Agroecology in Costa Rica

February 7, 2019

SUST 380 Sustainability: Costa Rica Agroecology
BIOL 420 Biology: Tropical Ecology of Costa Rica
Professors: Nick Babin & Chuck Levitan
December 27 2018 – January 10 2019

For a second year, SNC Tahoe environmental science and sustainability students traveled to Costa Rica during winter break. There they studied tropical ecology and sustainable agriculture with professors Nick Babin and Chuck Levitan.

Agua Buena

Their first week was at a coffee plantation, the “Sustainable Forest Farm of Don Roberto and Noemy Jimenez” in Agua Buena. During the previous year’s trip, students had marked 1000 meter squared plots of coffee grown in three different kinds of shade management. The main differences are in the variety and kinds of plants which provide the shade. They tagged the trees, and analyzed soil samples to get base measurements of how healthy the soils were.

This year’s sampling provided more detail about how certain overstory plants improve the soil nutrient content. Banana trees drop a lot of leaf litter, which decomposes rapidly to make more organic matter. Bean plants were also a big contributor, because they “fix” nitrogen in the soil.

Don Roberto preps and roasts small batches of coffee by hand. Agua Buena is a highland coffee-growing area, and the students also visited the local coffee cooperative. There, the beans are graded, cleaned, oven-dried, packaged, and shipped to coffee companies worldwide. Side trips included New Year’s Day at the rodeo, and amazing tropical waterfalls and forests.

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La Selva Biological Station

For their second week, the students traveled to La Selva Biological Station. La Selva, one of the world’s top locations for rainforest research, is a very different ecosystem than Agua Buena. A lowland tropical rainforest, La Selva gets about 13 feet (156 inches) of rain a year. In contrast, Agua Buena gets about 4 to 4 ½ feet of precipitation a year, with a dry season from December through March. The SNC campus in Incline Village gets the water equivalent of about 2 feet each year.

The students broke into three groups for their research projects at La Selva. This year, each group was able to conduct two different projects. The first projects focused on effects of disturbance. A strong tropical storm in August 2018 caused substantial damage in some places in the reserve but left others mostly unscathed. The questions the students investigated were

1. Which species of trees were most and least likely to be blown over?
2. Were trees with buttresses less likely to fall?
3. Were trees with less epiphytes less likely to fall? (Epiphytes are plants that grow on other plants for support but are not parasitic. They get their water and nutrients from humidity in the air, rain, and debris. The ferns, bromeliads, air plants, and orchids that grow on tree trunks in tropical rainforests are all epiphytes.)

The students chose their own questions for the second experiments. The questions were

1. What kind of food do ants prefer? Result: they prefer meat to watermelon, by a lot! Research results with an unexpected practical use for your next picnic.
2. What effect does a stream environment on oxidation and nutrients in tropical soils? Result: well-drained soils more oxygenated and oxidized, which makes the soil healthier.
3. How does peccary vigilance affect their social structure and behavior? Result: not much around humans. The peccaries in La Selva are not tame, but they have learned that humans are not a threat. They ignore the people and go about their business, as shown in the picture.

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Sustainability – environmental, economic, and social – is one of SNC’s core themes.

Relevant majors in the Science Department include Biology, Ecology, and Natural Resource Management. Environmental Science students intern with the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center, USFS, USGS, state parks, the Desert Research Institute, CA & NV wildlife organizations, and environmental planning firms. They conduct their research in the wetlands and forests of the Lake Tahoe Basin.

Students in SNC’s innovative Interdisciplinary Studies program combine courses in all aspects of Sustainability with studies in Environmental Science, Ski Resort Management, Entrepreneurship, or Journalism. Their hands-on internships and service learning projects focus on real contributions to their communities – locally and globally.