Research Proposal

The world’s rainforests are disappearing at an alarming rate, the result of which will cause mass extinction of the rainforest’s unique and beautiful species and also increase the rate of climate change, as this vital cog in the globe’s machinery is lost. The national survey being completed by InBio and the eminent entomologist Angel Solis currently has highlighted the Corcovado national park as a gap in the research cover.

Our project and our goal is to help counter this loss through conducting research to further understand rainforest systems in order to better protect them. Our research will be then circulated in both the wider scientific community and amongst the scientists already working in Costa Rica in order to benefit the conservation effort.

In Costa Rica we plan to conduct experiments to answer three scientific hypotheses to do with biodiversity in the rainforest. Obviously it is impossible to detect and identify every species within a forest, so each study will use scarab (dung) beetles, of which there are over 150 species in Costa Rica, and also butterflies.

The benefit of using scarabs and butterflies for biodiversity studies is that they are easy to trap and identify and are excellent indicators for biodiversity in the rainforest as a whole.

The questions are as follows;

• Does disturbance of the forest affect biodiversity? - Does human activity by farming, logging, agroforestry etc. affect species present at the site and how? One experiment will use scarabs and one running alongside will use butterflies. This has the added benefits of calibrating the results and making comparisons between different animal groups.
• How does diversity vary over a small area and is there bias in the current standard trapping method? - Rainforests are complex systems where many factors play a part in defining biodiversity.
• Are there unforeseen variations in an area as small as a sampling site and is there a bias in the current standard scarab trapping technique?

You can read or download our mini proposal and scientific propsal by clicking on the links below:

Mini Proposal

Scientific Proposal

Further Research Papers

Our research is part of a wider body of effort. Other such projects can be found by clicking here:

Kohlman B. et al. (2007) Biodiversity, conservation, and hotspot atlas of Costa Rica: a dung beetle perspective (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae).

Spector S. et al. (2003) Rapid Turnover and Edge Effects in Dung Beetle Assemblages Scarabaeidae) at a Bolivian Neotropical Forest–Savanna Ecotone.

Nichols E. et al. (2007) Global dung beetle response to tropical forest modification and fragmentation: A quantitative literature review and meta-analysis Biological Conservation. 137 pp 1-19.

Spector S. (2006) Scarabaeine Dung Beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae): an Invertebrate Focal Taxon for Biodiversity Research and Conservation. The Coleopterists Bulletin.5.pp 71-83.

Useful Links

Scarabaeinae Research Network: http://216.73.243.70/scarabnet/

INBio [National Biodiversity Institute, Costa Rica]: http://www.inbio.ac.cr/en/default.html

Oxford University Exploration Club: http://ouec.apexa.co.uk/

Oxford University Museum of Natural history: http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/collect/entom.htm