Qualla: La Selva Biological Station

La Selva Biological Station: Introduction

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Original uploader was Jimfbleak at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. In the beginning, reaching La Selva required a long dirt road and a four-kilometer dugout canoe ride. That remoteness was the point. When the Organization for Tropical Studies purchased 1,536 hectares of lowland tropical rainforest in northeastern Costa Rica in 1968 for fifty thousand dollars, they were buying something that money can't easily replace: an intact forest, undisturbed enough to serve as a baseline for understanding how tropical ecosystems actually work. Nearly six decades later, La Selva Biological Station hosts approximately 300 scientists and 100 university courses every year, making it one of the most productive field stations in the world for tropical forest research. The canoe ride is no longer necessary, but the forest remains.

Image: Original uploader was Jimfbleak at en.wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

La Selva Biological Station: A Census of Green

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Eric Gaba (Sting - fr:Sting), CC BY-SA 4.0. The numbers are staggering. More than 5,000 species of vascular plants grow within the reserve and its connection to Braulio Carrillo National Park, spanning four major tropical life zones. Over 700 of those species are trees, and one dominates in a way that puzzles botanists: Pe...

Image: Eric Gaba (Sting - fr:Sting) | CC BY-SA 4.0

La Selva Biological Station: The Fragmentation Problem

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Felineora, CC BY-SA 3.0. Since 1960, most of the forest surrounding La Selva has been converted to agriculture. The station is no longer at the center of an unbroken wilderness but at the edge of one, connected to Braulio Carrillo National Park by a biological corridor that allows species to migrate betw...

Image: Felineora | CC BY-SA 3.0

La Selva Biological Station: What the Scientists Study

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jimfbleak at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. The research here ranges from army ants and their uninvited guests to the carbon budgets of entire rainforest ecosystems. David Clark and Deborah Clark established the TREES project in 1983, running annual censuses of tropical tree performance until 2015 - over three decades of c...

Image: Jimfbleak at English Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

La Selva Biological Station: Living Alongside the Forest

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Geoff Gallice from Gainesville, FL, USA, CC BY 2.0. La Selva is not empty of people. Permanent residents live within and around the reserve, and their relationship with the forest is complicated. A survey of local residents found that 4% admitted to hunting within the reserve in the previous year, targeting iguanas, deer, tinamous...

Image: Geoff Gallice from Gainesville, FL, USA | CC BY 2.0

La Selva Biological Station: Red-Eyed Tree Frogs and Walking Palms

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Geoff Gallice, CC BY 2.0. For all its scientific gravitas, La Selva delivers the raw wonder that draws people to the tropics in the first place. Red-eyed tree frogs cling to broad leaves, their emerald bodies and crimson eyes looking painted on. White-faced capuchin monkeys swing overhead. Hoffmann's two-...

Image: Geoff Gallice | CC BY 2.0