Notes from the field

  We spent a productive and adventuresome week in the small rural village of Mastatal (pop. 150) carrying out a research project in the shadow of La Cangreja National Park. Our research project, which is a follow-up of a project we conducted in the same sites nearly 20 years ago, explores the relative contribution of farmland and forests to arthropod biodiversity. This means we spent six days setting pitfall traps, characterizing ground and canopy cover, and collecting, sorting, photographing and measuring the body sizes of beetle and spider specimens from several sites around the region. Specimens will be sent to colleagues who are taxonomic specialists in San Jose for further identification, and we'll be using special software to analyze the photographs we have taken, measuring body and leg sizes of the beetles and spiders in order to better understand traits like mobility and predator size as potential drivers of the abundance and diversity patterns we are seeing. River crossing

  The 2022 CSU-LSAMP Costa Rica Research Expedition is underway! After three years of anticipation, we are back in-person; eight LSAMP students from four different CSU campuses are participating this year in a truncated version of past summer expeditions. This year we'll be focusing on a group research project in the small village of  Mastatal (pop. 150), exploring the relative contributions of farmlands, pasture, and forest fragments to arthropod biodiversity. The expedition will be bookended by a few days learning about sustainable coffee production as well as the coastal environment. The students arrived early on Thursday morning, and we headed off by bus to Santa Maria de Dota, a small town in the coffee highlands in the world-famous   Tarrazú region. Friday morning featured a tour of the nearby CoopeDota production facilities (including coffee tasting, or "cupping"), followed by a few hours of lecture and discussion that served as an introduction to ecological concep