Maarten Kappelle
Meso-American and Caribbean Region Regional Science Director
Contact Information
PO Box 230-1225
San Jose, Costa Rica
Phone: (011) (506) 2520-8000
Email: mkappelle@tnc.org
Brief Biography
Maarten is a tropical plant ecologist, naturalist, and conservationist. In 1995 he received his PhD in biology from the University of Amsterdam. Currently he is responsible for directing The Nature Conservancy’s (TNC) Regional Science Program for Mesoamerica (Mexico and Central America) and the Caribbean. Recently, the University of Tennessee granted Kappelle the honorary appointment of Friend of the University, holding the title of Adjunct Associate Professor at the Geography Department. He also serves as a member on the Executive Committee of the Inter-American Biodiversity Information Network (IABIN) based out of the City of Knowledge in Panama City. Kappelle is with TNC since mid 2003.
In 2002-2003 Kappelle held a research position at the Copernicus Institute of Utrecht University in the Netherlands, where he focused on the functioning of biological corridors in Central American fragmented rain forest landscapes. During that year he also acted as the Netherlands' national node manager of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) headquartered in Copenhagen.
Since 1984 Kappelle has accumulated almost 25 years of field and lab experience in biodiversity research and conservation in Latin America, with particular emphasis on alpine/Andean paramo grasslands and montane oak forests in Central America’s La Amistad Biosphere Reserve (Talamanca Highlands). He is well known for his extensive experience in plant biogeography, community and landscape ecology, and conservation biology of tropical highland ecosystems forests, about which he has published 7 books and over 70 peer-reviewed journal papers and book chapters. In May 2008 he published a full-color 400-page Spanish dictionary on biodiversity (Diccionario de Biodiversidad), which includes over 5,700 terms and has been illustrated with over 1,000 photos and drawings. The book is available at Costa Rica's National Biodiversity Institute (INBio).
From 1998 to 2002, Kappelle worked as ecological coordinator of the ECOMAPAS Project, a GIS-based ecosystem mapping effort jointly implemented by INBio and the Costa Rica’s Ministry of Environment. The project was funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Development Cooperation for which Kappelle served as an Associate Expert. Before that period, Kappelle held several post-doc positions and taught post-grad classes in ecology at Amsterdam and Leiden Universities and at the La Selva Biological Station (1994-1998). In 1998 he also worked as a program officer at Tropenbos International, a Netherlands-based NGO which facilitates innovative, applied research on tropical rain forests in South America, Africa and South-east Asia.
Select Publications:
Kappelle, M., P.A.F. Kennis & R.A.J. de Vries. 1995. Changes in diversity along a successional gradient in a Costa Rican upper montane Quercus forest. Biodiversity and Conservation 4: 10-34
Kappelle, M., T. Geuze, M. Leal & A.M. Cleef. 1996. Successional age and forest structure in a Costa Rican upper montane Quercus forest. Journal of Tropical Ecology 12: 681-698.
Kappelle, M., M.M.I. van Vuuren & P. Baas. 1999. Effects of climate change on biodiversity: a review and identification of key research issues. Biodiversity and Conservation 8: 1383-1397.
Kappelle, M. & A.D. Brown, eds. 2001. Bosques Nublados del Neotrópico. Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio), Fundación Agroforestal del Noroeste de Argentina (FUA), World Conservation Union (IUCN), University of Amsterdam (IBED-UvA), Laboratorio de Investigaciones Ecológicas los Yungas de Argentina (LIEY). INBio Press. Santo Domingo de Heredia, Costa Rica. 698 pp.
Hölscher, D., L. Köhler, C. Leuschner & M. Kappelle. 2003. Nutrient fluxes in stemflow and throughfall in three successional stages of an upper montane rain forest in Costa Rica. Journal of Tropical Ecology 19: 557-565.
Kappelle, M. & S.P. Horn, eds. 2005. Páramos de Costa Rica. Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio) – The Nature Conservancy (TNC) – WOTRO Foundation. INBio Press, Santo Domingo de Heredia, Costa Rica. 767 pp.
Kappelle, M., ed. 2006. Ecology and Conservation of Neotropical Montane Oak Forests. Ecological Studies Series, Vol. 185. Springer Verlag. Berlin – Heidelberg – New York. 483 pp.
Kappelle, M. 2008. Biodiversity of the oak forests of tropical America / Biodiversidad de los bosques de roble (encino) de la América tropical. Bilingual edition. Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio), Santo Domingo de Heredia, Costa Rica. 336 pp.
Kappelle, M. 2008. Diccionario de la Biodiversidad. Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio), Santo Domingo de Heredia. 385 pp.
Gomes, L.G.L., V. Oostra, V. Nijman, A.M. Cleef, M. Kappelle. 2008. Tolerance of frugivorous birds to habitat disturbance in a tropical cloud forest. Biological Conservation 141: 860-871.
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