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August 1981 - present
Education
August 1985 - July 1990
University of Miami
Field of study
- Marine Biology
Publications
Publications (413)
Isla del Coco, Costa Rica, is one of the five groups of oceanic islands of the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP), and is considered one of the most diverse. Since the mid-19th century, it has been the target of a number of scientific research expeditions that have produced specimen collections which are housed in natural history museums around the wor...
There was a small error in the fifth sentence of the Abstract in the original publication [...]
A core challenge in ecology is identifying the factors that determine species distribution and functional diversity of species assemblages. Reef fish are the most diverse group of vertebrates, form taxonomically rich and functionally diverse communities and represent a key source of food for humans. We examine regional distribution patterns of reef...
A core challenge in ecology is identifying the factors that determine species distribution and functional diversity of species assemblages. Reef fish are the most diverse group of vertebrates, form taxonomically rich and functionally diverse communities and represent a key source of food for humans. We examine regional distribution patterns of reef...
Aliena parva gen. et sp. nov. is described from Cocos Island, Costa Rica. The species was found at various islets and rocky outcrops north and northwest of the island, 20-30 m in depth. The genus is characterised by polyps, retracting into calyces, that form thin encrusting mats extending on dead or live substrates. Sclerites are mostly asymmetrica...
Introduction:
Ecosystem restoration facilitates ecological succession. When a coral reef experiences a disturbance, the community of sessile benthic organisms can follow a successional trajectory that favors the dominance of coral or a change of state to an ecosystem dominated by algae.
Objective:
To better understand the impact of coral transplan...
Introduction:
Associated fauna comprises most of the diversity of a coral reef and performs ecological functions essential to the reef's survival. Since Pocillopora corals harbor an important associated fauna, reef restoration efforts are underway in Golfo Dulce, Costa Rica, to preserve them.
Objective:
To describe changes in cryptofauna and fish...
Introduction:
Coral reefs worldwide decline has prompted coral restoration as a viable strategy to rewild vulnerable, foundational coral species. Stony corals are now propagated by thousands in both in-water and ex situ (land-based) coral nurseries, the latter being unexplored in Costa Rica, despite their potential benefits as a reef management too...
Introducción:
Enfrentar la acelerada degradación de arrecifes coralinos requiere una acción integrada en múltiples niveles sociales y ecológicos. A escala local se debe incluir la participación activa de los usuarios de los recursos.
Objetivo:
evaluar el conocimiento y percepción local sobre los arrecifes coralinos en Golfo Dulce, y así generar ba...
Many new marine parasite species are added every year. Still, in some places, mainly tropical regions, marine parasites have been little studied. An exhaustive review of the indexed publications where species of parasites are reported in the marine environments of Costa Rica was carried out. The history of research on marine parasites in this regio...
Aliena parva gen. nov. et sp. nov. is described from Cocos Island, Costa Rica. The species was found at various islets and rocky outcrops north and NW of the island, 20−30 m in depth. The genus is characterised by polyps retracting into low mounds forming thin encrusting mats extending on dead or live substrate. Sclerites are mostly asymmetrical sp...
Deep-sea chemosynthesis-based ecosystems support unique biological communities, but human impacts are an increasing threat. Understanding the life-history traits of species from deep-sea chemosynthesis-based ecosystems can help to develop adequate management strategies, as these can have impacts on ecological responses to changes in the environment...
In this work we evaluate possible associations between echinoderms and fish of the Carapidae family, through sampling at the North Pacific of Costa Rica. We report the occurrence of a symbiotic association between Carapus mourlani and three new host echinoderm species. We raised and discussed some ecological implications regarding such relationship...
In this work, we undertook the task of compiling the available information in the literature and museum collections about deep-sea echinoderms collected in Costa Rica. In this way, we are aiming to have a better understanding of the deep-sea fauna contribution to the total echinoderm diversity in Costa Rican waters. Likewise, to be able to identify...
Osa Peninsula in remote southwest Costa Rica harbors 2.5% of global terrestrial biodiversity in only 1,200 km ² and has the largest remaining tract of Pacific lowland wet forest in Mesoamerica. However, little is known about the marine ecosystems of this diverse region. Much of the coastline consists of soft sediment exposed to strong wave action....
Continental margins host methane seeps, animal falls and wood falls, with chemosynthetic communities that may share or exchange species. The goal of this study was to examine the existence and nature of linkages among chemosynthesis-based ecosystems by deploying organic fall mimics (bone and wood) alongside defaunated carbonate rocks within high an...
Echinoderms are a highly diverse group and one of the most conspicuous in the deep sea, playing ecological key roles. We present a review about the history of expeditions and studies on deep-sea echinoderms in Costa Rica, including an updated list of species. We used literature and information gathered from the databases of the California Academy o...
Rhodoliths are round calcareous red algae that form extensive beds and associated with them are a diverse suite of species. Rhodolith beds are among the least known coastal–marine ecosystems, and even less is understood about their associated flora and fauna. Here, we present an evaluation of the biodiversity larger than 500 μm associated with rhod...
Eccrinales are protists of the class Mesomycetozoea exclusively found in the digestive tract of marine, freshwater and terrestrial arthropods. Isopods are the only terrestrial crustaceans from which eccrinids have been reported. Among brachyuran crabs, eccrinids were exclusively reported in grapsid and ocypodid crabs, with a percentage of occurrenc...
Decapod crustaceans are a diverse group that exploits various types of habitats in Costa Rica, where they represent 8.1% of the marine diversity of the country. This group includes families containing species with strictly symbiotic behavior, e.g., the Palaemonidae and Pinnotheridae. Despite the high diversity of decapods and the importance of symb...
Moín, on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, is a multi-use coastal zone with a variety of human activities that can cause metal pollution. With the purpose of assessing the current environmental burden due to heavy metal presence in the marine environment of Moín, and their bioaccumulation in organisms of the nearby coral reef, we determined seven...
Seagrasses are found at limited locations in the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP). Here, we provide the first characterization of seagrasses at Sámara Bay, on the northern Pacific coast of Costa Rica. Sampling was carried out in August 2018 and March 2019. We measured seagrass biomass, shoot density, leaf area, stable isotope composition (δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N)...
The ecology of the marine environments of the Murciélago Islands and the Santa Elena Peninsula have been studied little despite their high biodiversity. This area is influenced by a coastal upwelling. In 2014, 2016 and 2018, the region was visited to assess the composition and diversity of its reef environments. Bottom coverage, macroinvertebrate d...
Introduction: Bahía Salinas, on the north Pacific coast of Costa Rica, is a seasonal upwelling area. Sea temperature
in Bahía Salinas could be modulated by synoptic and other large-scale systems. This region belongs
to the Central American Dry Corridor (CADC), a sub-region in the isthmus that is relatively drier than the rest
of the territory, whic...
Participación asincrónica en el LV Mini-Congreso (II-2021) del Centro de Investigaciones Geofísicas, 04 de noviembre de 2021, Ciudad de la Investigación, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica. Trabajo presentado: Forzamiento de los eventos cálidos y fríos del agua subsuperficial del mar en Bahía Salinas (E.J. Alfaro y J. Cortés, https://y...
Material suplementario (Angulo et al., 2021: Ictiofauna de la zona intermareal rocosa del Área de Conservación Guanacaste, Pacífico Norte de Costa Rica: diversidad y aspectos ecológicos y biogeográficos): Lista de especies ícticas (presencia=1/ausencia=0), según órden y familia, asociadas a la zona de intermareal rocoso en un total de 21 localidade...
Introduction: Salinas Bay is located in the warm pool of the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP), characterized by
warm, shallow surface waters, a strong and shallow thermocline, and an important biological diversity. The
primary productivity of the region is influenced by the coastal upwelling, which occurs during the boreal winter
as a result of the s...
Introducción:
El intermareal rocoso constituye un paisaje marino costero dominante en el Pacífico Tropical Oriental, albergando comunidades biológicas altamente diversas y funcionalmente complejas. El conocimiento sobre la diversidad y los diversos procesos biológicos que ocurren en tales ambientes es, no obstante, bastante limitado a escala region...
Introduction:
The family Carapidae includes about 40 species of marine fishes distributed in coastal habitats worldwide. The family includes some free-living species, however, most of them are found as commensal inquilines or parasites of marine invertebrates, including several echinoderm species. In the Eastern Tropical Pacific, the biology and ho...
Introduction:
The marine biodiversity is well known in some areas and for some marine ecosystems of the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. The marine sector of Área de Conservación Guanacaste, in the North Pacific of the country, is a priority area for conservation of marine and coastal biodiversity.
Objective:
Our aim was to increase the knowledge of m...
The North Pacific and the South Pacific of Nicaragua is a region of great biological, geological, economic and social wealth. There the dry forest mixes with the rain forest, the sea with the islands and nature with the people. It is a region influenced by the Papagayo upwelling, the emergence of cold marine waters during the dry season, which gene...
Introducción: Los arrecifes coralinos son afectados negativamente por diferentes causas antropogénicas y ambientales en el Golfo de Papagayo. Objetivo: En esta investigación, la condición del arrecife coralino de Playa Blanca fue evaluado. Métodos: Entre agosto de 2010 y setiembre de 2011 el porcentaje de coral vivo por especie y del alga Caulerpa...
Methane seeps are highly productive deep‐sea ecosystems reliant on chemosynthetic primary production. They are increasingly affected by direct human activities that threaten key ecosystem services. Methane seepage often generates precipitation of authigenic carbonate rocks, which host diverse microbes, and a dynamic invertebrate community. By provi...
Introducción:
Los arrecifes coralinos son afectados negativamente por diferentes causas antropogénicas y ambientales en el Golfo de Papagayo.
Objetivo:
En esta investigación, la condición del arrecife coralino de Playa Blanca fue evaluado.
Métodos:
Entre agosto de 2010 y setiembre de 2011 el porcentaje de coral vivo por especie y del alga Caulerp...
Introducción: El intermareal rocoso constituye un paisaje marino costero dominante en el Pacífico Tropical Oriental, albergando comunidades biológicas altamente diversas y funcionalmente complejas. El conocimiento sobre la diversidad y los diversos procesos biológicos que ocurren en tales ambientes es, no obstante, bastante limitado a escala region...
Introduction: Bahía Salinas, on the north Pacific coast of Costa Rica, is a seasonal upwelling area. Sea temperature in Bahía Salinas could be modulated by synoptic and other large-scale systems. This region belongs to the Central American Dry Corridor (CADC), a sub-region in the isthmus that is relatively drier than the rest of the territory, whic...
Introduction: The family Carapidae includes about 40 species of marine fishes distributed in coastal habitats worldwide. The family includes some free-living species, however, most of them are found as commensal inquilines or parasites of marine invertebrates, including several echinoderm species. In the Eastern Tropical Pacific, the biology and ho...
Introduction: The marine biodiversity is well known in some areas and for some marine ecosystems of the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. The marine sector of Área de Conservación Guanacaste, in the North Pacific of the country, is a priority area for conservation of marine and coastal biodiversity. Objective: Our aim was to increase the knowledge of ma...
Introduction: Salinas Bay is located in the warm pool of the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP), characterized by warm, shallow surface waters, a strong and shallow thermocline, and an important biological diversity. The primary productivity of the region is influenced by the coastal upwelling, which occurs during the boreal winter as a result of the s...
Worldwide there is increasing concern for elasmobranch species given that their biological and ecological characteristics make them highly vulnerable to fishing pressure. The disappearance of these species could affect the structure and function of marine ecosystems, which would induce changes in trophic interactions at the community level. For eff...
Los arrecifes rocosos son ecológicamente importantes como áreas de forrajeo, refugio y reproducción. Este ecosistema está ampliamente representado en El Salvador y tiene complejas comunidades de gorgonias. Con el fin de actualizar la riqueza de especies de este grupo, se realizó buceo SCUBA en 29 sitios del litoral salvadoreño, recolectando colonia...
As biodiversity loss accelerates globally, understanding environmental influence over biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) relationships becomes crucial for ecosystem management. Theory suggests that resource supply affects the shape of BEF relationships, but this awaits detailed investigation in marine ecosystems. Here, we use deep-sea chemosy...
Emerging infectious diseases affecting marine ecosystems are increasing worldwide. Nevertheless, there are very few histopathological analyses describing the tissue damage associated with a specific disease. This makes it difficult to study the host response and to relate the findings to the isolated agent. Octocoral disease research has focused on...
The Central American Isthmus has had profound effects on the evolution and distribution of larger marine organisms, but the impacts on meiobenthic animals have received little attention. Tardigrades are microscopic metazoan lobopodians that are ubiquitous in benthic communities worldwide, but little is known about marine tardigrades in Central Amer...
We measured water temperature, salinity, Secchi, and concentrations of dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll, suspended matter, and nutrients in the water column at six sites at Cahuita National Park on the southern Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, at three-month intervals over a two-year time period in 2017 and 2018. We also assemble and compare the availab...
Introduction: The study of the marine diversity of the North Pacific of Costa Rica began with isolated foreign expeditions in the 1930s and was systematically developed in the mid-1990s by the Center for Research in Marine Sciences and Limnology, Universidad de Costa Rica, as consequence there are now a total of 1 479 reported species in this regio...
Introduction:
The study of the marine diversity of the North Pacific of Costa Rica began with isolated foreign expeditions in the 1930s and was systematically developed in the mid-1990s by the Center for Research in Marine Sciences and Limnology, Universidad de Costa Rica, as consequence there are now a total of 1 479 reported species in this regio...
Crustaceans are an important component of deep-sea biodiversity. A brief review of the history of expeditions and studies related to deep-sea crustaceans in Costa Rica is presented. We briefly discuss studies on crustaceans from the Costa Rican deep-sea environments, and we provided an updated list of species recorded for the Pacific and the Caribb...
Ecotones have been described as “biodiversity hotspots” from myriad environments, yet have not been studied extensively in the deep ocean. While physiologically challenging, deep‐water methane seeps host highly productive communities fueled predominantly by chemosynthetic pathways. We hypothesized that the biological and geochemical influence of me...
Fishes play numerous key ecological roles that are critical for maintaining the structure and function of coral reefs. Natural and anthropogenic disturbances can produce structural changes in coral reef habitats, which consequently may affect the trophic structure and dynamics of reef fish assemblages. Therefore, changes in the coral cover of coral...
The ecology of the marine environments of the Murciélago Islands and the Santa Elena Peninsula have been studied little despite their high biodiversity. This area is influenced by a coastal upwelling. In 2014, 2016 and 2018, the region was visited to assess the composition and diversity of its reef environments. Bottom coverage, macroinvertebrate d...
Deep waters represent the largest biome on Earth and the largest ecosystem of Costa Rica. Fungi play a fundamental role in global biogeochemical cycling in marine sediments, yet, they remain little explored. We studied fungal diversity and community composition in several marine sediments from 16 locations sampled along a bathymetric gradient (from...
Seagrass conservation and management requires scientific understanding of spatial and temporal variability, information that is currently limited for the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP). Here, we analysed seagrass presence based on previous reports, herbarium collections and stakeholder knowledge, combined with field characterization in Golfo Dulce,...
en Initiated in 2015, the marine inventory of Área de Conservación Guanacaste (BioMar‐ACG) is rapidly advancing knowledge of biodiversity. Key aspects include synergizing with parataxonomists, barcoding specimens and making information available. After 85 years, 594 species were reported. Now, after four years, BioMar‐ACG documented 1,123 species,...
Deep waters represent the largest biome on Earth and the largest ecosystem of Costa Rica. Fungi play a fundamental role in global biogeochemical cycling in marine sediments, yet, they remain little explored. We studied fungal diversity and community composition in several marine sediments from 16 locations sampled along a bathymetric gradient (from...
The Isla del Coco National Park, located on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, is rich in biodiversity and has a high concentration of pelagic species. This high marine biodiversity makes the Isla del Coco National Park (PNIC) a very attractive place for illegal fishers. We analyzed a dataset covering 8 years (2003-2010) of patrol records from PNIC w...
Revista de Biología Tropical proudly pre- sents the fourth Special Issue on Isla del Coco (Cocos Island) and its adjacent waters (see references below). This volume is the result of the Isla del Coco International Symposium, organized by the Center for Research in Mari- ne Science and Limnology (CIMAR) of the University of Costa Rica. The symposium...
Introduction:
The sea anemones diversity is still poorly studied in Isla del Coco National Park, Costa Rica.
Objective:
To report for the first time the presence of the sea anemone Exaiptasia diaphana.
Methods:
Some rhodoliths were examined in situ in Punta Ulloa at 14 m depth, by SCUBA during the expedition UCR-UNA-COCO-I to Isla del Coco Nation...
There has been an increasing effort to understand the mechanisms of sexual reproduction in seagrasses, which is usually synchronized. Synchronization is caused by environmental cues, such as temperature and light availability, and most likely occurs to maximize pollination success. At higher latitudes where seagrass reproductive seasons are clearly...
Abstract The marine area of Área de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG) contains a 43,000 ha formal marine protected area, a 732 ha special management zone in Bahía Santa Elena, and 150 km of wild protected coastline. In an effort to broaden the biodiversity knowledge of all marine taxa present in the area, an inventory was started in 2015 (BioMar-ACG Pr...
Exploration of the deep sea off the Pacific margin of Costa Rica has resulted in the discovery of a number of new species and reports for the region. Here, we report on the occurrence of the octocoral genus Swiftia, and describe a new species collected by the Alvin submersible off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. The new species has been observed a...
Mesophotic coral ecosystems (MCEs), at ocean depths between 40 and 150 m, have been found throughout the tropics but are different in the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP). This observation is based on submersible dives that have explored several ETP mesophotic areas. The ETP is characterized by a shallow thermocline (approximately 50 m depth), reduct...
Studies of mixed-species groups of animals can reveal emergent complexities of collective behaviors. In this study we collected data on mixed-species hunting groups composed primarily of piscivorous fishes (species composition, abundance, behavioral interactions) and used both multivariate and network analyses to quantify pair-wise and guild level...
Isla del Coco (Costa Rica) forms part of the five oceanic islands of the Eastern Tropical Pacific and is well known for its high biodiversity and great endemism. While several marine biological and oceanographical surveys have been conducted around the island over the past 35 years, an integrated, systematic view of the shallow water system is lack...
Benthic structure of coral reefs determines the availability of refuges and food sources. Therefore, structural changes caused by natural and anthropogenic disturbances can have negative impacts on reef‐associated communities. During the 1990s, coral reefs from Bahía Culebra were considered among the most diverse ecosystems along the Pacific coast...
The IUCN considers the stony coral Dendrogyra cylindrus as vulnerable. However, there is insufficient information on its population structure and dynamics, conservation status, or extinction risk and population decreases have been inferred from observations of habitat degradation. In 2002 and 2012, surveys using manta tows, circular plots and satel...
Caribbean Coastal Marine Productivity (CARICOMP) was a basin-wide cooperative, international network of marine laboratories established in 1985. Recognizing major trends of change in coastal ecosystems and the importance of the linkages among them, our goal was to monitor synoptically with standardized methods the physical environment and to docume...
Marine hydroids are important benthic components of shallow and deep waters worldwide, but their taxonomy is controversial because diagnostic morphological characters to categorize taxa are limited. Their genetic relationships are also little investigated. We tested taxonomic hypotheses within the highly speciose superfamily Plumularioidea by integ...
