A History of Marine Biodiversity Scientific Research in Costa Rica

Marine biodiversity scientific research in Costa Rica started in the 19th century. I have divided its history into three phases based on the chronology, methods, and focus of the research. The first phase, from the early 19th to the early 20th century, was a time of exploration of the seas worldwide. The first publications on marine organisms collected in Costa Rica were published in 1832. During this phase, collections for museums were made by ship captains and professional collectors, and by the first expeditions that visited Costa Rica in the late 19th century. The second phase, from 1924 to the 1990s, was a time of intense collection by foreign scientists, mainly from the United States, and especially between 1925 and 1939. Publications based on those collections are still appearing to the present day. The third phase, starting in the early 1970s, sees the contributions of the first Costa Rican marine scientists and resident foreign scientists. The creation of the Marine Sciences and Limnology Research Center (CIMAR) at the Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR) in 1979 is a turning point in marine research in Costa Rica. It is characterized by the publication of papers on many different groups, by ecological studies, and by the collaboration between national and foreign scientists. The importance of a strong local scientific community is emphasized for the generation and the assimilation of new knowledge and collections, and for the dissemination of that knowledge.