Costa Rican Forests (Area de Conservacion de Guanacaste)
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Costa Rican Forests (Area de Conservacion de Guanacaste)
The ACG (www.acguanacaste.ac.cr 
/), is a 163,000 hectare national park in northwestern Costa Rica, extending from 6 km out in the Pacific up to 2000 m at the top Volcan Rincon de la Vieja and down into the Atlantic lowland rain forest is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The ACG is home to more than 325,000 species of plants and animals (2.6% of the world's biodiversity) and has grown dramatically from a 10K acre national park (formalised in 1971) to a global example of tropical biodiversity conservation, dependent upon, and inserted within, the development and economy of the local people. If you are interested in more information on the ACG, please visit the Guanacaste Dry Forest Fund website (www.gdfcf.org /). At the bottom of that page you'll find a button to donate to the ACG. "Every penny donated to GDFCF goes to forest purchase to expand ACG" - a very worthwhile investment!
I am a molecular ecologist, based at the University of Guelph in Ontario Canada, and interested in tracking how ACG ant communities change here with elevation, temperature and time. I have been following this across three volcanoes in Guanacaste Province (Cacao, Rincon de la Vieja and Orosi) since 2008. My hope and intent is to continue this monitoring for the long term - using the GigaPan to document habitat in high resolution.
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- 111126 - Costa Rica, Area de Conservacion de Guanacaste (ACG), Volcan Rincon de la Vieja, 1,100 m by Alex Smith
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111126 - 1,100m Rincon de la Vieja I'm having some moisture issues with my beta unit and so I tried a hand-held GigaPan at today's sampling site. Not perfect, but better than nothing! Small Myrmicinae colony uncovered under a small patch of moss on a log along the trail. Rincon 1100 youtu.be/hy1Z8OsI-Yo
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111130 - Costa Rica, Area de Conservacion de Guanacaste (ACG), Volcan Cacao, 1,200m The volcanoes looked slightly more cloudy this morning on the drive in but no rain through the day - just a lot of wind (the canopy is moving all day quite a lot). Quad bikes up from QG with Harry R (8km). Hike up and traps out at ...
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03-Dec-12 10.93032 -85.4616 1304 Cacao1300 Drove the Jimmy up from Quebrada Grande with Dunia and walked up to 1300m. No rain or mist on the way up. Downloaded Arenales and Sendero Circular RG3-M's. Set up RG3-M at 1300m S/N 10238803. GigaPan setup behind stations 1-3 - Sift3/4 was at this site (with videos). ...
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111127 - Cacao - Arenales At 1,100m on Volcan Cacao these army ants found one bait station. Other ants weren't perturbed and kept returning for more. youtu.be/yxBbv4PMWJg
At 1,100m on Volcan Cacao tiny Solenopsis and Wasmannia were at a bait station. I had seen them further downhill earlier in the year ...-
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- 111122 - Costa Rica, Area de Conservacion de Guanacaste (ACG), Volcan Rincon de la Vieja 1,300m by Alex Smith
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Hiked up from 8-9:25. Set up the Malaise trap at around 975 m. All traps and bait out between 9:45 and 10am. I've made an error not curating the robot enough during this shoot I think - the GigaPan robot is done 1/2 through this intended 360 - this leads to several days of handhelds before I can borrow a replacement. ...
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06-Dec-12 10.88878 -85.47594 610 Cacao600 A long morning in Libera having the Jimmy's 4WD problems sorted out - 500$ later :( I was back to Cacao to Gongora at 600m. Bright, calm and loads of ants. Set up the last RG3-M at 12:30 local. 42x21 GigaPan at same location as in February. Many stout Pachycondyla here....
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08-Dec-12 10.85198 -85.60676 300 Santa Rosa300 A warm (24-28C), clear and not very windy day in Santa Rosa. I started by driving out to the highway to see if the mountain were in cloud - clearly not! I returned to the mature dry forest in Santa Rosa and had my various traps out by 8am. It is always fun to search ...
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04-Dec-12 10.89894 -85.46716 731 Cacao750 Drove up alone from Quebrada Grande. Rain and black clouds on volcano so no Cima today. Traps out at 8:30. Capuchins at GigaPan. 2 mp3 sound files while collecting numbers. Med Adrian while he was on his way to look for flowering plants. RG3-M S/N10238807 started at M...
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120219 - Costa Rica, Area de Conservacion (ACG), Playa Naranjo, 26 m Drove down to Naranjo from 6:40-7:10. Road is in quite good condition and dry. Traps out at 8am after figuring out exactly where the Malaise trap is. Very little wind and super hot - 38-40C in the shade. You can hear the waves on the beach and...
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05-Dec-12 10.93285 -85.45748 1482 Cacao1500 |Drove up this morning and worked with Harry and Manuel to get the rain-meter software installed on their computer - and test the downloading at a couple of stations - it went really well and all is working! 121205 - Cacao and Orosi in the cloud After getting the RG3-M so...
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