit of
OTS: collaboration.
Photo by S.Dinsmore, 2010 Palo Verde | On March 18, Rafael Ram�rez,
an OTS naturalist on staff at Palo Verde, was leading a group of fourteen students
from Iowa State University
with their professors, Dr. Stephen Dinsmore and Dr. Jim Pease. As the group
approached the lagoon, Dr. Dinsmore and one of the students, Tyler Harms,
spotted the unusual duck flying above. Dr. Dinsmore identified the species
immediately and confirmed the identification when they returned to the station
later that morning.The
first photograph was taken by Dr. Dinsmore to record the sighting. The
following day another member of Palo Verde staff, Gilberto Murillo, searched
for the Comb Duck and spotted him in the in the lagoon area. At this point
Gilbert took additional photographs for OTS' records. A week
later, the Comb Duck was GPS positioned and photographed again for the OTS GIS
archives. This exciting
discovery, in true OTS style, was the collaboration of students, professors,
naturalists and researchers. Congratulations to everyone involved!
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. | OTS Membership T-shirt Contest The annual OTS Amigos t-shirt has been a long-standing tradition for decades. Each year, we have spotlighted a wide variety of tropical themes. This year, we're leaving it up to you -
our members. Send us your design, illustration or photo to [email protected] by
June 1, 2010. In June, we will send an online poll to everyone
on our E-Canopy electronic mailing list. The design with the most votes will be
selected as the new Membership t-shirt! |
OTS offers trips for individuals to explore the world in a unique setting and with a group of like-minded individuals. We are planning our upcoming travel schedule and want to hear from the OTS community to determine the locations and types of trips you would like to see offered.
Please take a moment to complete this short survey. CLICK HERE
Thank you!
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