Chirripó hydrological research site: Advancing stable isotope hydrology in the Central American Páramo

Abstract

The Chirrip o hydrological research site (CHRS) is located within the Chirrip o National Park, Costa Rica (between 3100 and 3820 m asl) whereby $100 km 2 are covered by P aramo, a high-elevation tropical grassland ecosystem. A lake district with approximately 30 lakes of glacial origin is also protected in this area. The CHRS has been monitored since April 2015 with the aim of establishing the first water isotope baseline for the Central American P aramo. At a regional scale, the water isotope ratios (δ 2 H and δ 18 O) in precipitation and surface water at CHRS are useful for describing the governing moisture transport from the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean and the complex rainfall producing systems across the N-S mountain range of Central America. These data are also providing unique information about the evaporation and water balance conditions of tropical glacial lakes and the formation of orographic and convective precipitation in high-elevation tropical ecosystems. Current data sets from CHRS include continuous lake water temperature and meteorological conditions (i.e., precipitation amount, air temperature and relative humidity), as well as water stable isotopes in precipitation, stream water, and lake water (daily to biweekly sampling frequency). Stream water is collected at several locations across the topographic gradient whereas lake water is sampled in the three main lake systems of CHRS. CHRS serves as a reference site for conducting pilot isotopic research in highelevation ecosystems to advance the atmospheric, hydrogeological and ecohydrological studies in these understudied biomes. All data from April 2015 to November 2020 are publicly available.

Dry season plant water sourcing in contrasting tropical ecosystems of Costa Rica

“…For the dry forest region, surface water from the Tempisque River ( N = 139, 2018–2021; weekly unpublished data) and rainfall in Liberia ( N = 421, daily; 2014–2020; Sánchez‐Murillo, Esquivel‐Hernández, Birkel, et al, 2020) were included. Páramo rainfall ( N = 516; daily, 2015–2021) and surface water ( N = 85; biweekly and monthly, 2015–2021) were obtained from a continuous monitoring effort in the Chirripó National Park (Esquivel‐Hernández et al, 2021) and Cerro de la Muerte (Sánchez‐Murillo et al, 2022). Rainfall ( N = 308, weekly 2013–2021) and spring water ( N = 661; daily and weekly 2014–2021) data were obtained from the Sacramento station in the Barva volcano cloud forest (Salas‐Navarro et al, 2019; Sánchez‐Murillo, Esquivel‐Hernández, Birkel, et al, 2020).…”

“…Vegetation consists of 0.5 to 2.5 m tall bamboo ( Chusquea subtessellata Hitchc.) and grass ( Festuca dolichophylla J.Presl) (Esquivel‐Hernández et al, 2018, 2019, 2021; Kappelle & Horn, 2016) (Figure 2b). The mountainous rainforests (600–3,000 m a.s.l., Holdridge, 1978) of Costa Rica extend from the northern and central volcanic Cordilleras of Costa Rica into the Cordillera de Talamanca, southeastward down to the border with Panama.…”

Exploring Dissolved Organic Carbon Variations in a High Elevation Tropical Peatland Ecosystem: Cerro de la Muerte, Costa Rica

“…Sampling bottles were rinsed at least three times with the peatland water before collection. Rainfall monitoring for stable isotopes analysis was conducted using a passive Palmex collector (daily collection; N = 103) (Gröning et al, 2012;Esquivel-Hernández et al, 2021). During transportation and after filtering, all samples were stored at 5 • C until analysis.…”

Mapping Mountain Landforms and Its Dynamics: Study Cases in Tropical Environments

“…The classical geomorphology techniques provide a detailed analysis of the erosional and depositional morphologies. These approaches allow us to understand the LGM dynamics in the tropical highlands of Costa Rica, and can also provide the basis for different type of studies, i.e., geographical [73], ecological [79,80], hydrological [81][82][83], climatological [72,76], and geoheritage [70].…”