Our class was fortunate enough to hear from world-renowned biologist Dr. Alan Pounds, a leader in research associated with climate change in Costa Rica. Dr. Pounds is the resident scientist at the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, studying climate change and understanding how climate affects all living systems. Dr. Pounds first came to Costa Rica in July of 1981 and his original focus was on communities of animals, however his focus shifted to fauna in 1982 due to a decline of animal levels as a result of an el Niño event. While researchers initially thought that the decline in animal population levels were a temporary downturn, further observation showed that ongoing declines in animal levels were occurring starting with the lowest elevations and gradually moving upwards. Dr. Pounds lectured on how this information is evidence of climate change using the climate-linked epidemic hypothesis. This hypothesis shows that population levels are decreasing across a multitude of species at all altitudes within the cloud forest. From this you can infer that there are not different diseases affecting all of these species, but that a much more wide spread problem, climate change, is causing these declines. Dr. Pounds had a multitude of graphs and data that supported his claims, and when looking at this information it became difficult to understand how people in the world can deny that climate change is a result of human activity.
It truly was an honor to hear from Dr. Pounds and our class was extremely grateful to be able to engage in a question and answer session after the lecture. We all walked away with new knowledge and a lot to think about, including how our daily activities affect all aspects of the world, down to the Resplendent Quetzal, and Keel-Billed Toucan in Costa Rica.
Eileen Reavey
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