By Lucy Lewis

A couple nights after our return from a relaxing, four day break, we were treated with a visit from “Bat Man”, the local bat expert. For its size, Costa Rica has a greater diversity of bat species than any other country in the world, and over half of its species of mammals are bats, so it’s no wonder why Bat Man has spent a lot of time here. As we listened, I discovered that there is a lot more to learn about bats than I knew. First, bat species have a greater variety of diets tha

n I thought. There are aerial insectivores, which eat bugs flying through the air, gleaning insectivores, which eat bugs from substrate, frugivores, which eat fruit, nectarivores, which eat nectar, carnivores, which eat birds, lizards, rats, frogs and other small animals, piscivores, which eat fish, sanguinivores, which eat blood, and omnivores, which have some combination of these diets. Here in the tropics, many plant species depend on frugivorous bats and nectarivores as seed dispersers and pollinators. Fo

r example, many frugivorous bats in Costa Rica specialize on the fruit of the Piper plant genus, which has the recognizable, candle shaped inflorescences.

Bat species vary in their social units as much as they do in their diets. They can be solitary or live in colonies, and colonies vary widely in size and structure. Some colonies consist of all females with a single male or of all females and juveniles while others have a more equal male to female ratio. Similarly to birds, some species form leks, where a group of males gathers to display courtship behavior and attract females.

After dinner, we had the opportunity to get a good look at some bats that were caught on campus. Bat Man held them while we shined a light on them and looked as closely as we wanted. We also got to do this once on our trip to Veragua, but before I came to study in Costa Rica, I had never had a close up look at a bat sitting still. They were adorable!

Most of the bats that were caught were the same species of fruit bat, but we also saw one insectivore, two nectarivores and one other type of fruit bat called a yellow shouldered bat because the males secrete pheromones to communicate with potential mates, which turns the fur on their shoulders a yellowish color. The fruit bats all had tiny, sharp teeth suited to puncturing fruit. Although we weren’t able to see it, the species of nectarivore that we caught, which is only about 6 cm long, has about an 8 cm long tongue for reaching nectar deep in flowers!

By: Alizah Garvin

Prior to Independence Day we took the time to learn more about the history of Costa Rica. Columbus reached Costa Rica in 1502 and referred to this country as “Rich Coast” giving it its name. Costa Rica did not have a war of independence like other countries did but rather gained it as a result of other Central American countries fighting for independence. All of Central America gained its independence on September 15^th 1821. Since all of Central America gained independence at the same time a torch is ran through all the countries and it ends is Cartago, Costa Rica on September 14^th every year. In recent years Costa Rica has progressed giving indigenous peoples, women, and afro Caribbean populations the right to vote. The country has also nationalized its bank and abolished its army becoming a completely passive country. As a result of this the money that would have been put towards an army is now going towards education which has increased the literacy rates in Costa Rica.

One of the Independence day traditions is to make faroles which are small lantern made out of paper that usually national symbols. Since we are all ecology and biology students most of our faroles reflected a tropical species found here in Costa Rica. A few examples from students include a blue morpho butterfly, a red eyed tree frog, and a sea turtle. I made mine into the shape of a torch and wrapped the flag around it to represent the torch that goes throughout all of Central America every year. On September 14^th we participated in the celebration with the school children and marched with them with our frijoles.

On the morning of Independence Day, we attended the independence day parade in Santa Elena. In the beginning a man gave a speech and explained that the children are the future of Costa Rica and how necessary it was to invest in them for the better of the country. The children that perform in the parade go to a local private school that focuses on the arts. A lot of the children were a part of the band playing different instruments like he drums and xylophones. 

The younger girls would dance to the beat of the band and the older girls were dancing to their own music in traditional red, white, and blue dresses. Other kids were passing out flowers and treats for everyone to enjoy. I got a cute purple flower and some delicious sugar cane. The band was amazing and I thought the parade really brought everyone together tourists and locals alike. The parade went through all of Santa Elena and ended at a gymnasium where they had food and a place for the kids to have fun after the parade. Overall, we had a great time attending the parade and it was a good experience to see how another country celebrates their independence day.

By Ally Harrison

Ocean currents carry many things: sea turtles, messages in bottles, etc.  Seeds are another important thing ocean currents carry. I never thought of the ocean as a mode of seed dispersal until our professor Ron Carroll, God of Ecology and Knowledge, told all of us to collect five different seeds off of the beach in Cahuita. We brought our seeds and he enlightened us on ocean seed dispersal.

Cahuita is a beautiful beach along the Caribbean side of Costa Rica, south of Limon, close to Panama. In Cahuita, we found coconuts, monkeys combs and diaclea. Ocean dispersed seeds have distinctive characteristics compared to other seeds which make them easy to travel by ocean. Coconuts are a great example of ocean dispersed seeds; their thick shell protects the cotyledon from water. The seed must also be less dense than water so that it floats rather than sinks. Only 2-5% of seeds that travel by ocean are viable when they reach land. El Niño and La Niña have affected the inflow of seeds, and it has caused some invasive species to be introduced.

Ocean seed dispersal is the main reason coasts and islands can have such diversity. It explains why some plants and trees are present on beaches when they are not native to a country. It’s amazing how far these

seeds can travel; some tropical fruits from Florida can be found on the coast of Ireland. And vice versa, there are trees from Ireland that ride ocean currents for about a year and land in the tropics. This reminds me of the sweepstakes theory of animal dispersal that we learned in Ecology; it was thought that some animals came across the ocean floating on something like a log to the Americas. Ultimately, seeds travel far and wide so next time you see a tree out of place on the beach, you now know how it got there.

By Amanda Glatter

Sustainable agriculture? In this economy? Unheard of, at least in the US. However, here in Costa Rica, organic farming is a revolution that’s just getting started. On day three of our trip to La Selva, we headed to La Finca Sura, an organic farm, owned by a man named Rodolfo. On his farm, Rodolfo produces a plethora of produce, like sugarcane, tilapia, and even cocoa. However, the highlight of the tour was the organically-grown pineapple, which was, might I add, the best pineapple I have ever tasted.

Pineapple makes up 80% of Costa Rica’s exported goods and is a 905.3 million dollar industry. However, pineapple is difficult to grow and when it has to be shipped to other countries, it is picked while it is still green. Ethylene is a chemical that induces flowering and ripening of fruits. It speeds up the process while fruits are still growing, but to achieve the more appealing yellow color, picked premature pineapples are sprayed with it. However, the fruit does not ripen once it has been picked. Even once ethylene has been added, ethylene only changes the color, not the internal quality. Pineapples will not mature after they are picked and are meant be harvested when they are ready to be eaten. The premature pineapples we have in the US may appear just as sexy as a fully mature pineapple, but it’s what is on the inside that counts. If you’ve ever bitten into a whiter-colored, minimally sweet pineapple, it was most likely picked early and yellowed using ethylene.

On Finca Sura we experienced pineapple the way it is best- straight off the plant and without synthetic pesticides. Growing pineapple is difficult and time consuming, but Rodolfo makes it look easy. After showing us some pineapple plots, he showed us how he plants it. He cut what looked like the stem of a pineapple off one of the plants already growing, walked it over to the new row, dug a small hole in the ground, stuck the plant in the hole, and that’s it. The process is sustainable in concept: taking a part of one plant to grow another. Therefore, the more you grow now, the more you can grow later. Organic pineapple requires organic fertilizer, so Rodolfo uses “caca de pollo,” showing that nothing goes to waste on this farm.

The tour ended with a tasting, of course. With a machete, the pineapple was cut from the plant and we got to eat it fresh. It was the sweetest, most flavorful pineapple I’ve ever tried, and it was much better than what we have in the US. Rodolfo cut pieces for everyone but handed me the remainder- stem and all. You could say I was a little bit excited. As much as I loved the pineapple, there is no way I could love it more than Matilda. Six years old and covered in mud, Matilda the pig was a sight for sore eyes. This sweet gal gobbled the whole fruit up in merely minutes, even eating the skin and core. Matilda can vouge for it- never will you try pineapple better than fresh off the farm.

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By MG Hall and Lucy Lewis

Our first trip of the semester was to San Gerardo Station, a lodge in the Children’s Eternal Rainforest high up on the Caribbean slope. The night before, we all packed our stuff, which had by this point exploded all over our 4-person bunk rooms, and moved out after breakfast that morning.  Once we were finally crammed into the two buses, we headed down the mountain. After a 30-minute ride through twists and turns that took us all the way up the mountain and into the literal clouds, we arrived at the trail head. As soon as we got out of the bus, it was clear that we were in the cloud forest; everything was enveloped in a white fog. Even though the distance wasn’t very far from San Luis, the forest looked completely different. It was much more lush and appeared to have much greater plant diversity. One of the first things that was pointed out to us was the fern trees, which most of us had never seen before. Their tops looked like fern umbrellas.

The hike down was long but all downhill. We had a naturalist, Elliot, with us to point out interesting things along the way. For example, he showed us Tiger Beetles that impersonate ants to trick predators. We saw a number of interesting insects (this whole country seems to be full of beautiful and fascinating insects), including a huge, black millipede! We watched it as it walked, and it was interesting to see how its legs moved slowly and in segments.

An hour and a half later we were at the base choosing bunks and claiming hammocks, completely unaware of the backdrop surrounding us because of the thick clouds that had rolled in, as we would learn they do every afternoon. After a fabulous lunch, the clouds had cleared, and we saw that we had a spectacular view of the Arenal lake and volcano! We could also see a couple of long waterfalls in the mountains in the distance. This isn’t a food blog, but I would be amiss to leave out how phenomenal the food at San Gerardo was every meal; that night our dinner exceeded our expectations with homemade tortilla chips, a mystery soup, and white rice.  I’ve never been so happy to be bean-free.

Every day we had the opportunity to go birdwatching in the morning, go on night hikes and go on hikes in the morning. Elliot left us on day two, but once we recovered from that loss, we embraced our new naturalist, Michael, and I for one hung on every word he said since he was a walking eco-dictionary.  He told us about the differences in the cloud forest versus the rainforest; for example, water is held most in moss on the bark of trees and can be collected from there and used.

We saw more interesting things than can possibly be recorded in this blog. When I went birdwatching, we saw two types of guans, two types of hummingbirds, a squirrel cuckoo and adorable tufted flycatchers. Other groups saw parrots and toucanets. On my night hikes, we saw red eyed tree frogs, which are endemic to the area, other types of frogs, a pit viper, all kinds of interesting insects, and my favorite, the bioluminescent beetle larvae. Another group saw a fruit bat and a special kind of frog called the glass frog, which has a translucent body and organs that are visible from the outside. A few highlights from morning and afternoon hikes were holding a huge beetle, little red fruits that smelled just like lemon drops, large, hanging nests of the Montezuma bird, leaves that had been used as temporary homes by tent bats, army ants carrying their eggs, many wild orchids, and puma tracks.

On our third night, Giovani, the manager of the house, told us the story of the land in San Gerardo.  He talked for about an hour with Michael translating, but the semi-abridged version is this: Giovani’s grandfather claimed the land in ’53 and with a machete cleared a patch to live in.  When I say live in I use the term lightly, as the hut was basically a Naked-and-Afraid-esque lean-to to keep the rain out.  According to Giovani’s father, they worked on building up the place and turning some into farm land, but that came to an end in 1973 when the government uprooted it.  Their intention was to build a dam near Arenal volcano, about 30 miles from what is now the house, and the government wanted to keep an uninhabited forest around to ensure water quality was up to standard. They asked the whole community to leave in exchange for a fair sum of money.  Reluctantly, the 14 families moved into the main town of Santa Elena and waited for a pay off that never came.  In 1977, four years past the supposed payment date, farmers decided it was their right to move back to San Gerardo, and so they did.  Giovani was 2 at the time and fondly recalled his childhood working with his dad on normal toddler jobs like sawing wood and building their family home.  He smiled as he told us about the communal fiestas they would have with the families in “town”.  I use quotations because if you could see this place you wouldn’t likely think “community” since the closest mark of civilization to the house is an empty pasture half a mile away, barely 15 feet out of luscious cloud forest.  Giovani and his friends have ATVs to get around on nowadays, which I can only imagine become mildly annoying since it rains every single day for a minimum of 2 hours.  After everyone moved back, around 1986 the forest, and therefore the farms, were in danger of being repossessed by the government when they realized there were in fact people living on the land they thought they had bought, but this time it ended differently.  Somehow, not quite clear on the how since my Spanish is subpar at best, a group of school kids in Europe heard about this and raised enough money to buy out the land that is now the reserve in ‘91, hence the name Children’s Eternal Rainforest.  The rest is basically history.  It gave the place a new feeling, for me at least, knowing how much time and sweat and love had been put into the land.  If Costa Rica could teach the world one thing, it should be how to love your land like they do.  We only get this one planet, and if we all treated in like the Ticos do, we might have it for longer.  It was unreal to sit on the porch and watch the clouds roll around and over the massive, and active, Arenal volcano while we wrote in our journals about things I had only seen on Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel.  The three miles up and back were absolutely worth the 4 days we got to spend in San Gerardo, which means a lot coming from an out of shape college kid.  If you ever get the chance to visit and eat Giovani’s food while you watch giant birds and butterflies fly in front of a pink and purple sky lit volcano, I highly recommend it.

By Ellie Duffy and Jim Parker

Fungi fill essential niches in forest ecosystems, where they cycle nutrients, and maintain soil health and rich webs of species interactions and overall health. The rich biodiversity of the tropics is seen at all levels of life, especially the fungal assemblages. Their roles here are strange and varied as are their physiologies. One of the most important and common relationships that fungi are a part of is with trees as mycorrhizae. This is a relationship with the roots of trees, that serves to extend the rhizosphere of the tree and amplify intake of nutrients and water, and in turn gives carbohydrates to the fungus. This relationship is seen with most trees, and has amazing implications in forest systems. It has been tentatively proven that trees can share carbohydrates and nutrients with other trees through the mycorrhizal network. The seemingly intense competition of a forest may be more of a interconnected system than we tend to think.

In the tropics the mycorrhizal relationship is most commonly formed with AMF or “arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi.” Paleobiology and molecular biology indicate that this relationship was necessary for the evolution of the first vascular land plants. Many of the systems present in the tropics haven’t changed very much over time. These symbioses are ancient. The AM relationship is different from the mycorrhizal relationship seen most commonly in temperate regions, in that it doesn’t produce conspicuous sporocarps (fruiting bodies, or mushrooms.) This means it just exists silently beneath the soil surface, no need for recognition, chugging along and making sure everything runs beautifully!

How wonderful!

A well-known tropical plant is the orchid.  They’re common house plants everywhere because of their signature flowers and strange fickleness.  The tropics are home to thousands of species and Costa Rica has at least 1400 different kinds of orchids.  A key to understanding orchid population dynamics may be found in the Orchid Mycorrhizal Fungus (OMF) which populates the roots of almost all orchids.  The relationship between the OMF and the orchid is symbiotic – the orchid supplies the fungus with carbon and the OMF provides nutrients to the orchid.  Since the plants often live as epiphytes in the branches of trees, nutrients are hard to come by and the OMF gives the orchid a much higher chance of survival.  It is now known that the OMF also plays a key role in the germination of orchid seeds, which are dust-like and numerous.  Because the tiny seeds can’t hold many nutrients for the germination process, the OMF is crucial especially for early development.

If the orchid mycorrhizal fungus represents a beautiful symbiosis, on the other end of the spectrum is the genus Cordyceps.  These nightmarish fungi are known for taking over the bodies of small insects (caterpillars and ants, for instance) and travelling to a tall location such as a shrub or tree branch.  Once there, the fungus bursts from the body of the unfortunate insect and fruits, allowing more spores to be dispersed.  Some species of Cordyceps are highly specialized for one species of insect, which acts as a method of population control.  If one species of ant seems to be taking over, the Cordyceps may be more likely to infect colonies of that ant, reducing the population and allowing other insects to compete.

 

While terrifying for insects, Cordyceps is commonly used by us humans for medicinal benefits.  Caterpillars infected with Ophiocordyceps sinensis are collected and sold at a high price.  The caterpillars have been used in traditional Chinese medicine and are now endangered there due to overharvesting.

 

Aren’t fungi neat!

By Ally Harrison

The UGA Costa Rica campus is a beautiful environmentally friendly place. It has inspired me to share its knowledge of sustainability. Sustainability means that we do not use more than we produce. It’s all about balance. We give; we take. We do this in order to maintain a good relationship with our environment. UGACR accomplishes sustainability is several ways:

These are all reducing our impact on the environment. How can I continue this when I get back to Athens? How can I be sustainable; I can’t afford $6,000 solar panels? Fret not for I have come up with some small ways in which a college student can become more sustainable. One of the easiest ways to start your environmentally friendly journey is to go to your local farmers’ market. This way you can get organic, natural foods without pesticides. Not only is this

environmentally sustainable but it’s also economically sustainable. It’s even better if you bring empty jars or canvas bags so that you don’t use any wasteful packaging.

During our tour of the bio digester, Fabricio (UGACR director) offered something interesting; he said, “Ask yourself, ‘What would nature do?’ And that was a great way to look at sustainability. Next time you go for a snack, think “What would nature do?” Instead of reaching for a bag of chips (with no nutritional value and packaging that adds to your waste), grab an orange. The peel is nature’s packaging.

Lastly, this step has two parts: grow a garden and start a compost pile. The garden can grow fruits, veggies, and herbs to make you more self-sustaining and can save you money at the grocery store. The compost pile can be used to fertilize your new garden. A compost pile can consist of things like food scraps, paper towels, and coffee filters which reduces your amount of waste. Now, I’m not saying you have to do all of these things, but even doing one of these tips is a step towards a more sustainable lifestyle. For more ideas, visit https://sustainability.uga.edu/.

By: Alizah Garvin and Kiara Bussey

We toured an organic coffee farm a short distance from campus in the forest few weeks of the semester. The coffee farm is owned by Odemar who prides himself on making organic shade grown coffee. The land was given to his family by the Quakers under the conditions that they maintain the land and its natural resources. Most of the farms do not use chemicals or fertilizers and they were certified as organic farmers after completing a 3-year process. So far they have planted 18,000 trees in the area and even installed irrigations systems. Odemar’s farm was the most reforested out of all the land that was given. His coffee farm uses the surrounding environment to protect the plants against pests. He plants fruit trees in close proximity to the coffee plants in order to give predators an alternative food source. The surrounding birds will also eat the pests off the plants, preventing disease. Pollinators include bees, bats, wasps, birds, and the wind therefore it’s in the coffee farms best interest to plant trees around the coffee and attract these pollinators. Without these protections the coffee plants are more susceptible to diseases such as la broca, ojo de gallo, rolla, and fungal infections.

We also learned a lot about how the coffee is made out of the coffee seeds. Odemar showed us around his coffee farm and explained each step of the coffee process as well as the agricultural difficulties he faces. The harvest season is from October to February but the peak month is December. They are harvested by hand on average 8 hours per day. The harvested is stored in the parchments stage during the off season because it will remain 

fresh in this stage for months. The ideal coffee seed is complete red before harvesting for better quality coffee. The coffee beans are weighed and then separated from the husk (outer shell). After that they are laid out in the sun to dry for 25 days and once dry and golden they are ready to roast! J If you want dark roast they leave it in there for 30 minutes and if you want medium roast you leave it in for only 25 minutes. The dark roast has less caffeine but a more bitter taste. If you would like honey roast they do not remove the husk and dry it in its ripe form; this process takes longer but results in a sweeter flavor. Once its ready the coffee is packaged in recycled paper and husk from the actual coffee seed.

At the end of the tour Odemar and his wife were really nice and invited us into their home to give us all fresh coffee. The coffee was amazing I usually don’t like coffee but it was really good. He could only speak Spanish but that did not take away from the experience at all. Overall, the tour was great and it was interesting to see the actual process of how organic coffee is made.

A late start for the first post of 2018–I have no excuse. We arrived with 19 students (from 5 different schools or departments), 3 faculty, lots of luggage, and excitement all around. We started our first day with a naturalist hike on

the trails around campus and orientation. I am impressed yet again with how great all the students get along and how much they are taking advantage of the campus- especially enjoying free time playing volleyball, basketball, and soccer. We hit the ground running with courses and travel and the students blog posts have been coming in and I will now try to stay on top of publishing them all. So far we have had a coffee tour, hiked into and out of San Gerardo Station (Children’s Eternal Rainforest), had a campus sustainability and farm tour, and now we are enjoying La Selva.

Amanda