aalexiad 2018 crire blog

Decided to work from our cabin today and have the students send me their drafts remotely. It has worked much better so far. They are progressing nicely and the posters will be in good shape by tomorrow I think. Looking forward to finishing our project and presenting the results. We got a lot done in just a few days.

Long day doing data analysis and poster preparation with the students. Since I took on Cristy and Cecilly from another mentor, we split my group into two poster presentations. Jaiden will present on the original instream and riparian habitat quality along a landuse gradient study while the others will present the physicochemical data. We made a ton of progress on the analysis and posters, but towards late afternoon I felt like the students were just asking me to do everything, so I gave them a deadline for tomorrow afternoon and told them to produce a completed rough draft on their own. It was kind of like pulling teeth all day to get them to work on it, but once they realized they would have to complete it on their own, it seemed to spur them into action. We will see what they produce by tomorrow. This condensed research experience can be quite intense for both students and mentors.

This was a much need free day. Most of the students went into town. I opted to hike the remaining trails on the Reserva which we hadn't yet ventured to for our field study. After breakfast I made my way down to the Rio Java and again up the Ridge trail, then turned off on the Wilson Trail, and looped back around via the Gamboa. I heard far more animals hiking on my own than in a group. It was great to find some peace and solitude in the forest. I had been feeling drained from being in such a large group for over a week now. I hiked over a rise on trail and startled a white-faced coati (a medium sized arboreal mammal) and found myself right in between the mother and her cub. She issued alarm calls for several minutes, directign her cub to safety I presume, and I was able to film the cub come down from its tree and quickly climb another tree closer to the mother. I watched the spectacle for about 10 minutes. It was great. I made it to the top of the Gamboa and headed back down the

Took my group to the headwaters of the Rio Java, just beyond the far northeast end of the Reserva. We hiked all the way up the Ridge Trail, which is the steepest of the rainforest trails to get there. Norys and Armando joined us for the hike with Senor Armando, a Ngabe-Bugle shaman, pointed out various rainforest medicinal plants. It was really interesting-but I struggled to get my students to wait for him. He is a tribal elder, so I expected a bit more patience and respect from my group-but they were in a hurry to explore the source of the Rio Java. Our final site was at an elevation of 4400ft and was nearly completely lined by bedrock with very little deposition. We finished our protocol (and the field portion of our study) and I dismissed the girls to do what they pleased while I hiked back more leisurely with Armando and Norys and we enjoyed the rainforest. It was neat to see the entire river from source to mouth.

Took my crew to the mouth of the Rio Java, where it empties into Quebrada Garrote for a few kilometers before joining the Rio Coto Brus. The landscape in the lower reaches has been mostly transformed into pasture land with some crop fields so our idea is to assess how stream habitat quality changes as a result of land use in the Rio Java Basin.  I must say, I am impressed with how the Costa Ricans protect their riparian buffers. They had some of the best fencing I've seen anywhere to keep their cows off the river. As a result, the river is less degraded in the lower reaches than I would have predicted. After doing a site at the mouth, we headed back to San Vito to conduct a survey on the river as it runs through the urban/industrial landscape. That site was more degraded than the lower site due to road construction along the river's edge. I suspect it is only a matter of time before the road completely washes away.

Started the day with a trek across the entire Biological Preserve via the longest trail system at Las Cruces, the Gamboa Trail. The trail led us to the confluence with the Yiguirro River at the border of preserve. As soon as you leave the Preserve, the landscape changes completely to pasture lands, dams, and nonnative plants. In some of the sites the riparian buffer was still  mostly intact, keeping the stream reaches relatively pristine or unaltered. One site had an old diversion dam. After sampling we walked into San Vito where my crew and I caught a bus back to the station. We had a cultural exchange with the Ngabe Bugle last night, replete dancing and songs. Cristy shared the Swan Dance of the Yakama and a Nakoda student. Overall the experience is going well and I think my students are learning a lot. 

Today was our first full research day in the field. My students (Cristy, Cecilly, and Jaiden) and I spent the entire day hiking to sites along the Rio Java in various stages of forest succession-from recent clear cuts/pasture lands to primary forest. Beautiful hiking, untold flora and fauna, and the river habitat changed along with the land use changes, as we had hypothesized. On the way back we hiked to a beautiful waterfall and stopped to allow Victoria, our Ngabe Bugle visitor and friend to point out medicinal and edible plants. At dinner last night some of the mentors and students from North American tribes had a beautiful cultural exchange of  creation stories with our Ngabe Bugle elder, Armando. It was touching to witness and I felt fortunate to be able to assist in translating the exchange. I finished my day stargazing above the forest canopy in observation tower. Good, long day.

Woke up to a cacophony of jungle sounds as the sun began to rise and light trickled through the rainforest canopy. Spent the morning touring the grounds, the botanical gardens with Rodolfo the lead biologist at Las Cruces, and learning about the abundant flora and fauna. Some of the more interesting species included trunk bees which build their hives in tree trunks and are stingerless, the plate sized water spider, and my personal fav-the strangler fig tree. The strangler fig spends part of its life cycle as a parasitic vine which climbs up its host tree then blocks out its sunlight and steals its nutrients. The host eventually dies and the strangler vines form a massive, hollow tree mass of mangled, twisted vines. I climbed up about 30ft in the center of the tree. Good fun. We also hiked as a group down to Rio Java, where I'll be conducting my study along with my two Navajo/Dine students Jaiden and Christine. Spent the evening doing formal introductions and welcoming our Ngabe fr

Arrived in San Jose yesterday. We had a beautiful road trip across most of Costa Rica to travel to Las Cruces Biological field station deep in the montane rainforest near the border with Panam. We arrived at dusk-can't wait to see all the amazing neotroprical flora and fauna tomorrow.