Costa Rica Thermal Dome


For other uses, see Costa Rica.
The Costa Rica Thermal Dome, is a marine hotspot that consists of a width between 300 and 1,000 km in diameter. The Dome is located off the western coast of Central America in the Tropical Eastern Pacific. Through the interaction of swirling wind and ocean currents a vertical conveyance consisting of cold, nutrient waters rises from the deep ocean towards the surface, creating the dome like shape. Led by an investigation by UNESCO'S World Heritage Site and International Union for Conservation of nature back in 2016, the dome was considered to be eligible to become a World Heritage Site in the near future.
The Costa Rica Dome's core is located between 9° North and 90° West on average off the coast of Costa Rica. The Dome is positioned above the Cocos underwater tectonic valley and provides the subaquatic cyclonic current that moves in sync with the above air flows. The Costa Rica Thermal Dome is full of biodiversity and with that comes many forms of Marine Life. The nutrient hotspot consists of all types of animals ranging from zoo-plankton to the Blue Whale. The location is also located within one of the largest Tuna catchment areas in the world The Costa Rica Dome is also positioned within the major seaway that is on route to the Panama Canal for transportation.
The Dome and the Marine Life provide economic benefits for countries such as Panama and Costa Rica. The Ticos are very proud of the Dome coexisting with Costa Rica and believe it is one of the features that makes the country blessed by nature. At the 12th conference of parties at the CBD in North Korea, the dome was considered a marine zone of biological or ecological importance.

Geology and geography

The Costa Rica Dome operates beyond national jurisdiction and its diameter and position changes on a yearly basis and during a characteristic annual cycle. The Dome's upwelling is an oceanographic phenomenon consisting of vertical changes in bodies of water from oceanic depths rising towards the surface. Strong winds then act to push the warm water away from the coast. These warm waters then collide and are substituted by cold nutrient-rich waters from the depth. The upwelling within the Dome is caused by circulation of the Costa Rican current, Northeastern Equatorial Counter Current and the Northwestern Equatorial Current combining with the Papagayo Jet Stream that crosses over the Lake of Nicaragua and the Northern Plains of Costa Rica.
The Costa Rica Dome is similar to other thermocline domes as it has an east - west thermocline ridge with its seasonal evolution being affected by large scale wind patterns. The Costa Rica Dome has a unique property as it is formed by a coastal wind jet. The cycle of the dome can be explained through four wind forcing stages. Stages consisting of coastal shoaling of the thermocline off the Gulf of Papagayo in February - April, separation from the coast during May - June, countercurrent thermocline ridging during July - November and deepening during December - January.
The Costa Rica Dome has an axis that rotates far away to the west of the Isla del Coco. The inter-tropical convergence lies in the middle of the dome and is seen close to the shores of Costa Rica. Distribution of the nutrients and oxygen within the Costa Rica Dome is determined primarily through the localised upwelling of the nutrient-rich, oxygen poor water from 65m and deeper and the substantial mixing of oxygen-rich and low nutrient content levels. The huge marine current that generates the displacement of deep, cold and nutrient water makes the Dome to be considered as one of the richest places on the planet. The oceanic floor within the Dome is abundant with a byproduct called methane clathrate, known as 'fire ice'. This is considered to be one of the most powerful elements for producing energy.

Ecology

Marine Life

The Costa Rica dome is a biodiversity hotspot for Marine Life. The presence of a seasonally predictable strong and shallow thermocline associated with cyclonic circulation and upwelling make the Costa Rica Dome a distinct biological habitat, with zoo-plankton and phytoplankton biomass significantly higher than in the tropical waters surrounding. The algae are strengthened because of the enormous amount of cold water, combined with sunlight. Within the dome there is the highest concentration of chlorophyll in the world, with approximately 60 milligrams per cubic centimetre of sea water. This helps the feeding of zoo-plankton consisting of larvae and larger animals such as sea sponges, worms, echinoderms, mollusks, crustaceans, and other arthropods. An important aspect of the Costa Rica Dome is that it consists of dense patches of krill at various depths.
The Dome is also a habitat to sharks, dolphins, eels, tuna fish, Billfish, species of sea turtles: Olive Sea Turtle and Leatherback Sea Turtle, rays, octopuses, colonies of marine birds and species of whale: Blue Whale and Killer Whales.
The dome in unique as it is unique by being a unique year-round habitat for Blue Whales. Within the nine distinct Blue Whale populations around the world, this area is the largest with an estimation of 3,000 whales. The dome provides an area for mating, feeding, breeding, calving and raising calves. With satellite tracking, the Costa Rica Dome was found to be a calving breeding area for North Pacific Blue Whales as-well as being a major migration corridor for the whales.
Leatherback turtles are the widest-ranging marine turtle species and are critically endangered. The Costa Rica Dome may be a significant migratory path for the endangered turtles nesting within Costa Rica. In 2008, a large multi-year satellite data tracking set for the Leatherback Turtles was analysed. The results showed that the migration path of these turtles took them through the southern edge of the Costa Rica Dome and the Costa Rica Coastal Current, indicating that the dome is part of the migration corridor for the endangered Leatherback Turtle.
An ecological feature of the dome is the "tune-dolphin-seabird assemblage" which can be characterised as a feeding relationship between Yellowfin Tuna, spotted and spinner dolphins and large amount of seabird species. The flock of seabirds feed on the prey at the surface made possible by the subsurface Tuna and Dolphin predators. The Tuna because of their near-surface occurrence, large size and visibility due to the relationship with the Dolphins and seabirds, this area forms one of the world's largest yellowfin tuna fisheries.

History

The Costa Rica Thermal Dome oceanic phenomenon was detected off the Central American country in 1948. This was through the use of bathythermographs, which is an instrument that consists of a thermometer that allows to measure and graphically represent the temperature of the seawater at different depth which were used on ships that traveled from California to Panama. The Dome was founded by Townsend Cromwell, and it was him who named the oceanographic place as the "Thermal Dome" of Costa Rica.

Human use

Ecotourism

Due to the Costa Rica Thermal Dome, several species that benefit from its habitat move close to the coasts and help sustain economic activities for the close countries. The countries from within this region contribute greatly to the fishing industry in Central America, with it being estimated these countries generated $750 million in 2009 for the industry. Another example of tourism is sea turtle nesting within this region. This activity helped generate $2,113,176 for the tour operators and related businesses close to the Las Baulas Marine National Park in 2004.
The Costa Rica Dome is estimated to bring in more than $20 million a year for at least 10 fishing communities. Additionally, sport fishing benefits greatly from the domes biodiversity. In Costa Rica sport fishing generated close to $599 million in 2008 which is 2.13% of GDP for that year. Secondly, in Panama it was estimated to generate $170.4 million in 2013.
Additionally, in September 2014, the first day of the annual Festival of Whales and Dolphins, which is dedicated to whale watching in southeast Costa Rica, earned $40,000 dollars.

Conservation

The Costa Rica Dome was declared a marine zone of ecological or biological importance at the "12th conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity ". The promotion of maritime conservation and highlighting the migration and feeding of species such as the Blue Whale, Leatherback turtle and common dolphins. Additionally, the Ministry of Environment and Energy of Costa Rica prepared a zoning decree at the same time that would help control the fishing of tuna. In January 2015 a consensus recommendation was agreed by the Ad-Hoc Working Group at the United Nations. This historic decision was one towards the development of an international legally binding instrument on conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction.
There have been several conservation efforts into the Costa Rica Dome. Mission Blue, a group consisting of more than 200 respected ocean conservation groups and like-minded organisations, have led extensive research into the Costa Rica Thermal Dome. Similarly, since 2012 the Marviva foundation has promoted the Costa Rica Thermal Dome Initiative in order to ensure sustainability. In order to study the cold upwellings in the Dome they implemented two methods. A zooplankton net was dropped to 80 meters and pulled up samples in multiple locations and a second collection process which involved a niskin bottle. This device can be deployed at any length to capture a sample from that specific part of the ocean. This sample is water collected from a specific water level.
The Costa Rica Dome operates in areas beyond natural jurisdiction, which are areas that lie further than 200 nautical miles from shore and beyond a countries Exclusive Economic Zone. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea provides legal framework that helps regulate aread beyond natural jurisdiction. However, access to majority of the ocean is now possible because of human technological advancements, causing Areas beyond natural jurisdiction are constantly exploited for their resources.

Global Ocean Biodiversity Initiative

GOBI consists of an international partnership of institutions committed to conserving biological diversity within the marine environment. GOBI provides expertise, data and knowledge in order to support the identification on ecological and biological significant marine areas by the Convention on Biological Diversity. GOBI's work intends to catalogue all available information on the physical and biological characteristics of the Costa Rica Dome. The approach to this work is: