Four Specialized Pieces of Equipment to Enhance and Expand Research at the La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica

Duke University, Durham NC

Investigators

Abstract

Duke University and the Organization for Tropical Studies have been awarded a grant to purchase four pieces of specialized scientific equipment that will enhance research at the La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica. Specific research that will benefit from the acquisition of these instruments include nitrogen fixation by soil microorganisms, effects of chemical and phylogenetic diversity of plants in the structure of herbivore community and herbivory, microbial diversity in tank bromeliads and mutualistic associations between hemiptera and Burholderia bacteria, and amphibian decline. La Selva is owned and operated by the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS), a non-profit consortium of nearly sixty universities, colleges, and research institutions located at Duke University; it was founded in 1963 to provide leadership in education, research, and the responsible use of natural resources in the tropics. OTS maintains three biological research stations in Costa Rica. La Selva, the largest of the three (comprised of 3900 acres of tropical wet forests and disturbs lands), has been recognized as one of the most scientifically productive field stations in the tropics. Few research stations have access to both diverse tropical forest settings and sophisticated research capabilities as La Selva, and it is this unique setting and infrastructure, combined with long-term data sets from nearly fifty years of research, that makes this station situated along the land-bridge between two major continents, so important. The new equipment will enable the station to remain at the forefront of research and eliminate the need to transport samples abroad for analysis. It will enhance exponentially opportunities for the wide array of research projects currently taking place at the station, open new lines of research, and expand the exciting questions researchers and students can ask in the decade ahead while working in a remote tropical lowland rain forest. Over the last 10 years, the number of staff and visitors (researchers, research assistants, eco-tourists) to La Selva has varied between ~ 28 and 36 thousand a year. Annually, students from more than 115 faculty-led courses from colleges and universities from the United States utilize La Selva's forests and laboratories as part of their curriculum. In addition, each year, OTS itself runs approximately 15 graduate and undergraduate courses and a ten-week site-based research experience for undergraduates (REU) program for students from non-R1 research universities and groups under-represented in the sciences. In fact, over the last five years, 24% of all U.S. undergraduates in the OTS education programs are from under-represented groups in the STEM disciplines. The station has sponsored several working groups on tropical ecotoxicology, multi-trophic interaction diversity, and bioinformatics and databases. It has hosted a number of multi-institutional collaborations and workshops that involve scientists from all over the world. Therefore, the requested equipment will provide an enriching educational, long-lasting research experience for students and researchers, and potentially lead to new discoveries in tropical field biology. For more information please visit the following website: http://www.ots.ac.cr/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=163&Itemid=348