Pura Vida is the Best Medicine

By Anna Wassel

“Mom, even the animals are less stressed down here,” I told my mom on the phone after hearing a lecture about the immune response of tropical toads and frogs. I was certainly less stressed than usual, but the animals were, too? It’s true though, animals in the tropics really do have lower levels of stress hormones than animals in the temperate region.  Scientists aren’t really sure why, though one hypothesis is that it’s because there is such a high level of parasites in the tropics, that animals need their immune systems working full time to fight the parasites, and stress inhibits immune responses. 

I’m sure many of us have had first-hand experience with this.  I know I always gets sick after exam season.  When I’m stressed, I have aches and pains and headaches and an upset stomach and colds all the time, and I’m pretty much always stressed.  So, I’m pretty much always sick… except for here in Costa Rica.  When I send pictures or video chat my parents they always comment on how good and healthy and happy I look.  I don’t know if it’s the sunshine, all the exercise from hiking and climbing to the top of the observation tower, the daily gallo pinto and fresh fruit, or just the fact that I’m living my dream spending every day in the nature of one of the most biodiverse places on earth. 

So when I got sick with a 101.5 degrees Fahrenheit fever, I was worried.  Was it a mosquito-borne illness? I hate putting on bug repellent, but I usually wear long pants and long sleeves.  Was it some sort of infection?  Maybe I forgot to wash my hands before eating once?  We had just learned about the human immune system a few days before and how the immune response of having fever serves to burn off any bacteria.  It doesn’t start to be dangerous for humans until about 102 degrees Fahrenheit or 39 degrees Celsius, so if it’s under those temperatures, it is better to not take any ibuprofen to allow the body to fight off the illness how it knows best.  This meant I spent a whole day in bed sleeping and pushing electrolyte-rich fluids.  At least I got a picture of my pale face and gross-tasting electrolytes for our group’s “Tropical Afflictions” Instagram where we document all the bites, bumps, bruises, and other ailments we get while exploring the tropics. 

Luckily, it was just a one-day fever and by the next day, I was feeling fine.  I asked my professor if Costa Ricans were generally less sick and less stressed than Estadounidenses (citizens of the United States), and he said that in fact, they were.  His theory was that it is partially because of the Pura Vida attitude.  When things go wrong, they could have been worse, so “pura vida.”  You greet each other and say good bye to each other by saying “pura vida.”  It’s a constant reminder that life is good.  After all, stress is bad for the immune system. 

It’s generally considered that the health care system in Costa Rica is better than in the United States.  I don’t know how to fix that, but I do know that I can bring the “pura vida” attitude home with me in hopes of the positivity allowing myself and everyone around to live healthier lives.  Oh, and I’ll definitely take home a recipe for gallo pinto.  

Coffee: From Farm to Cup

By Claire Jackan

We watched a documentary called Black Gold and visited Roberto’s farm to learn about how coffee is grown, harvested, and processed before it reaches consumers.  Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee but the crop is now grown in many tropical areas around the world. It takes four years from planting for a coffee plant to reach full size.  The International Coffee Agreement used to control the price of coffee until its collapse in 1989; since then, the price of coffee has dropped to a 30-year low.  Now the international price of coffee is determined in New York and London. Retail sales from coffee have increased from $30 billion in 1990 to $80 billion per year. Coffee reaches the consumer after six chains of “middle men” and coffee pickers generally make less than 50 cents per day.

            The documentary focused on an Ethiopian coffee company, and the economy of the surrounding community depends on coffee alone. While the owners of large coffee companies are making more money than ever, coffee pickers and the surrounding communities are living in poverty because they are not receiving a fair price for the coffee that they work hard to pick.  The average life expectancy in Ethiopia is 44, more than half of the population is under 16, the average wage is $2 per day, and 5% finish high school.  The therapeutic feeding center shown in the video attempts to feed the severely malnourished children with few resources and so they have to turn away children that are hungry but are not malnourished enough. Because of the low prices for coffee, some Ethiopians have switched to growing chat instead.  Chat is a narcotic plant that is widely consumed in East Africa but banned in the United States and Europe. Many of them don’t actually want to grow chat but are practically forced to because they can’t make enough money growing coffee.  

            At Roberto’s farm we were able to see how coffee plants are grown and processed. Roberto grows other crops like bananas and plantains on his six-hectare farm, but coffee is the only one that he sells.  The coffee is generally grown at high elevation with mostly shade and some sun. He grows bean plants near the coffee plants because of the nitrogen-fixation properties. Once the dry fruits are collected, he separates out the pulp from the seeds and removes the shell, either by hand or with a machine. He mixes the leftovers with organic material and uses it as fertilizer for the fields. Roberto sells his coffee beans to a toaster who decides how long to toast them depending on the desired strength and flavor. He doesn’t really have a market outside of his family and the co-op, but before we left many of us bought some of his coffee to take home to our own families and friends. This experience has highlighted the general lack of awareness in the United States about where our coffee comes from and the conditions under which it is produced. When I return home, I plan on purchasing fair-trade coffee whenever possible and I will encourage my family and friends to do the same.

Enchanting Beauty

By Corinne Tarantino

You know that moment, where something is so beautiful in front of you that time seems to stand still and feels like the rest of the world disappears? That has been almost every day in Costa Rica. Each day I fail to believe I could really be living in such paradise. Every new location is wonderful, filled with lots of new sites to explore.

            We started at Palo Verde Biological Station located in a wetland area of a tropical dry forest. There we saw the most stunning sunsets,over the wetlands, with migrating birds flying over. The animals were everywhere, howler monkeys waking you up in the night, geckos sounding like little birds, and black iguanas blocking your path to the dining hall. Next, we went to Cuericí Biological Station which was in the mountains, in the clouds, surrounded by oak forest. The organic trout farm we lived on felt like it was out of a fairy tale, as the trout ponds were carved into the mountains with lush grasses around the edges. Then, we went down the mountain to Las Cruces Biological Station, which includes the Wilson Botanical Garden. Each day walking to breakfast took my breath away, because of the beauty of the birds and plants. The garden was also surrounded by premontane wet forest. The forest was filled with thin vines and lianas and you could hear birds off in the distance and hear the hum of the cicadas around you. Despite the wonder of these locations, the most interesting place was yet to come.

            By far though, the most magical place was at Las Alturas. There we went on a hike up the mountain where we witnessed the stunning transition between three types of forest, that was like switching between Disney movies. We started in an old growth forest, where there were huge trees with buttresses that you could stand in and lianas that sometimes were as wide as my head. There it felt like we were in the Jungle Book, a place where you can have a chance encounter with jaguars or snakes. Then, all of the sudden, we were walking into a bamboo forest. It was like being Indiana Jones, looking for the lost temple, with boulders covered in vines with several small hidden caves in the mountain. As soon as the bamboo cleared away, it felt like a whole new upside-down world, with twisted trees and some of the strangest plants I’ve ever seen. It was like being in Alice in Wonderland, exploring the garden. Each different forest was a new surprise, in just a few short hours, I had entered three of my childhood movies. I had crawled through the vines with Mowgli, had braved the boulders with Indiana Jones and then wandered down the rabbit hole with Alice.

            Overall, this trip has allowed me to encounter some of the most magical places I have ever seen. Each day leading to new enchanting adventures, where I can explore untouched wilderness. Every new location leading to more biological questions of interactions between the plants, the animals, and everything in between.  Costa Rica has given me the opportunity to learn about how all of this beauty came to be and how biologists and community members are working to protect it for generations to come.

My Coffee Confliction

By Emily Arendsen

This week has been coffee themed, which has been great for me because I am one of the millions of Americans that drink coffee daily. It has been eye-opening, answering questions that I didn’t even know I had about the coffee production process and the steps it takes to get coffee to the consumer. It has also taught me about the social issues that coffee production, the way it is currently done, compounds.

We visited a shade-grown coffee farm, ran by Don Roberto in the Puntarenas province of Costa Rica. Here we had the opportunity to hear his perspectives on what coffee-growing is like. Don Roberto has a very special coffee farm because of his beliefs on forest conservation and high-quality coffee. He uses his farm as a source of income, a source of food and a protected area for wildlife. The shade-giving banana and bean plants that he cultivates function to give shade to make higher quality coffee and also produce food for his family. The bean plants also function as fertilizers because the bacteria that live in their roots put nitrogen into the ground in a form that plants can use. Don Roberto believes in producing quality coffee without harming the environment, so he doesn’t use pesticides, herbicides or fertilizers. Instead, he lets the leaves that fall from the trees stay on the ground and decompose under his coffee plants as a natural fertilizer. He has small rows of grass that keep fallen leaves from blowing away so he can use them as fertilizer. He does not grow coffee on all of his property because he isn’t capable of tending to that many trees and he wants to conserve the forests, and the shade plants that are over his coffee plants also provide habitat for wildlife. As a person studying ecology, it was inspiring to see conservation and farming intersecting in such a positive way.

            Don Roberto also faces many challenges in his coffee-production process. He works with a co-op in order to be able to sell coffee from a small farm because it is difficult to grow coffee independently in Costa Rica. This is because a coffee grower needs a brand in order to be able to export coffee. Receiving a brand is an expensive and time-consuming process that small farmers can’t afford. Since Don Roberto sells his coffee to the co-op, he does not get to negotiate the price and his co-op does not incentivize organic farming practices that yield high-quality beans. His co-op simply reduces the price that they will pay to the producer if they present the co-op with unviable beans. According to the movie Black Gold, there are about six middlemen involved in the exportation process, leading to the large disparity between the price the consumer pays for coffee and the price the producer receives.

            After thinking about the social issues that occur because of large-scale coffee production and the system that is the status quo for producing coffee, it has become apparent to me that consumers’ buying habits need to change, including my own. Buying Fair-Trade Certified coffee helps to fight poverty by improving the wages that the producers receive and reducing middle-men that increase the final price that the consumer pays without regard for how little the producer was paid. 

Sustainable Agriculture

By Gabrielle Mendelsohn

Last week our class visited Don Roberto’s coffee plantation near Las Cruces Biological Station in the Puntarenas Province of Costa Rica. There, we discussed his management practices and the obstacles he and other farm owners face to operating farms sustainably. Roberto’s farm is a shade coffee plantation with a variety of crops and plants strategically grown to improve soil quality and reduce erosion. These strategies are particularly important for his farm, which had previously been used as pasture land, degrading the soil quality. One success story we heard was that he was able to bring water back to the two springs on his property by reforesting the areas surrounding them. While Roberto has been able to make these environmentally sustainable changes on his farm, many small-scale farms do not have the financial means, resources, or the will to do the same. Competition with large, profit-driven, industrial producers and a lack of local consumer awareness or demand for sustainable, fair trade, or organic products also limits the ability of farmers to make the transition to more sustainable agricultural practices.

            Agriculture is a major global driver of deforestation and a large source of pollution from high inputs of fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. This has a variety of direct and indirect impacts on the environment, including exacerbating climate change and contributing to biodiversity loss. However, on the other hand, millions of people, particularly those in developing countries, depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. This presents a large challenge of reconciling the need to protect people’s welfare and financial needs with ensuring the environment is healthy and protected for current and future generations. Listening to Roberto speak about his personal experiences with agriculture, I thought about the connections between them and what we heard from Don Carlos on our visit to Cuerici about owning land, and the video “Black Gold” we watched on coffee farms in Ethiopia, and how important it is to emphasize and recognize the intersections between environmental, social, and economic challenges.

            There are many approaches to finding and implementing solutions to daunting global environmental and social problems such as those posed by agriculture. From what I have learned in Costa Rica and in my prior education, I think the only solutions that are sustainable and will have lasting positive impacts are those that are integrative. Solutions must address not only conservation needs, but also social ones, and must work from multiple perspectives, such as policy, science, and with local communities. Research, such as the kind we carried out on coffee plantations this past week, investigating the differences in seed predation between sun and shade coffee plantations, can be applied to policies and management decisions, and be used to help educate farmers on what practices will protect both their crops and their land. Since I have been interested in sustainable agriculture for a long time and hope to learn more about approaches and solutions to improving the industry, it was really interesting for me to be able to speak first hand with people contributing to those solutions.

Experimenting with Geckos

By Geoffrey Nathan

2 weeks into our stay at Las Cruces Biological Station, the OTS group was given our 2^nd faculty led project of the trip. My group of six was assigned to work with invited researcher Chelsea Ward on parasites and their relationship with gecko performance. I had never worked with geckos before and had very little experience with identifying parasites. However given that a majority of the trip up to that point had dealt with plant investigations, I was keen to do something different by experimenting with animal interactions.

            The first part (and arguably the most fun) of the experiment was capturing these geckos. We set out to the Las Cruces dining area at night, looking high and low on walls for these nocturnal climbers. Knowing we had to capture 10, I originally believed it would take all night. However, to the group’s and my pleasant surprise, these geckos were all over the walls. When one person spotted a gecko, someone would attempt to gently pluck the gecko off from the wall with a long net while another person stood underneath to catch the gecko with another net. If the gecko hit the floor our reflexes were tested. We were dealt with the tough task of not only scooping up the scampering gecko, but also ensuring not to grab it by the tail. If the tail was grabbed, as I learned from personal experience, the gecko would wiggle it off and we could not use it for the experiment.

            The following morning was time to put the geckos to the test. We used swim stamina in order to test for the geckos’ performance. One-by-one, we released geckos into a bucket of water and recorded the time until they attempted to float out of exhaustion rather than swim. We then quickly removed the geckos from the bucket. Interestingly enough, the geckos showed a wide range in stamina, some swimming for over a minute and others giving up within 10 seconds. Some of the large geckos proved too strong for the containment of bucket and even managed to crawl up the walls and escape!

            In order to determine parasite load in these geckos, Chelsea then brought us to the Biological Station Lab to perform gecko dissections. Gecko anatomy quickly became clear to me, as after peeling back the skin, most of the organs were easily visible. We examined most of the body looking for lungworm, intestinal worms, and mites on the fingertips and toes of the gecko. Astonishingly, one student found five 2-4 mm worms in the lungs of a gecko, prompting Chelsea to place these parasitic specimens in vile for further research.

            Our findings did not show any relationship between parasite load and gecko performance. However the entire process of capturing, testing, and analyzing our data was rewarding. It provided me with a better sense of how to properly conduct a scientific experiment out in the field in an efficient, meticulous, and fun manner.

Coffee, Farmers, and the World Trade Market

By Gil Wermeling

February 14 was a day of many emotions. I spent the morning writing out Valentine’s Day notes for my classmates. We had decided to make baggies for each other and each write notes for the others, much how I remember it happening in my elementary school. As I wrote I allowed myself to think of what I love: family and friends, my partner, places I’ve been, and experiences I’ve had. Others in the program used the morning to go to Catholic Mass as it was also Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. We have a very busy daily schedule so I know that the opportunity to attend mass here was very special. I know that my emotions were running higher that day, and I suspect it was true for others as well. It certainly contributed to the wave of self-loathing that washed over me during our evening class as we watched the 2006 documentary Black Gold about the global coffee industry and its effects on famers in Ethiopia. 

            I could mention all the facts that the documentary presented. Most coffee farmers in Ethiopia make less than two dollars a day. Under five percent of adults have completed a high school education.  Goods from Africa contribute one percent to the World trade market. If that amount doubled the corresponding increase in emergency aid would be fivefold. Seven million Ethiopians depend on emergency aid. These facts are important to know, but they were difficult for me to picture. 

            What captured my attention better than any fact were the stories presented in the documentary: a mother and her emaciated child turned away from a feeding camp because the child’s health is not poor enough to be given emergency aid; a farmer who is destroying his coffee crop to plant chat, an illegal, highly-addictive drug, because he can sell it for more money than coffee and his family is starving; a coffee cooperative meeting where those present agree to use what small profit they have made to build a school for their children even though many will have to pay extra from their own pockets.   

            But what can I as an individual possibly do to help a coffee farmer in Ethiopia? Well, I drink coffee. Its time I start paying attention to where that coffee is from. In my own home it can be as easy as buying fair trade or direct trade coffee made in Ethiopia. I can also tell my friends and family and ask that they do the same. On a larger scale I can figure out where my home university gets its coffee. I can tell others at my school and we can petition the administration to change its buying habits. 

            Impacts of consumers are felt around the world. The individual purchases of a single consumer do matter. We as consumers need to be more conscious of our buying decisions. Consider that the extra money you spend buying fair trade options over store brands is helping to provide food and education to impoverished families. We as consumers need to influence the world trade market.

Don Roberto’s farm

 By Karen Weinstock

A few days ago we visited Don Roberto’s farm and learned about his life as a coffee farmer. He owns a large amount of land, and he donated a portion of it for conservation efforts which is really cool because it marks a shift in the attitude towards farming—not all land needs to be used, and it’s healthier for the farm if the unused land is conserved to protect the streams and water sources. Most farmers, however, try to squeeze all of the resources they can out of their land, effectively stripping the land of nutrients and growth potential.

Don Roberto is an incredibly kind and hospitable man, who was very patient with our questions and fed us fresh fruits, fresh chicken, and home-squeezed sugar cane juice (which is literally just dissolved sugar). His dogs were so cute, and there was a teeny kitten that loved sitting in our laps, and little baby chicks. We watched a hen lay eggs in el horno! Don Roberto’s life is humble, and his farm reeks of chicken droppings, but he seems very happy with his farm and living off his land. The pay from growing coffee is enough to survive, not enough for luxuries. He sells his coffee to a co-op, which pays him $30 per pound. For reference, a pound makes 300 cups of coffee, which you buy at Starbucks for $3. Do the math! After watching a documentary about the terrible conditions that coffee farmers in Ethiopia endure, it’s clear that the Western culture of coffee elitism is incredible destructive, and coffee industry reformation is a crucial human rights issue.

            We came back the following day to help with a long-term coffee experiment that Mau has been running with his student. The experiment is looking at the interaction between ants and coffee bean predation, under the assumption that ants protect coffee plants from beetles. The first part of the experiment was laying down tuna as bait for the ants at the base of the trees. We set 10 traps down and paced back and forth to record how long it took for the ants to discover the bait, and how many ants were there after 45 minutes. The second part was collecting 250 coffee beans to detect herbivory. My strategy was to sit in one spot and rake through the leaf litter and dirt until I found beans. I had a moment when I was raking through leaves where I realized how totally content I am, and how even this (dare I say) monotonous task was enjoyable, and something I can picture myself doing for the rest of my life. I went into this program knowing I wanted to do something in health, but now I’m pretty certain I want to spend the rest of my life studying how the environment interacts with human health and how conservation can mitigate the surge of tropical diseases. Ironically, sitting in a nest of fire ants didn’t spoil this epiphany, though having fire ants crawl up my legs was an incredibly stressful experience. At least they weren’t bullet ants… but that’s something I’ll worry about at La Selva.

Our Taxa is Best

By Laura Naslund

         Today is my favorite day of the year. Yes, birthdays are exciting, and holidays are filled with wholesome family time, but tonight, the Duke-Carolina (that is the University of North Carolina) men’s basketball game, beats them all. This ferocious battle between rivals, in which students from my beloved university shout “our blue is best” (Duke’s school color is a regal deep blue while Carolina’s school color is a wimpy periwinkle), has me thinking of another fierce rivalry: the rivalry between the plant people and the insect people in our Tropical Biology program. 

            As we have become more comfortable with each other, what started as polite disagreements about the superiority of our respective taxa has escalated into passionate debates. Over some delicious tortas de yuca at dinner a few nights ago, however, our plant-insect duel intensified to its greatest level yet. After some opening salvos about how plants can manufacture their own food and are easier to meet-- yes, “meet” is apparently the term a self-respecting botanist uses when referring to finding a plant--than insects, I threw down what I felt would be the ultimate trump card: insects have behavior. I smugly looked up from my plate expecting to find my opponents with searching expressions, unable to find a proper retort. Much to my surprise, they gave me knowing glances, smiled, and one said, “What makes you think plants don’t have behavior. After all, what is behavior but responding to a stimulus? Plants bend towards light, communicate stress through chemical signals, and alter their growth patterns in response to changes in water and nutrient availability.” I frantically scanned my brain trying to find the definitions of behavior we had discussed in my behavioral ecology course last semester to find one that would exclude plants from having behavior, but, alas, to no avail. I could only sit motionless and hope that someone else would distract the table with another topic of conversation. Mercifully, someone directed the conversation towards the group’s favorite television show and I, for at least the moment, was spared.

            Unwilling to admit defeat, I scoured the internet for papers on the definition of behavior. To my surprise, I found that there remain questions as to what exactly constitutes behavior in ecology literature. With no definitive consensus, I am now left with a decision to make: accept as truth a definition of behavior that excludes plants or find a new indisputable argument to support insect superiority. In the face of such uncertainty, as we have learned to do in our statistics seminars, I must fail to reject my classmates’ claim that plants have behavior. Although I have yet to find my new indisputable evidence that insects are better than plants, I am sure that the insects of Costa Rica will provide me ample inspiration.

A New Kind of Night Class

By Micaela Wells

At my home university in the States, I avoid night classes like the plague. Though I love learning, few things sound worse to me than being trapped in a musty classroom while the moon rises and falls. It’s not that I’m a stargazing enthusiast, it’s merely the principle of the thing; the morning is for classes, and the night is for play (or homework, if you’re a square like me). I planned to live my life as far away from night classes as possible, and largely succeeded.

Yet studying abroad is all about trying new things. One of yesterday’s lectures was a walking tour around Wilson Botanical Garden at Las Cruces Biological Station… at night. We waited for the last rays of sunlight to fade behind the garden's looming palms, waited still longer for full dark to settle in, and then we were off marching through the dark trees with our notebooks, flashlights, and nets in tow.

            Needless to say, it was hardly the night class experience at a typical university. Instead of slouching in stale classroom air, we trooped up and down steep garden paths, breathing humid air heavy with the scents of flowers and damp leaves. We learned about each creature we passed, and sometimes got to hold the friendlier ones. It's one thing to read about the hydrogen cyanide that millipedes excrete as predator defense, and another thing entirely to cup the little fellows in your palm and smell cyanide’s almond-like odor yourself.

            In prior biology classes, I had learned that members of amphibian family Centrolenidae are called “glass frogs” for their translucent skin. Last night I got to hold one. I watched its tiny heart pump blood throughout its delicate body, and saw first-hand the humeral spine with which males duel during breeding season. Then I placed him back on his leaf, and the class moved on.

Some creatures were new to me. The tailless whip scorpions—with their spindly legs and bizarre proportions—looked like they had emerged from a Tim Burton film. But the order name of these creepy crawlies is Amblypygi, literally "blunt rump," and lets on to their true, harmless nature; they have no venom whatsoever, and can only pinch with their little arthropod claws, called pedipalps. After coming face-to-face with several, they almost started to look cute.

It was a very different type of class from the sort I am used to. There were no abstract concepts to memorize, only direct experience. I treasure my biology textbooks and genuinely enjoy reading them, but going out to touch, see, and smell the subjects of the night’s lecture, instead of simply flipping past their pictures, was an experience I won’t soon forget.

Different Perspectives

By Nicole Eng

Shortly after breakfast on a Wednesday morning, we packed up two of the OTS trucks and started the trip from Las Cruces Biological Station to Las Alturas. One and a half hours smushed next to our classmates and travelling laterally (the seats in the back of the truck face the opposite window, not the windshield) was just the beginning of a very educational and eventful trip. We actually had to take a break and get some fresh air because people were experiencing motion sickness!

Once we made it to the station, we quickly doused ourselves in bug spray and started out on the three-hour hike up the hillside. That was by far the hardest hike I’ve done in my life but between spotting spider monkeys, passing through four different types of forests, and the view from the top, it was definitely worth the trouble. Luckily there were neat things to stop and see along the way which meant we could stop and catch our breath. It was on one of those informational breaks that I started to think about the pests of our pests. We passed a spider egg sac hanging down from the underside of a leaf which Mau checked for parasitoids. I am not the biggest fan of spiders, but I felt bad thinking about something preying on the helpless, innocuous ball in front of me. It also made me think of the invasive geckos we investigated for one of our Faculty Led Projects earlier that week. Although I did not enjoy seeing the geckos crawl on walls in my presence, it still made me sad when we found internal parasites or mites in between their toes. In that moment, while regaining the ability to breathe before continuing to hike towards the summit, I stopped to think about a spider or gecko’s life from their perspective. They don’t know they are bothersome to humans like me, they are just trying to survive. Previously, I had only considered how they negatively affected my life, not what is negatively affecting theirs.

I also had the opportunity to think about different points of view later that evening, during the discussion we had about research in the tropics. Amanda shared her experiences conducting research in a foreign country before Mau spoke about his research experiences and his views on foreign researchers. It was very interesting to hear about what Amanda did to include the local community in her research and how a Costa Rican feels about what foreign researchers should and should not do when conducting research in Costa Rica. As an American studying abroad here, I can see how easy it would be for one to get caught up in his or her research, funding, travel, etc. and forget about the country itself or the local community. I am very glad I had the opportunity to hear how research should be done.

If nothing else, this experience, especially at Las Alturas, has allowed me to consider different perspectives, instead of just my own as an American at the top of the food chain. It has been eye-opening to stop and think about how my actions are affecting others and stop thinking solely about how things affect me. Not only am I learning about tropical biology, but I am learning about the world around and how to be a more productive and compassionate person in it.

Botanical Gardens: Learning vs. Invasives

By Elizabeth Morison

When I was younger, trips to the botanical garden were my FAVOURITE way to spend the day. I was curious about the shapes and colours of the flowers, whether they stood tall, or spread out in clumps on the soil. I wanted to know whether the stems would snap if I tugged them, or bend and resist. The leaves, the roots, the spikes! Everything that made each plant different and unique was exactly what I wanted to witness.

As I’ve grown up, this curiosity has manifested in an intense desire to learn about botany and how plants work – particularly what makes them so good at surviving and thriving in their environments. Botanical gardens have been some of the most important resources I’ve had access to in my learning, in their exhibition of local native species as well as specimens from different regions and countries. Actually seeing plants from different places, with all of their different adaptations, is undeniably more informative than looking at a textbook. There is little dispute that botanical gardens are good for science – but are they good for ecosystems?

Over the last three weeks, we’ve been living and studying at Las Cruces biological station and botanical garden. The garden, nestled in a matrix of protected areas, is home to thousands of specimens, a large proportion of which are not local. This is essential to the diversity of the garden, and in most cases those non-native species don’t become introduced in the surrounding forests, because enough is known about each species for the gardeners to be able to contain them and monitor their reproduction. But sometimes – as is the case with invasive Zingiber spectabile – botanical garden specimens can become introduced.

For a species to be considered introduced, it has to go through a series of processes: transport, introduction, establishment, and spread. Ecosystems have resistance to non-native species at each of these stages, so most species that arrive in new territory don’t become a threat. However, in botanical gardens, the first three steps have already happened, very intentionally, and are being continually maintained for exhibition – so essentially, the only step remaining is to spread. And boy, Zingiber spectabile is good at it! These introduced gingers poke up through the leaf litter, like bright red torches lining our hiking trails, and outshining the other species in the understory. Zingiber spectabile particularly outcompetes native ginger Renealmia cernua, leading to its classification as an invasive species, as well as introduced. Invasive species have complex negative impacts on their ecosystems, altering the physical and community structure of the environment. It is when botanical species become invasive, that the question of the tradeoffs between the benefits to science and the threats to ecosystem functioning arises.

Overall, I think botanical gardens are great. I love being able to visit them, as someone who studies plants scientifically, but also simply as a human who enjoys experiencing nature. And even though there can be harmful consequences to curating introduced species, I will boldly suggest that botanical gardens are also one of the best ways we have to learn enough about plants to STOP them from becoming invasive! So I say kudos to growing plants and learning from mistakes.

Field Trip to Rice and Sugar Cane Plantations

By Karen Weinstock

Today, we went to a sugar cane and rice plantation. It was fascinating to learn about the industries and how they work. The first stop was the sugar cane plantation, which as Mau explained it seemed like an abusive corporation. The large plantations rely on migrant workers from Nicaragua to do the laborious work that Costa Ricans don’t want to do, such as harvesting the crop with machetes. The large plantations use fire to remove weeds from the ground and soften the sugar cane plant, and then spend the mornings and afternoons cutting down the stocks for harvest. Workers get covered in ash from the harvest fires, develop respiratory problems, and end up receiving treatment in the Costa Rican health care system, which builds a stigma against migrant workers. They are temporary—just for one zafra (harvest season)—and therefore do not have unions. Contractors are required by law to provide social security, vacation days, water, and basic necessities to the workers, but disappear when faced with law enforcement agencies. My main take-away was that something needs to be done to protect migrant workers, who are desperate and willing to endure an abusive system in order to bring home some money. Unfortunately, the systems in place to protect such workers cannot be enforced if the people responsible flee from anyone who tries to uphold ethical work values.

While we were there, we heard about Mau and Cris’ experiences on sugar cane plantations, as Mau worked on one for a couple years and Cris grew up on one and helped his family with the crops. They both cut down some sugar cane for us to try and it was delicious.    

Rice, however, is more of a family run business, or at least the rice farms we visited. We learned about the Bagatzi project, which provided family farmers with land to cultivate rice and created a near-by town for the farmers to build houses, schools, and stores. The system is set up as a co-op, and the families are taught how to properly grow rice. We heard about the labor that goes into preparing the soil, planting the seeds, and growing rice. It requires a lot of water, which is provided from a canal that the farmers pay to access. Since the canal drains into the Tempisque river, pollutants such as pesticides and fertilizer are spread down the river, which can affect Palo Verde National Park. Then, we visited the mill, where we saw the machines that peel the outer layer of the rice and process it for distribution, though it can be peeled only after 120 days of growing and 60 days of drying. Lastly, we stopped by the town that the farmers live in. From what we saw, it was a very small town. To be honest, I was mostly fixated on the stray dog (I miss dogs!), but we saw a little canteen/ store and a few houses. It was very rural and minimalistic, with a dirt road and small houses surrounded by vegetation, but the people we saw seemed happy.

It was fascinating how well this project gives back to the community. Not only does it give family farmers a plot of land to grow rice, it educates the farmers on proper farming of their crop and provides them with a home away from the farm and free of rice-farm pollutants. More so, the Costa Rican government provides a free lunch of rice and beans for students who need it, and that rice is purchased from family farmers such as these. This is a stark difference from how the lack of social benefits for sugar cane corporation workers and mistreatment they endure.