The Las Cruces Biological Station / Wilson Botanical Garden is located in the southern Puntarenas

Puntarenas

Puntarenas is the capital and largest city in the province Puntarenas, Costa Rica, at the Pacific coast. The eponymous and oddly shaped province has its largest section in the South, far from the capital.Some 100,000 live in the city and close towns...

 province

Province

A province is a territorial unit, almost always an administrative division, within a country or state.-Etymology:The English word "province" is attested since about 1330 and derives from the 13th-century Old French "province," which itself comes from the Latin word "provincia," which referred to...

 of Costa Rica

Costa Rica

Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....

, and is the newest of the three research station

Research station

A research station is a station built for the purpose of conducting scientific research. Research station sites might include outer space and oceans. Many nations have research stations in Antarctica; Showa Station, Halley and Troll are examples...

s operated by the Organization for Tropical Studies

Organization for Tropical Studies

The Organization for Tropical Studies is a network of ecological research stations created in Costa Rica in 1963. OTS is run by a non-profit consortium of 63 universities, based in the United States, Australia and Latin America . The corporate headquarters of OTS are at Duke University, in...

 (OTS). Las Cruces includes a biological research station, tourist facilities, and the botanical gardens started by Robert and Catherine Wilson, and bequeathed to OTS.

Las Cruces is located in a mountainous region at an elevation of approximately 1,000 meters above sea level

Meters above sea level

Meters above sea Level is a standard metric measurement of the elevation of a location in reference to historic mean sea level; the determination of what actually constitutes mean sea level over time however, may be determined by other parameters, such as the effects of climate history and climate...

 (m.a.s.l.). Surrounded mostly by pastures, coffee plantations and other agricultural areas, Las Cruces includes a relatively small 270 Ha forest fragment

Forest fragmentation

Forest fragmentation is a form of habitat fragmentation, occurring when forests are cut down in a manner that leaves relatively small, isolated patches of forest known as forest fragments or forest remnants. The intervening matrix that separates the remaining woodland patches can be natural open...

 that ranges from 900–1300 m.a.s.l. As such, much of the research conducted here focuses on agroecology

Agroecology

Agroecology is the application of ecological principles to the production of food, fuel, fiber, and pharmaceuticals. The term encompasses a broad range of approaches, and is considered "a science, a movement, [and] a practice."...

 or studies of forest fragmentation

Forest fragmentation

Forest fragmentation is a form of habitat fragmentation, occurring when forests are cut down in a manner that leaves relatively small, isolated patches of forest known as forest fragments or forest remnants. The intervening matrix that separates the remaining woodland patches can be natural open...

.