Atardecer en el Parque Nacional Cahuita, Limón, Costa Rica

Sunset in Cahuita National Park, Limón, Costa Rica

Mapaches ( Procyon lotor) en el Parque Nacional Cahuita, Limón, Costa Rica

Raccoons (Procyon lotor) in the Cahuita National Park, Limón, Costa Rica.

Research Proposal Abstract

"Potential impacts of climate change on the Biodiversity in the marine and coastal Southern Caribbean Costa Rica"

Lilliana María Piedra Castro.

The marine and coastal ecosystems are systems that are important biological, social, economic and scientific. They are highly productive areas that are affected directly or indirectly by human activities. Existing information is focused on the richness and abundance of species in the ecosystem, but the relationship between environmental variables and the conservation status of ecosystems is much less explored. Identification of pressures in these ecosystems is necessary to propose measures for management and conservation of these. Therefore, it is proposed this research project, which aims to analyze the variations of environmental indicators in coastal and marine ecosystems in two protected areas for the development of conservation strategies, using four specific objectives, namely, 1) Determine trends spatiotemporal major environmental indicators in the area between the shoreline and the continental shelf in the South Caribbean of Costa Rica, 2) Set the state of conservation of major ecosystems of coral reefs, sea grass beds and mangrove Southern Caribbean Costa Rica, 3) Distinguish possible biophysical spatiotemporal variations on the beach in two protected areas in the South Caribbean of Costa Rica. 4) Identify the environmental pressure to propose protected areas conservation and management strategies by integrating information from the environmental variables and the conservation status of major ecosystems. Protected areas of focus in the research are the Cahuita National Park and the Refuge Gandoca National Manzanillo, Conservation Area Caribbean La Amistad National System of Conservation Areas of the Ministry of Environment and Energy. The proposed methodology for objective 1 is to use environmental variables and analysis of spatial data from the images of supported Rapid Word eyes and View 2. Objective 2 poses using AGRRA method for seagrass and reefs and mangroves for the method proposed by Komiyama (2005). Goal 3 is based in Martinez (2009) incorporating vegetation variables as contribution of this research. And the objective 4 presents the use of spatial models ArGGis with the information obtained from the above objectives. As products are offered four thematic maps on environmental variables analyzed, 3 maps on the conservation status of ecosystems, two interim reports and one final report.

Profile

I am from Costa Rica. I got my bachelor´s degree in Marine Biology on the National University of Costa Rica, a degree on Marine Biology with emphasis on aquaculture in the National University of Costa Rica and I got my master degree on management and wildlife conservation in the National University of Costa Rica.

I am currently a student of the Doctoral Program in Natural Sciences for Development Emphasis in Natural Resources Management of the Technological Institute of Costa Rica, the National University of Costa Rica State Distance University of Costa Rica, Chapingo, Mexico, National Autonomous University of Mexico, National Autonomous University of León, Nicaragua.

I´ve been working for more than 15 years at the National University, initially in the School of Environmental Sciences and later, in the School of Biological Sciences. I count 13 publications in scientific journals on issues related to wetlands, wildlife management and ecology. Just as many documents and evaluation reports of wetlands, natural resource management and wildlife management. I have conducted training courses in GIS, protected areas of management, environmental legislation, wild stock assessment, wildlife management, water resources, among others.