scholarly journals Marine biodiversity of an Eastern Tropical Pacific oceanic island, Isla del Coco, Costa Rica

2017 ◽  
pp. 131-185
Author(s):  
Jorge Cortés

Isla del Coco (also known as Cocos Island) is an oceanic island in the Eastern Tropical Pacific; it is part of the largest national park of Costa Rica and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The island has been visited since the 16th Century due to its abundance of freshwater and wood. Marine biodiversity studies of the island started in the late 19th Century, with an intense period of research in the 1930’s, and again from the mid 1990’s to the present. The information is scattered and, in some cases, in old publications that are difficult to access. Here I have compiled published records of the marine organisms of the island. At least 1688 species are recorded, with the gastropods (383 species), bony fishes (354 spp.) and crustaceans (at least 263 spp.) being the most species-rich groups; 45 species are endemic to Isla del Coco National Park (2.7% of the total). The number of species per kilometer of coastline and by square kilometer of seabed shallower than 200m deep are the highest recorded in the Eastern Tropical Pacific. Although the marine biodiversity of Isla del Coco is relatively well known, there are regions that need more exploration, for example, the south side, the pelagic environments, and deeper waters. Also, several groups of organisms, such as the flatworms, nematodes, nemerteans, and gelatinous zooplankton, have been observed around the Island but have been poorly studied or not at all. Citation: Cortés, J. 2012. Marine biodiversity of an Eastern Tropical Pacific oceanic island, Isla del Coco, Costa Rica. Rev. Biol. Trop. 60 (Suppl. 3): 131-185. Epub 2012 Dec 01

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 8006
Author(s):  
Till Schmäing ◽  
Norbert Grotjohann

The Wadden Sea ecosystem is unique in many respects from a biological perspective. This is one reason why it is protected by national parks in Germany and by its designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In biology didactics, there are only a few studies that focus on the Wadden Sea. This work investigates students’ word associations with the two stimulus words “national park” and “UNESCO World Heritage Site”. The survey was conducted among students living directly at the Wadden Sea and among students from the inland. The analysis of the identified associations (n = 8345) was carried out within the framework of a quantitative content analysis to be able to present and discuss the results on a group level. A statistically significant difference was found between the two groups. Overall, results showed that the students made subject-related associations as well as a large number of associations to both stimulus words that could be judged as non-subject-related. In some cases, a connection with the region of residence could be found, but this was not generally the case. Even students’ immediate residential proximity to the Wadden Sea is no guarantee that they have knowledge of the two considered protection terms.


2017 ◽  
pp. 235-242
Author(s):  
Eduardo Suárez-Morales ◽  
Rebeca Gasca

Among the several groups of copepods that are teleost parasites, the siphonostomatoid family Caligidae is by far the most widespread and diverse. With more than 108 nominal species, the caligid genus Lepeophtheirus von Nordmann is one of the most speciose. There are no reports of this genus in Costa Rican waters. A new species of Lepeophtheirus is herein described based on female specimens collected from plankton samples in waters off Bahía Wafer, isla del Coco, an oceanic island in the Eastern Tropical Pacific. The new species, L. alvaroi sp. nov., has some affinities with other congeners bearing a relatively short abdomen, a wider than long genital complex and a 3-segmented exopod of leg 4. it differs from most of these species by the presence of an unbranched maxillular process and by the relative lengths of the terminal claws of leg 4, with two equally long elements. it is most closely related to two other Eastern Pacific species: L. dissimulatus Wilson, 1905 and L. clarionensis Shiino, 1959. it differs from these species by the proportions and shape of the genital complex, the shape of the sternal furca, the relative length of the maxillar segments, the absence of a pectiniform process on the distal maxillar segment, the length of leg 4 and the armature of leg 5. The new species represents the first Lepeophtheirus described from Costa Rican waters of the Pacific. The low diversity of this genus in this tropical region is explained by its tendency to prefer hosts from temperate latitudes. Until further evidence is found, the host of this Lepeophtheirus species remains unknown. Citation: Suárez-Morales, E. & R. Gasca. 2012. A new Lepeophtheirus (Copepoda: Siphonostomatoida: Caligidae) from isla del Coco National Park, Costa Rica, Eastern Tropical Pacific. Rev. Biol. Trop. 60 (Suppl. 3): 235-242. Epub 2012 Dec 01.


2016 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 37-54
Author(s):  
Dana Phelps

The case study presented in this paper is an account of six months of ethnographic fieldwork that I conducted between 2010 and 2013 in the villages within the UNESCO World Heritage site of Butrint National Park, located on the Albanian-Greek border. My ethnography reveals the particularly complex tangle that exists between development and heritage projects in transitioning countries such as Albania, which is re-positioning its governance within a neoliberal framework. The research takes an anthropological approach to investigate how the “heritage for development” projects at Butrint National Park are affecting the local community and distressing local power relations and social inequalities, while at the same time are instilling a sense of place for many of these communities that have relocated or were forced from their homes during the post-communist period as a result of confusion over land ownership. This case study demonstrates that while sustainable heritage practices are often overpowered by neoliberal agendas, heritage repurposed towards development has real and powerful effects on the communities connected to the site. In this paper I argue that we need anthro­pologically informed studies that give due attention to the realities of the communities connected to the site in order to reveal how sustainable heritage policies that are not set up to protect the community can have detrimental effects on the locals, including reinforced structural inequality, marginalization of minorities, and divisions among communities.


ZooKeys ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 918 ◽  
pp. 99-142
Author(s):  
Marija Ivković ◽  
Valentina Dorić ◽  
Viktor Baranov ◽  
Zlatko Mihaljević ◽  
Levente-Péter Kolcsár ◽  
...  

Studies on aquatic Diptera in the Plitvice Lakes National Park (Croatia) conducted in the last 50 years have produced 157 species and 7 taxa of aquatic Diptera placed in 13 families. Samples were collected at 25 sampling sites representing the four main types of karst aquatic habitats: spring, stream, tufa barriers and lakes. All records of all the aquatic families of Diptera in Plitvice Lakes NP are summarized, including previously unpublished data. Twelve species new for Plitvice Lakes NP are recorded for the first time, belonging to the families: Chironomidae – Labrundinia longipalpis (Goetghebuer, 1921), Nilothauma brayi (Goetghebuer, 1921), Potthastia longimanus Kieffer, 1922, Polypedilum (Polypedilum) nubeculosum (Meigen, 1804), Tanytarsus brundini Lindeberg, 1963; Dixidae – Dixella autumnalis (Meigen, 1838); Scathophagidae – Acanthocnema latipennis Becker, 1894 and Stratiomyidae – Oxycera pardalina Meigen, 1822, Oxycera limbata Loew, 1862, Oxycera turcica Ustuner & Hasbenli, 2004, Nemotelus pantherinus (Linnaeus, 1758), Oplodontha viridula (Fabricius, 1775). The most species-rich family was the Chironomidae with 62 species (and an additional seven taxa), followed by the Empididae with 22 species and Limoniidae with 19 species. The highest number of species was recorded in springs. The relatively low number of species in certain families and the complete absence of some aquatic families shows that further research into the aquatic Diptera in Plitvice Lakes NP is needed.


2012 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bogdan Debevec ◽  
Martin Knez ◽  
Andrej Kranjc ◽  
Marko Pahor ◽  
Mitja Prelovšek ◽  
...  

Heaven’s Cave is located in the centre of the Phong Nha-Ke Bang national park, about 500  km southern from the Vietnamese capital and 40 km from the city of Dong Hoi. Phong Nha-Ke Bang national park is protected also as a UNESCO world heritage site. Due to weak economic situation in this region as a result of lack of natural resources, karst tourism represents an important opportunity for raising the quality of live in the province. A proposal to adapt non-touristic Heaven’s Cave for tourism was presented to Karst Research Institute ZRC SAZU in 2006. Because the caves are sensitive ecosystems and all activities in them should be carefully implemented, our task was to make basic survey and map the cave, to perform a speleological and touristic research, to propose possible interventions for adapting the cave for tourism and to prepare a strategy for tourism development in this area. The latter should also show us if some interest is present among tourists for new show cave in this region. From this point of view this study does not represent systematic long-term approach for adapting a cave for tourism but rather a short study of a cave with potential to be show cave in remote area of Central Vietnam. Approach used in this study should be used in similar environments as a first step to estimate if weakly known cave is environmentally and economically suitable for development for touristic purposes.Keywords: Heaven’s Cave, Thien Duong Cave, Phong Nha-Ke Bang, Vietnam, show cave.


2017 ◽  
Vol 65 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Jan S. Adolfssen ◽  
Jesper Milàn ◽  
Matt Friedman

The vertebrate fauna in the Danian deposits of Denmark and southern Sweden is reviewed. Remains of sharks and bony fishes are widely distributed but not common in the Danian limestones, with the exception of the K/Pg-boundary clay, the Fiskeler Member, at the UNESCO World Heritage Site Stevns Klint, which can include substantial quantities of shark teeth and fragments of bony fishes. Articulated remains of bony fishes are known from the Fiskeler Member at Stevns Klint and the København Limestone Formation in the Limhamn quarry. Sharks are only found as isolated teeth and rare isolated vertebrae. The gavialoid crocodylian Thoracosaurus is represented by a complete skull and associated postcranial material and an additional jaw fragment from the Limhamn quarry. Remains of a crocodylian skull, a cervical vertebra, a limb bone and isolated teeth have been found in the Faxe quarry, and a single possibly alligatorid tooth is known from the basal conglomerate of the Lellinge Greensand Formation from now closed exposures below Copenhagen. Fragmentary turtle material has been found in the face and Limhamn quarries and in the København Limestone in Copenhagen, and bird remains are exclusively known from the Limhamn quarry. Despite the fragmentary nature of many of the finds, the total picture of the vertebrate fauna of southern Scandinavia is quite diverse comprising four classes, 23 orders, 41 families and 54 identifiable genera of which most can be identified to species level.


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