This past week I’ve spent countless hours in the rainforest, walking or biking, and I’ve come to truly appreciate it (I didn’t think I could do more than I already did). I’ve developed a newfound respect for the tropical rainforest ecosystems and everything it contributes to. These ecosystems have endless functions and home thousands of species. One comment that stuck out to me that was said by a tour guide on a guided hike was one about jaguars. He talked about preserving their species and protecting their numbers. He explained that doing that doesn’t only include stopping hunting them, but also ensuring that adequate food is provided for them (since they only are able to feed on turtles 4 months out of the year). To do this we must provide a specific tree that provides food to its prey (peccary, etc). Seeing this small chain in this complex ecosystem made me really process how much the rainforest does and how interconnected everything is inside. It not only houses these species but it also meets their needs for survival.
This week my partner and I did a lot of data collection for our project. We hiked around 11 kilometers on Tuesday, 9 on Wednesday, 4.5 on Thursday, and biked around 13 on Friday. I definitely learned how humid the rainforest was from these excursions. My partner (Will) did most of the data collection that involved going off trail and into the forest. Going into the forest was even more humid than it was on trail. I was sweating buckets just standing there collecting data that he was measuring, so I can’t imagine how hot it was for him. As we were biking sweat was dripping off me! I wasn’t even hot, the humidity made me sweat so much and it amazed me because I had never sweat as much as I did this past week. At the time, I was getting frustrated with how I was always sweating due to the humidity, but looking back it has made me appreciative of the species and people who do live in those conditions. However brutal they were, these weather conditions play a part for the survival of the species in these ecosystems.
As we began to measure and make our way through the forest, I realized the biodiversity that our professors talked about with the forest. They told us how difficult it is to study one species (especially for trees), because there is such a vast range of tree species present in the tropical rainforest (La Selva specifically). This was very apparent to me when every plot we measured would have many different tree species living inside it. Not only that, but the different trees would have different types of vines growing up their trunk. The amount of roles that trees have in ecosystems (not just tropical rainforests like the one at La Selva) are easy to forget and even not realize. Even though I only focused on their role in the carbon cycle and as a carbon sink, immersing myself in their habitat and researching them up close I began to remember just how important they are. I feel like the animals in these ecosystems get a lot of attention (which is fine since they are just as important and have roles in the ecosystem as well), but it makes it easier to ignore the things trees contribute to the ecosystem as well. Realizing this also made me more passionate about my project and trying to prevent deforestation of forests for their lumber. If I were able to (and had much more time) I would be interested in furthering my research project by looking specifically at the carbon storage for different tree species in these tropical forests. Analyzing the species and age of trees in this forest would be super insightful and something that I am very curious about.
Another unique factor I noticed about the rainforest was how frequently trees fall down. When we got back from the pineapple farm tour a tree had fallen in the road that took us back into La Selva. No one thought anything of it and we hiked about a mile back to La Selva (we actually ended up passing another fallen tree). There were fallen trees on some trails that Will and I hiked on for our data collection and they would be cleared the next day. This piqued my interest because trees fall down back in Indiana because of a strong windstorm or something similar to that, but it would happen on occasion and not everyday like it does there. I asked Eric about the fallen trees and he said tree mortality is a part of the rainforest. After hearing this, I began to notice that these fallen trees would instantly have wildlife on them the day after they fell. Observing this strengthened my point of how important trees are to their ecosystem. Dead or alive, they are constantly funneling nutrients, providing shelter, etc for their surrounding environment.
This next week I’m excited to see new ecosystems and microclimates that Costa Rica houses. We will get to see more mountainous regions, including a volcano in Arenal! I’m eager to observe the rainforests in these areas and see if their functions fluctuate a bit or are very similar to the rainforest that I spent so much time in this week. I have already noticed the big difference in humidity between La Selva and Tortuguero. In Tortuguero I don’t find myself sweating every second of the day like I did in La Selva. The air here in Tortuguero is “thinner” than the air in La Selva. Along with observing the shift in the rainforest physically (weather), also observing the shift in species and hopefully seeing a new variety of species that I didn’t see in the other spots is something I’m excited for. I expect a big shift in the ecosystem in Palo Verde compared to the ecosystem at La Selva (based on pictures).
Overall, I am so excited to see the new spots this week! Pura vida!
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