2.+Geography

toc  media type="facebooklike" key="http%3A%2F%2Fissocane.wikispaces.com%2F2.%20Geography" width="180" height="32" =What is the purpose of establishing biological corridors? =  A biological corridor is the designation for a continuous geographic extent of habitat linking ecosystems, either spatially or functionally. There are different scales of corridors, but all of them have the same purposes of providing connections for species through fragmented landscapes. Monteverde Related Workshop: While in Monteverde, we walked through a biological corridor and saw the development of last years live fences.

//**Are there biological corridors in Costa Rica? **//  Costa Rica is working on creating biological corridors because its national parks are isolated from each other. Public and private organizations are working on this project.



=How can endangered species benefit from biological corridors? Give a real life example: an endangered species and the type of biological corridor (s) it benefits from. =  Some species that benefit in Costa Rica with biological corridors are cat species such as jaguars and pumas that need healthy gene pools to maintain healthy populations and are threatened by isolation. [|Jaguars], [|Manatees], and [|Great Green Macaws] are all amongst the species who benefit with the creation of biological corridor [|San Juan- La Selva in Costa Rica], along with other plants. It also includes a Costa Rican bird route.


 * Below is a presentation on the Great Green Macaw: **

= How do protected areas and biological corridors contribute to the conservation of biodiversity? Identify CR protected areas and biological corridors, and explain the specific goals of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor. = media type="googlemap" key="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=monteverde,+costa+rica&aq=&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=43.528905,79.013672&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Monteverde,+Puntarenas,+Costa+Rica&t=m&z=14&ll=10.306982,-84.809731&output=embed" width="425" height="350" align="left"  Habitat fragmentation is a mayor threat to biodiversity. It causes survival issues to those species who depend on a diverse genetic gene-pools in order to maintain stable populations. Biological corridors are a possible sol ution for habitat fragmentation. National parks in Costa Rica exist as biological islands and are isolated from each other. The main goal of implementing habitat corridors is to increase biodiversity. They help contribute to three mayor factors which greatly influence biodiversity (colonization, migration, interbreeding). When areas of land are broken up by human influence, population numbers become unstable and many animal and plant species become endangered. By re-connecting the fragments, the populations can increase dramatically.  There are both private and public organizations working on building biological corridors in national parks in Costa Rica to help ensure that animals can get from park to park easily. The biological corridors are made of native plants (shrubs, trees, grasses, etc.) and are designed to mimic the original environment so the animals feel safe and confident enough to use them.

Protected Areas and Biological Corridors in Costa Rica:


 * 1) [|Guanacaste Conservation Area], including [|Santa Rosa], [|Rincón de la Vieja] and [|Guanacaste] National Parks
 * 2) [|Arenal Huetar Norte Conservation Area] including the [|Juan Castro Blanco National Park]
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">[|Central Volcanic Conservation Area] including the [|Braulio Carrillo], [|Irazú Volcano], [|Poás Volcano] and [|Turrialba Volcano] National Parks as well as the [|Guayabo National Monument]
 * 4) <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">[|Tortuguero Conservation Area] including [|Tortuguero National Park]
 * 5) <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">[|Arenal Tempisque Conservation Area] including [|Barra Honda], [|Las Baulas], [|Monteverde] and [|Palo Verde] National Parks
 * 6) <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">[|Arenal Tilaran Conservation Area] including the [|Arenal Volcano] and [|Tenorio Volcano] National Parks
 * 7) <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">[|Central Pacific Conservation Area] including the [|Manuel Antonio], [|Carara] and [|La Cangreja] National Parks
 * 8) <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">[|Pacific La Amistad Conservation Area] including [|Chirripó] and [|Tapantí] National Parks
 * 9) <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">[|Caribbean La Amistad Conservation Area] including the [|Barbilla] and [|Cahuita] National Parks and [|La Amistad International Park] which is shared with [|Panama] and Pacific La Amistad Conservation Area
 * 10) <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">[|Osa Conservation Area] including [|Corcovado] and [|Piedras Blancas] National Parks
 * 11) <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Cocos Island Marine Conservation Area which maintains just the [|Cocos Island National Park]

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> [|CITES] Numbered Protected Areas

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> The Mesoamerican Biological Corridor is a large biological corridor in Mesoamerica. It stretches from Mexico through most of Central America. It connects various national parks, national and private nature refuges and private wild lands. It was created in 1977 to protect Central America's bio-diversity. It is basically links between protected areas in four distinctions: the core area to mainly conserve eco-systems and species (human activities are prohibited); buffer zones; corridors, which are areas that make moving around easier and facilitates dispersal and migration of species, and in where human activities are minor and of low impact; and lastly, multiple use areas which may include areas devoted to agriculture, livestock, fisheries, forest management, etc. The Mesoamerican Biological Corridor helps to decrease habitat fragmentation.

//**<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">What is GIS? **// GIS stands for Geographic Information System. It is a system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present all types of geographical data. It represents features of the earth as digital, spacial data.

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= How can geographic positioning systems (GPS) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) contribute to advance scientific research in general and in Monteverde? =

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> [|Monteverde Institute (GIS)] > locations.
 * **<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Cost Savings and Increased Efficiency ** <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Using the GIS can help save 10% to 30% in expenses such as fuel cost and staff time. It also improves the customer service and makes an efficient scheduling.
 * **Better Decision Making** Using the GIS also helps take better decisions about location. The GIS provides with route selections, evacuation routes, natural resources extractions and other selections that help take better decisions about
 * ** Improved Communication ** The GIS helps visualize and understand situations better. It helps the communication process in professional fields and when transmitting the information to the public.
 * ** Better Record-Keeping ** The GIS uses professional tools and maintains a strong record-keeping for maintaining a strong record of <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">geographic changes.
 * ** Managing Geographically ** The GIS helps understand what is happening in a geographic place and what will happen in the future.
 * ** Monteverde Related Workshop: **<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">While in Monteverde, we went on a scavenger hunt and had to locate various things by using a GPS tracking device. We also made a map by using GPS technology. We went to an area and recorded different locations by using the GPS, then, once we had the locations, used them to make a map.

= How is GIS technology used to decide what - local landscapes, wildlife and vegetation – to protect and how to protect it? Give 2 examples (1 Costa Rica, other) = GIS technology is used often to decide what to protect and how to protect it. By using GIS technology maps can be made to monitor protected areas or areas in danger (for example deforested areas). GIS acts somewhat like a GPS location device. It can be used to trackspecies and observe migration patterns aswell as track what areas the species are in. GIS can also be used to monitor biological corridors and their growth. For example, <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">[|tapirs] are the largest land mammals in Central America. They weigh up to 300kg. They were hunted during the 1900's for their <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">meat, their thick hides and for sport. The hunting was so severe that the tapirs became almost extinct. Although they are now protected, their numbers have been increasing very slowly and they are still endangered. [|Rafiki Safari Lodge] is part of a sustainable project focused to re-introduce the Baird's Tapir back into the wilderness of the central pacific coast of Costa Rica. They use GIS and GPS technology to track <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">reintroduced tapirs with minimal disturbance. This way, they can still care and monitor the species, however the species will be in their native environment in hopes of increasing the specie's population more rapidly. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Currently in Nepal, GIS and GPS technology is being used to track the[| Royal Bengal tigers]. These animals are found mostly in Nepal, Bhutan and India. These tigers and endangered and therefor are prime candidates in GPS and GIS tracking, hoping that by monitoring them and recording their behaviors they can somehow increase the population. Their decrease in population became drastic mostly during the 1900s, mostly due to [|poachers]. The purpose of the study is in fact to find out more about their native habitats.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">The purpose of this was to familiarize ourselves with GIS mapping. We did them while on our field trip to Monteverde.
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">Below is and example of GIS Maps (Product): **

//**<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">What is nature worth? **//
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Below is a presentation on biological corridors and GIS: **

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= What are ecosystem services? = <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> [|Ecosystem Services], also known as Natural Services, are processes in nature which support life and ecosystems. Nature provides us with these essential services for free. Some of these services are the purification of air and water or the decomposition of waste. Another one is [|nutrient cycling], or the circulation of chemicals necessary for life (from the environment, to organisms and then back to the environment). Topsoil (the upper layer of Earth's crust) is a natural resources. It provides us with nutrients for living organisms.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">For anything to be sustainable, some quantity of it must be sustained through time. When referring to [|sustainable development], what has to be sustained is the ability of whatever it is that's being sustained to meet its needs. In ecosystem services lie the key elements to meet this potential, because they are key factors in allowing the well-being of the ecosystem.
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">What is the connection between ecosystem services and sustainable development? **

//** Bibliography: **//

"Fit4Earth - 1. Biodiversity." //Fit4Earth - 1. Biodiversity//. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 June 2012. <http://fit4earth.wikispaces.com/1. Biodiversity>.

"GIS Planning Database ÃÂ»." //Monteverde Institute//. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 June 2012. <http://monteverde-institute.org/gis-database.html>.

"Monteverde Costa Rica." //Cloud Forest//. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 June 2012. <http://www.monteverdeinfo.com/>.

"Rafiki Safari Lodge, Costa Rica - White Water Rafting, Hiking, Birding, and Horseback Riding in the Rainforest!" //Rafiki Safari Lodge, Costa Rica - White Water Rafting, Hiking, Birding, and Horseback Riding in the Rainforest!// N.p., n.d. Web. 07 June 2012. <http://www.rafikisafari.com/>.

"Reserva BiolÃ³gica Bosque Nuboso Monteverde." //Reserva Bosque Nuboso Monteverde Costa Rica//. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 June 2012. <http://www.monteverde-online.com/cms/front_content.php?idart=390>.

"San Juan-La Selva Corridor." //- Costa Rica//. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 June 2012. <http://www.entercostarica.com/travel/180/San-Juan-La-Selva-Corridor.php>.

"Welcome to CITES." //Welcome to CITES//. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 June 2012. <http://www.cites.org/>.

//Wikipedia//. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 07 June 2012. <http://www.wikipedia.org/>.

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