J. Mauro Vargas-Hernandez

National University of Costa Rica | UNA · Departamento de Física

Biological data collection often overlooks short-term environmental variations, potentially leading to under- or over-estimation of species abundance and ineffective conservation actions. This study investigated the complex relationship between oceanic and meteorological processes and the short-term abundance patterns of two economically important...

Bahía Santa Elena is a tropical bay located in the northern Pacific region of Costa Rica. This region experiences a period of reduced precipitation from July to August, known as mid-summer drought, induced by the intensification of northeastern winds from the Caribbean Low-Level Jet. Intensification of upwelling-favorable winds can cool surface wat...

Introduction: The Gulf of Papagayo (GP) is a site of socioeconomic importance located in the North Pacific of Costa Rica. The ecosystem services of this site represent a benefit in local communities, and its dynamics are influenced by a coastal upwelling system that affects fishing and commercial activity. Objective: The objective of this study wa...

Introduction: The Gulf of Papagayo (GP) is a site of socioeconomic importance located in the North Pacific of Costa Rica. The ecosystem services of this site represent a benefit in local communities, and its dynamics are influenced by a coastal upwelling system that affects fishing and commercial activity. Objective: The objective of this study was...

In recent years, the northwestern part of the North Pacific areas of Costa Rica has undergone rapid socioeconomic development. This situation, combined with the scarce available information about the water quality of the Gulf of Papagayo, became the starting point to carry out a study to investigate the spatiotemporal variations of physicochemical...

This work describes the water circulation of Bahia Santa Elena using velocity fields and hydrographic data obtained from a ship-mounted Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler and a vertical profiler Conductivity-Temperature-Depth sonde, during two campaigns in August and October of 2019. Data were taken in a cross-bay transect in the main channel of the...

Annual precipitation over Central America and large areas of Mexico is typically characterised by its bimodal distribution, with a precipitation minimum in July to August that occurs between two separate maxima from May to July and August to October. Several theories have been proposed to explain this phenomenon, which is often termed the mid-summe...

El Área Marina de Manejo de bahía Santa Elena (BSE) es un sitio importante para las comunidades cercanas debido a su potencial turístico y pesquero. El objetivo de este trabajo es comprender algunos aspectos de la hidrografía de BSE. Se establecieron dos transectos transversales al canal principal de la bahía Santa Elena para la medición de corrien...

Centrada en 5°N-87°O, la Isla del Coco (IC) es el punto insular más al sur en el Océano Pacífico de la República de Costa Rica. En este estudio se analizan las principales características de las masas de agua alrededor de la IC, así como los campos de velocidad geostrófica para tres transeptos longitudinales. Para ello se utilizó información obteni...

El Golfo de Nicoya (GN) es uno de los estuarios más grandes de América Central. Este cuerpo de agua presenta una dinámica de circulación compleja y representa un área de alta importancia pesquera y comercial. El objetivo de este estudio fue caracterizar la variabilidad intra-anual de parámetros oceanográficos en la región interna del GN, Costa Rica...

El Golfo de Papagayo (GP) posee una abundante riqueza biológica y debido al acelerado desarrollo turístico es vulnerable al impacto de actividades humanas. Un estudio hidrográfico del GP es fundamental para velar por la buena salud de este ecosistema. Se usaron datos de perfiles verticales de una sonda (CTD) desplegada en 24 estaciones distribuidas...

The Central American mid‐summer drought (MSD) is the decline of precipitation during the middle of the wet season (July and August) over Central America and southern Mexico. It affects agriculture and favours the initiation of bushfires in Costa Rica's national parks, particularly during El Niño years. The MSD is a seasonal phenomenon that varies i...

Este estudio fue contratado para documentar y caracterizar las condiciones oceanográficas del Golfo de Nicoya (GN). El documento se utilizará como insumo para el estudio de impacto ambiental de las actividades de las granjas de ostras que operan actualmente, así como de las granjas adicionales que se planea desarrollar en este cuerpo de agua. En ge...

Decadal salinity variability is an important characteristic of the ocean. It characterizes differences in evaporative and precipitation fluxes at the surface, and in the subsurface it contributes to steric sea level change and freshwater/salt transports. In this paper, we identify and describe westward moving and decadally varying salinity anomalie...

Studies of decadal-to-multidecadal ocean subsurface temperature variability are fundamental to improving the understanding of low-frequency climate signals. The present study uses the Simple Ocean Data Assimilation (SODA) version 2.2.4 product for the period 1950-2007 to identify decadal modes of variability that characterize the upper Indo-Pacific...

Estimates of changes in upper ocean temperature, heat content and sea level are dependent on the coverage of subsurface observations in space and time. Historically, these data are sparse, which has limited our understanding of ocean climate variability and change mechanisms. Ocean state estimates, which effectively represent a model synthesis and...