Research on Cloud Forest Soils of Costa Rica

As a part of our research on the effects of global climate change on sensitive ecosystems and environments, we are examining soils of the Costa Rican cloud forest soils. Cloud forests are wet mountain forests, mainly on the Pacific slopes of the Cordillera de Tilaran (in western Costa Rica), that receive much of their moisture from the soaking clouds that hug the slopes. In January 2007, the Costa Rica class (BIO 128) visited the Santa Elena Forest Reserve in the Monteverde area and took soil cores from 1) old growth cloud forest, 2) secondary forest (an area that started reforestation in 1977), and 3) a ranch immediately outside of the forest reserve. This research will continue in January, 2008, when the next BIO 128 class comes to Costa Rica.

One objective is to compare the organic carbon in the upper part of the soil profile from these sites to examine the effect on soil carbon storage of land clearing and reforestation. Another objective is to begin a program of monitoring the soils (thickness of the organic layer, and carbon and nitrogen content in the A and B horizons) that will last for at least ten years (and hopefully much longer), the goal being to identify changes in the soils as a result of gradual climate change.

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