Oct. 6, 2009

I’m just back from the Organization of Biological Field Station meetings in Costa Rica. They were hosted by the La Selva station, which is part of the Organization of Tropical Studies (OTS) network. It is interesting to compare La Selva’s operations to RMBL’s. They average about 35,000 use days. This is about four times what RMBL hosts, so they operate at about the same level as the Lab, only year round. La Selva scientists generate about 125 publications/year. The Lab averages about 30 publications/year, again about one-fourth of La Selva’s annual production. La Selva has about 50% more building space than the Lab- RMBL manages about 40,000 square feet versus La Selva’s 60,000 square feet. In the walking tour it was clear that La Selva has some very nice and modern laboratory space.

Another big difference is personnel. La Selva maintains about 100 full-time, year-round staff, including 10 Phd scientists (if I understood the numbers correctly). RMBL maintains five full-time year-round staff and peaks during summer at about 25 full-time staff (most of which are seasonal).

I don’t have the budget for La Selva, but the OTS spends approximately $8 million/year (compared to $1.6 million/year for RMBL in 2008). OTS operates three field stations, of which La Selva is by far the largest, so the finances are also roughly in line. I suspect that wages for basic work are substantially lower at La Selva than RMBL, which probably allows them to hire more personnel for less. Given the higher operating costs and the substantial fixed costs to operating a field station, even though we are operational for only about 25% of the year, the Lab’s efficiency at supporting research compares well with La Selva’s.