Natalia Erazo and I are on our way back from an amazing week of sampling in the Cayapas-Mataje Ecological Reserve in northern Ecuador. We first visited the reserve in 2017 and have been anxious to return ever since. Our objectives on this trip were to collect water column and sediment samples to test hypotheses about how shrimp aquaculture impacts mangrove forest health and biogeochemical cycling in mangrove-dominated estuaries. Cayapas-Mataje is an ideal place for this study. The reserve is the largest of its kind along the Pacific Coast of Latin America. The presence of the reserve has prevented the large-scale conversion of mangrove forest to shrimp aquaculture (as has happened further south in Muisne and other parts of the country), however, there are a number of facilities – some quite large – that existed prior to the establishment of the reserve. Thus relatively “pristine” forest can be found immediately adjacent highly impacted forest.
Congratulations to Natalia for receiving a National Geographic Young Explorer award to make this trip a reality! Here are a few choice pictures from the week.
