Edgardo Londoño-Cruz (PhD student)

Research interests:

Community ecology of intertidal boulder and rocky shores and Coral Reefs. Birds (forest and sea/shore)

Current Research:

The presence of several species (community) sharing a common place (resource) is very interesting from the coexistence point of view. Several mechanisms controlling this coexistence must be involved and the factors affecting these mechanisms may change depending on the regimes of the particular area. However similar patterns influencing the presence of different species may exist.
I am currently surveying the community of mobile (not fast), visible invertebrates associated to boulders, co-occurring in Akaiwa (meaning Red Stone) intertidal boulder shore. I placed boulders of different sizes in a relatively calm, flat and protected intertidal zone located in the previously named shore. The boulders were carefully selected, trying to get those with an uniform (oval-flat) shape (not always possible) and placed randomly in four separately contiguous permanent quadrat. The boulders are arranged in 7 size classes, ranging from 12.5 to 1600 cm² they may have or not smaller stones below, which is intended to evaluate the habitat complexity.
The boulders have been being sampled either monthly or fortnightly since July 2002 during low tide and will continue being sampled at least for 1 year if conditions allow (like typhoons or another unpleasant natural phenomena). Each "realm" (i.e. its top and bottom faces and the influence area, the area covered by the boulder) of the boulder is sampled separately. The organisms are identified and measured in situ and the boulder returned to its original position (replacement). So far only temperature (in the three realms) had been measured but humidity is also intended, since these two physical parameters are known to affect much of the living strategies of intertidal organisms.

Past Experience:

My favorite ecosystems are Rocky and Boulder Intertidal Shores and Coral Reefs, however I have worked with plankton (Ichthyoplankton) for the National Institute of Fisheries and Aquaculture of Colombia from 1994 to 1996, this included sorting and identification of Clupeiforms eggs and larvae as well as participation in several samplings and cruisers along the Pacific coast of Colombia. During my MSc I worked with Coral Reefs in Gorgona Island (Pacific of Colombia); the research dealt with the bioerosion process by non-colonial organisms in the genus of branching coral Pocillopora.

Publications:

• Beltrán B.S., E. Londoño, J. A. Angulo, A. Cediel, R. S. Avila and A. B. Moreno (1996). Monitoring of the eggs and larvae of the Clupeid and Engraulid fishes in the coasts of Valle del Cauca, Cauca and Nariño, Pacific of Colombia, 1993-1995. Technical Report INPA. Fishing Program VECEP. Buenaventura.
  
• Londoño-Cruz Edgardo and Gustavo Mayor (1994) Pollution by Petroleum Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Bivalve Mollusks (Striostrea prismatica, Saccostrea palmula and Anadara tuberculosa), in Tumaco, Nariño. Pacific of Colombia. B. Sc. Thesis. Valle University.
  
• Londoño-Cruz Edgardo (2001) Bioerosion process by boring organisms in a reef ecosystem of the Tropical Eastern Pacific (Gorgona Island, Colombia) [Proceso de bioerosión por organismos perforadores en un ecosistema arrecifal del Pacífico Oriental Tropical (Isla Gorgona, Colombia)] M.Sc. Thesis. Valle University. 67 p.
  
• Cantera Jaime, Carlos Orozco, Edgardo Londoño and Gerardo Toro. Abundance and distribution patterns of cavitary fauna and macroborers of a branched coral (Pocillopora spp.) of Gorgona Island (Tropical Eastern Pacific). Bulletin of Marine Science (In press).
  
• Londoño-Cruz Edgardo, Jaime R. Cantera, Gerardo Toro-Farmer and Carlos Orozco (In press). Internal bioerosion by macroborers in Pocillopora spp. in the tropical eastern pacific.
  
• Toro-Farmer Gerardo, Jaime R. Cantera K., Edgardo Londoño-Cruz y Carlos Orozco (In press) Patrones de distribución y tasas de bioerosión del erizo Centrostephanus coronatus (Diadematoida: Diadematidae) en el arrecife de Playa Blanca, Pacífico colombiano.
  
• Toro-Farmer G., Cantera J.R., Londoño-Cruz E. and Orozco C.A. (In press) Pocilloporid corals growth after 1997-98 ENSO in Gorgona Island (Colombian Pacific Coast).
  
• Cantera Jaime, F. A. Zapata, P. Forero, V. Francisco, J. M. Jiménez, E. Londoño, K. Narváez, R. Neira, C. A. Orozco y G. Toro-Farmer (2001) Organismos Bioerosionadores en Arrecifes de Isla Gorgona. 51-64. In: Barrios, L. M. and M. López-Victoria (Eds.). Gorgona Marina: Contribución al conocimiento de una isla única. INVEMAR, Serie Publicaciones Especiales No. 7, Santa Marta, 160 p.