PROJECTS
Do you want to participate in one or several of these projects and collaborate with Expert Researchers? Do you have your own project and are open to collaborations? Do you want to propose a project?
At present RIAMA has the following research projects
Impacts of scuba diver presence on marine megafauna in a marine protected area
Human activities within marine protected areas have shifted from directly exploiting resources to non-extractive activities such as tourism. However, human presence can also have a negative impact on marine species. This project aims to assess the response of marine megafauna after human disturbance (scuba divers) in Cocos Island, a Marine Protected Area of Costa Rica.
Land use changes in protected areas
Land use changes are frequently presented as the biggest global conservation threat. Knowing how protected areas can slow down the spatio-temporal dynamics of changes in land use is essential for knowing whether protecting areas are a useful tool in biodiversity conservation.
Assembly of herbaceous species in Mediterranean-climate regions
Regions of Mediterranean climate are distributed throughout the planet and have high diversity of herbaceous species. Together with the vast distances that separate zones with this climate, this diversity presents an ideal situation to study and compare herbaceous species assemblages under the same conditions at different points around the planet.
Climate change in protected areas
The success of protected areas may be conditional upon climate change effects. The climate conditions that are protected by these areas are susceptible to loss or displacement to other sites. Identifying and connecting climate-analogous areas could allow species displacement in accordance with their environmental niche, providing habitat buffers for multiple species.
Sea turtle conservation in the Costa Rican Pacific
Nowadays all sea turtle species are threatened at some level. Four species of sea turtle nest in the Southern Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica, the Olive Ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea) being the most common. Monitoring programs with local communities in the area are essential to protect sea turtles and they provide data for the study of the biology and behavior of these reptiles.
Do you want more information about the projects? Contact us
