Update from Cocobolo

I have just returned from a week out at Cocobolo Nature Reserve!

While we waited for the elderly Land Cruiser's transmission to get repaired, I worked on building two databases of geographic information about CNR. The first was a database recording the species of birds caught in mist nests at various locations, which have been tied to both a GIS and turned into a file viewable on Google Earth. (I should note that back when I was writing my grant, an Engineers Without Borders project to provide the valley with internet was clicking along with speed and enthusiasm. We thought using Google Earth and other sites would be a good way to share geographic data with community members. Unfortunately, the project was repeatedly derailed by layoffs, budgets, and good ole Panamanian weather. Still no internet available at the site!)

The other - much larger - portion of my time was spent working on a database to measure the amount of carbon "banked" at Cocobolo Nature Reserve. This means the amount that is currently locked up in the trees and the soil there. To calculate this we needed to know the average amount in each different stage of forest. The nature reserve is comprised of land with varied land use histories. Some was pasture two years ago when I first visited, some was cattle pasture up until 7 years ago, another portion was a coffee plantation thirty years ago. In its steepest sections, the reserve is mature, undisturbed forest. Each of the different stands has sequestered different amounts of carbon from the air around them. One of the Panamanian researchers I was working with had established 16 plots (4/land use type) and surveyed each plot to determine species, DBH, and height for each tree. While in the office, what I worked on was helpig build a database to connect data on carbon content (each species has its own constant hat needs to be used in addition to DBH/height!) with GIS data on tree and plot location.

Once we were out at CNR we continued to work on collecting geographic data for this project. We placed permanent survey-markers at the corner of each of the plots. If you can imagine hiking through a few miles of rain forest with a machete, a GPS unit, and a pile of posts...in 95 degree heat - then you've got the idea! Establishing permanent markers gives us reference points for any future studies and gives us parcels that the NGO (CREA), can resurvey periodically to determine the rate at which carbon is being sequestered.

Our other task qwhile on site was to define the boundaries between forests of different type. The delineation between different age classes is quite clear and the former coffee plantation still retains (now wild) coffee trees. However, trying to assess the demarcation between lower and higher altitude primary rain forest was a different story. The absolute highlight of the trip was trying to determine the location of this boundary. The trees at the high-elevation cloud forest are much smaller and loaded with epiphytes and moss/lichen communities, so the carbon profile is much different. We had a gorgeous hike through the reserve to reach this section and take GPS points; later we were able to plug this into a GIS to show the demarcation.

It might seem tricky to draw a definite line through an ecotope, so our approach was to search for specimens of a fern that only occurs in the high cloud forest. It's resplendent blue sheen makes it easy to spot.
Once we'd noted the lower limit of the fern's range and checked the altimeter reading, we simply extrapolated a boundary between the forest types at that elevation.