Page Contents: Section | Significance | Background | Location & Dates | Taxonomic Contents | Documentation | Description of Collection | Collection Inventory | Collection Assets
Costa Rica, Cahuita Collection 1986–1987
Section Responsible for Processing
MBC
Significance
The specimens in this collection come mostly from Atlantic Costa Rica and were collected by R.C. Brusca, G. Hendler, R. Wetzer, P. M. Delaney, and R. W. Peck between 1986 and 1987. This project was supported by a grant from the Weiler Foundation. Dr. M. Murillo of the Universidad de Costa Rica in San Jose coordinated this survey of the only coral reef in Atlantic Costa Rican waters.
Background
During the 1980s Parque Nacional Cahuita was heavily impacted by deforestation, logging, banana and coffee plantations to the north of the park. Runoff resulted in heavy siltation and alteration of the physical and biological structure of the reef.
Numerous publications by the above listed participants as well as other American and Costa Rican scientists have resulted from this survey.
Collection Location and Dates
Collections are marine - mostly intertidal to SCUBA diving depths in the areas around Punta Cahuita, Puerto Vargas, and Limon. Additional collections unrelated to the Cahuita project were made in Nicaragua, Pacific Costa Rica, and Pacific and Atlantic Panama. The Cahuita reef was visited quarterly over a 2 year period.
Taxonomic Contents
These collections contain benthic invertebrates. Collecting emphasized echinoderms (Hendler and Peck) and peracarid crustaceans (Brusca, Wetzer, and Delaney). The unsorted material contains mostly crustaceans, gastropod molluscs, forams, etc.
Documentation
The station data for the remaining unsorted lots are available as a PDF under “Collection Images.” Accession numbers F.P.2.86-6, F.P.2.86-7, F.P.2.87-1, F.P.2.87-3, and F.P.2.88-2.
Description of Collection
This is a wet preserved 70% ethanol collection. This collection was fixed and preserved in ethanol in the field (not exposed to formalin). The remaining unsorted lots are stored in the LACM Polychaete Collection Room.
Collection Inventory
There are ca. 30 jars representing 17 stations. The lots are contained in 4 to 32 oz. jars. Excess sand and silt has been removed and all ethanol was replaced February 2004. The remaining (estimated to have been originally ca. 150 lots+) material from this collection has been sorted, identified, and incorporated into the LACM echinoderm, polychaete, mollusk, and crustacean research collections.
Collection Assets
| Date | View or Retrieve | File Information |
|---|---|---|
| 02/06/2004 | Retrieve [157.6 kB] | Cahuita station data. |