Interception of Rainfall in Successional Tropical Dry Forests in Brazil and Costa Rica

Bacillus thuringiensis in caterpillars and associated materials collected from protected tropical forests in northwestern Costa Rica

Bacillus thuringiensis in caterpillars and associated materials collected from protected tropical forests in northwestern Costa Rica.

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) synthesizes crystalline inclusions that are toxic to caterpillars (Lepidoptera) and other orders of invertebrates. Materials associated with 37 caterpillars from 16 species, collected while feeding on 15 different species of host plants in dry, cloud and rain forests located in the Area de Conservación Guanacaste in northwestern Costa Rica, were examined for the pres...

Rights to Land, Forests and Carbon in REDD+: Insights from Mexico, Brazil and Costa Rica

Land tenure and carbon rights constitute critical issues to take into account in achieving emission reductions, ensuring transparent benefit sharing and determining non-permanence (or non-compliance) liabilities in the context of REDD+ strategies and projects. This is so because tenure systems influence who becomes involved in efforts to avoid deforestation and improve forest management, and th...

Persistence of rock-derived nutrients in the wet tropical forests of La Selva, Costa Rica.

We used strontium isotopes and analysis of foliar and soil nutrients to test whether erosion can rejuvenate the supply of rock-derived nutrients in the lowland tropical rain forest of La Selva, Costa Rica. We expected that these nutrients would be depleted from soils on stable surfaces, a result of over one million years of weathering in situ. In fact, trees and palms in all landscape positions...

How Can Carbon Sequestration in Tropical Forests be Rewarded? Evidence from Costa Rica

As empirical evidence that human activities are affecting the global climate increases, so do efforts to identify and evaluate climate mitigation and adaptation options. Forest managers and policy makers around the world are increasingly participating in and following such efforts, since forestry activities (e.g., reforestation, slowing deforestation, or improved forest management) could in pri...