Meet The Students: Cassie Carroll

Hi!

My name is Cassie Carroll, and I am a senior in Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences with a focus on resource ecology. Originally from the north suburbs of Chicago, I grew up with a strong passion for the environment and learning about the world around me. I enjoy music, playing the violin and guitar, taking hikes, hanging out with friends and much more! The summer before junior year, I traveled to North Queensland in Australia and lived in a cabin in the middle of the rainforest. It was an amazing experience, and it was also my first time on an airplane! Taking that trip sparked a desire within me to travel and explore the world. And now, Puerto Rico! I am thrilled and excited to have the opportunity to learn about your island, its environment and its culture. Also, I can't wait to meet all of you! Please feel free to ask me anything because I probably will be asking you all lots of questions :) Hope to talk with all of you soon!!!

Take care,

Cassie

Introducing Puerto Rico's Agriculture & Ecology

History

XV century
Taíno Indians who inhabited the territory, called the island Boriken or Borinquen. Today this word is still popularly used to designate the people and island of Puerto Rico -- notice Manuel’s blog entry!

The Taínos, who came from South America, inhabited the major portion of the island when the Spaniards arrived. They lived in small villages and were led by a chief. They were a peaceful people who, with a limited knowledge of agriculture, lived on domesticated tropical crops supplemented by seafood. I expect to visit one of their historic settlements.

1492 On April 17, Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain signed the Capitulations of Santa Fe, an agreement to finance and set the terms of Columbus's voyage to the Indies. It established that Columbus would become the viceroy and governor of all discovered land and rights to 10% of all assets brought to Spain. On Oct. 12, he landed at San Salvador in the Bahamas.

1493 Columbus arrived in Puerto Rico on his second voyage. Unlike the exploratory first voyage, the second voyage was a massive colonization effort. On September 25, Christopher Columbus set sail from Cádiz, Spain with 17 ships and almost 1,500 men. The second voyage brought European livestock (horses, sheep, and cattle) to America for the first time. On November 19, Columbus arrived in Puerto Rico. He found the island populated by as many as 50,000 Taíno or Arawak Indians. Originally the newcomers called the island San Juan Bautista, for St. John the Baptist and the town Puerto Rico because of its excellent potentialities; later the two names were switched. Thanks in part to the enthusiasm of ambitious Juan Ponce de León, a lieutenant to Columbus, the city of Puerto Rico ("rich port") quickly became Spain's most important military outpost in the Caribbean.

1503 The Spanish Crown permitted export of slaves to America and the first slaves arrived in 1503.

1509 The Spanish authorities refused to grant to Diego Columbus (Christopher's son) privileges to all discovered land, as a result, the Crown nominated Juan Ponce de León governor of the island. Juan Garrido is the first African identified in Puerto Rico. A free man, he arrived with the Ponce De León expedition. Garrido later participated in the colonization of Florida in a 1513 expedition led by de León and served with Spanish explorer Herman Cortez in the conquest of Mexico.

1514 The Spanish Crown granted permission to Spaniards to marry native Taíno Indians. The ever-arriving Spaniards settlers, many of them gold-seekers, brought no women on their ships. To populate the country, the Spaniard took Indian women. With the arrival of African slaves, other elements were added. This historic intermingling has resulted in a contemporary Puerto Rico with seemingly fewer racial problems than is encountered across the US..

1539 Concerned about potential threats from European enemies and recognizing the strategic importance of Puerto Rico, Spain began constructing massive defenses around San Juan. The construction of San Felipe del Morro Castle began. The fort featured 18-foot-thick walls; San Cristóbal and San Geronimo Forts also garrisoned troops, were built with the financial subsidy from the Mexican mines. Next the Spaniards constructed a wall, parts of which still survive, around the entire city.

Climate and Population

The population of Puerto Rico is approximately 4 million; most live along coastal areas of the island.
1. The average rainfall temperature of Puerto Rico in January is 73 F/23 C.
2. The average temperature of Puerto Rico in July is 80 F/27 C.
3. Average annual rainfall in Puerto Rico (1951–80) is greatest in the mountains where it is locally greater than 200 inches. Rainfall is least, less than 40 inches, in lowland areas along the south coast.

Physiography

The main island is ca, 110 miles long (east-west direction) and about 40 miles wide (north-south).

Puerto Rico is dominated by a central cordillera (mountain axis) of faulted and folded volcanic and sedimentary rocks with igneous intrusions that are overlain by limestone on the north and the south. Alluvial materials are scattered around the periphery of the island as coastal and valley-fill deposits.

The underlying geologic features are old and the humid climate has contributed to extensive weathering and erosion.

The cordillera strongly influences weather patterns and thus contributes in an important way to habitat heterogeneity and species richness.

Economy

Houses like this one were not uncommon before the 1950's.

Puerto Rico's' first elected governor, Luis Munoz Marin, was a humanitarian, who created an economic and political plan called 'Operation Bootstrap'. The idea being to industrialize Puerto Rico by allowing US factories to operate in Puerto Rico with very advantageous tax incentives. The factories were spread evenly throughout Puerto Rico and provided jobs that helped to end the poverty in Puerto Rico.

The young people of today likely have no knowledge, no memories of living conditions 60-70 years ago. Today, Puerto Rico is no longer a third-world country and presently enjoys most of the benefits of the modern world, including an economic recession and high taxes. Today's cement houses stand up to hurricane force winds. There are no houses like the one below in the mountains of today.

Attractions and Concerns

Puerto Rico State Flower

Puerto Rican hibiscus (Thespesia grandiflora) is the Puerto Rico State Flower; also called maga or Montezuma. It is cultivated mostly as an ornamental tree for the beauty of its flowers, although it is also valued for its timber. This species is a tall tree species that is endemic to the humid forests of northeastern Puerto Rico. Its flowers are cup-shaped are 9.0 to 13 cm broad with five overlapping petals. And are borne singly on long petioles.

Order
Malvales
Family
Malvaceae

Tabonuco forest
Agricultural production
Tourism

Agriculture: Then and Now

Coffee plants came to Puerto Rico in 1736 with Spanish immigrants but did not become a principal crop at that time. Sugar was a more important crop.

One of the chief obstacles to the development of agriculture in the late 18th century was the lack of laborers, as the only people allowed to settle in Puerto Rico were Spaniards. In 1778, however, agriculture was greatly stimulated as the result of a Royal Decree issued by the King of Spain, allowing foreign Catholic laborers to immigrate to the Island, with the promise of lands being given to them.

In 1815 another Royal Decree ( 'Cedula de Gracia') was issued inviting foreigners to immigrate to Puerto Rico and be given land. For the first time in their colonial history, the Islanders were allowed to trade with other nations.

During the early 1800's there was a migration to Puerto Rico of residents from the French Mediterranean island of Corsica. The Corsicans ended up settling around a town called Yauco. By the 1860s they dominated the coffee industry on the island. Puerto Rican coffee sold at a premium price all over Europe.

1898 was a tough year for Puerto Rico -- it suffered 2 devastating hurricanes and it became a colony of the USA.
The hurricanes destroyed the coffee industry. The United States became interested in Puerto Rico's sugar production (not heavy coffee drinkers at that time) they were buying the bulk of their coffee from Brazil. European nations no longer allowed Puerto Rican coffee to come in as a colonial product. As a result, the Council set up by Americans to rule the island refused to loan funds to coffee growers. The coffee economy was supplanted by sugar. The sugar plantation system lasted until the 1930s when the Federal Department of Agriculture ended the sugar subsidy and the major corporate owners relocated production to Central America.

The establishment of two experimental farms, one in Rio Piedras and the other in Mayagüez in 1886, inaugurated the scientific study of agriculture in Puerto Rico and led to systematized plant introduction. The opening of the United States Experiment Station in Mayagüez in 1902 marked the beginning of a new era in scientific agricultural research. In 1905 a land-grant college of agriculture was established.

Sugarcane, once the backbone of the economy and still a major crop, has become an economic drain. Government buys most of the crop & operates its own sugar mills, but even with subsidies, the minimum hourly wage dictates the cost cannot compete with neighboring nations (Dominican Republic) where labor is paid $2.50 per day. The government loses money on every pound of sugar.

Sugar cane is a crop of the humid tropical lowlands. Most of today’s commercial cultivars probably came from a species native to New Guinea. Most of the breeding work occurred in the late 1800s with a superior clone developed in 1920 that changed sugar production dramatically.

Columbus reputedly brought the canes to the New World where it became widely planted.

Whether harvested by hand or by cutting machine, the canes are brought to a centralized location where the juice is squeezed from the plant and concentrated. The fibrous residue is called bagasse and is used as a fuel to concentrate the juices. After chemical precipitation to remove impurities, the solution is past through filters to yield a sucrose-laden syrup, and after further concentrating, sugar crystals form. The left over liquid is molasses…or rum.

Rats and mongoose -- both non-indigenous species

Unintended consequences

Important food plants, such as tomatoes, rice, mangos, avocados, maize, coffee, and green cover crops have been introduced into Puerto Rico.

Prior to the industrialization of the Island in the second half of the 20th century, agricultural production was based mainly on sugar cane production and served as the main source of economic revenue on the island. Today, agriculture represents less than 0.5% of Puerto Rico's total Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Products such as milk, plantains, coffee, poultry and eggs comprise much of the industry.

Since the 1950s, public policies encouraged an industrialized economy and agriculture has never regained an economic majority in Puerto Rico again. If all the arable land on the Island were planted with food crops for domestic consumption rather than cash crops for export, it could not even begin to support the total population. Today 90% of the food consumed in Puerto Rico is imported.

Fiscal 2006 saw the Gross Agricultural Income (GAI) increase to $806 million, up from a revised figure of $788 million in fiscal 2005, an increase of 2.3%. The average growth rate of GAI has been 1.94% since 1996.

The increase in gross income came mostly from crops like coffee and starchy vegetables; the income from coffee, starchy vegetables, milk production, and poultry are increasing. Pork production and pork products are declining.

The share of agricultural products in total exports has declined consistently over the last decade. The share of agriculture in total exports was 0.35% in fiscal 1997, but declined to only 0.07% in fiscal 2003. These shares have remained at this level thereafter.

Direct employment in agriculture has seen better days. Total employment in the sector declined from 32,000 in fiscal 1996 to 22,000 in fiscal 2006, resulting in a net loss of 10,000 jobs during the period.

Production area is also declining. This definition of a farm was changed since the last census. For 1987, operations qualifying as farms were all places which met or exceeded $500 in sales of agricultural products, as well as all operations with 10 or more cuerdas and at least $100 in sales. This change in farm definition reflects the Census Bureau’s attempt to focus more on commercial operations, and less on subsistence farming.
Cuerda = 0.9 acre


1992 Market Value of Crops Sold
Total = $191,913,372

1992 Market Value of Sales of Livestock, Fish, Poultry, and Their Products
Total = $365,126,921

Coffee Production

Coffee wasn’t domesticated until after many other plant species. As beverage, it didn’t become popular until the 18th century -- today it ranks among the world’s most important agricultural commodities.

~75% of coffee crop in PR is Coffea arabica -- originated in mountains of Ethiopia
Coffee thrives in rainforest habitat at moderate elevations. Jamaican Blue Mountain, Kona, and PR etc.

Coffee berries are harvested by hand. The pulp is separated from the seeds and the seeds are then washed and dried in bombas or on open ground. The beans are later roasted and ground.

In Puerto Rico, traditional coffee processing is the cause of two major resources problems: poor quality coffee and polluted water. Coffee plantation is grown on hillsides in the upper watershed, which is characterized by steep topography and high precipitation. These characteristics make difficult the establishment and construction of waste disposal systems. The operation of a conventional method is very expensive and not environmentally friendly. Most structures are big having inefficient energy system and high water consumption. Therefore, coffee berry is processing upon a high environmental cost because post harvest processing is done using water intensive technology where a proper disposal of a high volume of wastewater is difficult to manage. This waste affects water quality of the upper watershed causing eutrophication with subsequent loss of plant and fish life, acidic water and an increased population of insects. The water for human consumption is dramatically reduced not only for the extraction of water for processing, but for water high contamination level.

Shaded coffee plantations are a simple but stable agro-ecosystem that can be an important wildlife management tool. A shaded canopy provides most of the ecological functions of the natural environment, including soil conservation, nutrient recycling, habitat for native, endemic and migratory birds, shelter for many plant and wildlife species, and buffer zones around protected areas. Most of Puerto Rico’s native and endemic species, such as the endangered Puerto Rican Boa, the Puerto Rican Vireo, the Puerto Rican Tody, and the Puerto Rican Screech owl use shaded coffee plantations for feeding, nesting, and shelter, as do Neotropical migrants that return to the continental United States.

The benefits of shaded coffee plantations are being lost due to “sun” coffee plantations—monocultures of plants without protection from native shade trees. Without shade trees, critical ecological processes are interrupted or eliminated, resulting in loss of habitat, sedimentation, water pollution, and loss of fertile soils and productive agricultural lands.
Although most farmers prefer shaded plantations because they last longer and produce higher quality beans, government subsidies are encouraging conversion to the sun plantations, which generally produce higher yields.

The Fish and Wildlife Service’s Partners for Fish & Wildlife Program is working with coffee growers in the Caribbean, encouraging them to voluntarily restore native shading canopy in coffee plantations. Specialists work with growers, explaining that although farmers get 20 percent fewer beans from shade plantations, the beans often weigh more, so the net weight is actually higher. Moreover, shaded plantations last a lifetime, while sun plantations must be replaced every eight to ten years. Finally, other crops such as bananas, avocados, and oranges can be grown to shade the coffee, producing more income.

Since restoration began in 2001, more than 1,000 acres of shaded habitat have been restored. The Puerto Rico Department of Natural Resources, FWS, and non-government organizations are providing the trees, as well as funds and/or technical assistance. Partnering corporations also help by promoting sustainable growing practices.

Pineapple

Bromeliad family

Native to Americas, Columbus found it on Guadeloupe Island in 1493. By then had spread throughout the islands and domestication had already begun.

Taken back to Europe and by 1548, the Portuguese had taken it to India.

Rosette with multiple fruit on a single stalk. PR varieties are smaller and sweeter than those grown in Hawaii.

Plants propagated by basal suckers (slips) that arise beneath the fruit. In culture in Hawaii, takes about a year for plant to fruit. After the 1st fruit is cut, the plant branches to form 2 fruits the following year, but they are smaller; then cut again. After the 3rd crop, the field is replanted. Production is highly automated.

Lechosa (papaya)
Mango
Guanábana (soursop)
Acerola (W. Indian Chery)
Aguacate (avocado)
China (orange)
Naranja (sour orange)
Plátano (plantain)
Guineo (banana)
Panapen (breadfruit)
Níspero (sapodilla)
Tamarindo (tamarind)


Vegetation of the Caribbean

Vegetation of the Caribbean comprises seagrass beds, mangroves, coastal forests, sand dunes, swamps, marshes, bogs, savannas, montane forests, cloud forests all found within a wide variety of edaphic and climatic conditions. In PR’s 30,000 ha of public forest, there are ca, 30 plant associations.

Diversity of plant associations reflect the wide range of environmental factors occurring at differing scales of time, space, and intensity.

Other factors shaping Caribbean vegetation are geologic and human history, climate, and natural disturbances.

These modified further by aspect, topography, soils, and elevation.

Environmental setting is heterogeneous -- 14 Holdridge life zones, all taxonomic soil orders are present, possesses a complex geology, & potent periodic natural disturbances. Human-induced disturbances also affect vegetation.

Environmental gradients are often steep across short horizontal distances -- these offer major challenges to vegetation and ecophysiological strategies to partition these resources can be significant. Vegetation is also distributed in patches. Together these lead to environmental extremes that stress vegetation.

For example, wet conditions lead to mechanical stress on vegetation, chemical leaching of nutrients, unstable terrain, and saturated anaerobic soils, etc.

Patchiness -- it is common to find evergreen, deciduous, and succulent plant species growing in close proximity

An example of the sharp environmental gradients occurring in Puerto Rico is the frequent occurrence of montane wetland conditions on steep slopes and mountain tops in the Luquillo Mountains where the abundance of the sierra palm (Prestoea montana) and the broadlef colorado tree (Cyrilla racemiflora) is correlated with low soil oxygen resulting frorm the high rainfall and a combination of edaphic and topographic conditions. Plant associations such as elfin cloud forests, palm brakes, palm floodplain forests, and colorado forests are all wetland forests in the Luquillo Mountains.

Holdridge Live Zones in Puerto Rico

Subtropical dry forest
Subtropical moist forest
Subtropical wet forest
Subtropical rain forest
Subtropical lower montane wet forest
Subtropical lower montane rain forest

Guánica Biosphere Reserve

Coastal dry forest and dry limestone forest
Species rich; several endangered & endemic
Highly threatened (development, fire, invasive species)

Characteristic species of coastal dry forests:
Guaiacum officinale (lignum vitae)
Coccoloba venosa (false chiggergrape)
Ceiba pentandra (kapok)
Capparis cynophallophora (Jamaica caper)

Characteristic species of dry limestone forests:
Pisonia albida (corcho bobo)
Guaiacum sanctum (lignum vitae)
Plumeria alba (white frangipani