Gamboa seminar
Monday, July 11, Gamboa seminar speaker will be Patricia Jones, University of Texas at Austin
When to approach novel prey: Social learning strategies in a Neotropical bat
The talk will be at 12 noon, in the Gamboa schoolhouse.
Tupper seminar
Tuesday, July 12, 4pm seminar speaker will be Eli Fenichel, Arizona State University Managing ecological thresholds in coupled environmental–human systems
Paleo-talk at 3pm
Wednesday, July 13, 3pm Paleo-talk at the CTPA.
Speaker will be Juan Carlos Silva, Universidad de Caldas Multi isotope tracers of oceanic acidification and deoxidification during the Precambrian and the late Permian biologic crisis
Town meeting
Wednesday, July 13 at 4pm, STRI director Eldredge Bermingham will hold a town meeting at the Tupper Center Auditorium. Everybody is encouraged to attend.
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panamá
STRI news
www.stri.si.edu July 8, 201125 years after extreme drought on BCI
A new article by Kenneth Feeley from Florida
International University, with STRI’s Stuart J. Davies, Rolando Perez and Stephen P.
Hubbell and former staff scientist Robin B. Foster (now at the Field Museum, Chicago), was recently published as the cover article of the journal Ecology (April).
The article, entitled
"Directional changes in the species composition of a tropical forest", examines changes in the composition of tree species growing on Barro Colorado Island.
Feeley and colleagues show that over the past 25 years there has been a remarkably consistent and directional pattern of increasing abundances of drought-tolerant species at the expense of more drought- insensitive tree species. The cause(s) of this change remains uncertain, but the most likely culprits are either long-term changes in climate leading to reduced water availability (i.e., increasing temperatures and reduced rainfall), or
alternatively the compositional changes may be the ongoing legacy of an extreme El Nino drought that occurred in the early 1980's (see photo on next page).
By investigating compositional changes, scientists
increase not only their
understanding of the ecology of tropical forests and their responses to large-scale disturbances, but also their ability to predict how future global change will impact some of the critical
services provided by ecosystems as important as those of the Panama Canal watershed.
You may obtain the article from [email protected]
Un nuevo artículo liderado por Kenneth Feeley, de Florida International University con Stuart Davies, Rolando Pérez, y Stephen P. Hubbel de STRI y Robin Foster, quien fuera científico de STRI (hoy día en el Field Museum de Chicago) hizo portada en el número de abril de la revista Ecology. El artículo examina los cambios en la composición de especies de árboles que están creciendo en la Isla de Barro Colorado.
Feeley y colegas muestran que en los últimos 25 años ha habido un patrón direccional importante y consistente de aumento en especies que toleran sequías en perjuicio de especies de árboles que no toleran la sequía. Las causas de este cambio son inciertas, pero lo más probable es se por cambios a largo plazo del clima que llevan a una reducción en la disponibilidad de agua (como mayores temperaturas o menos lluvia) o, como explicación alternativa, los cambios en la composición se deban a los efectos de la sequía extrema de El Niño ocurrido a principios de la década de los 80 (vea foto en la siguente página).
Gatun Lake, Panama Canal
Arrivals
Floyd Hayes, Pacific Union College, to study neck-color variation and implications for taxonomy in Butorides herons in Panama, on BCI.
John L. Clark, University of Alabama, to study systematics of the New World members of the flowering plant family Gesneriaceae, in Fortuna.
Maria Fernanda Castillo Cárdenas, Universidad del Valle, Colombia, to conduct an analysis of morphology and cytogenetic patters of the two climatic ecotypes detected in the Neotropical mangrove species P. Rhizophorae, at Tupper.
Ricardo Kriebel, The New York Botanical Garden, to study phylogenetic relations in the Miconieae
(Melastomataceae) group, in Fortuna.
Andreas Mack, University of Ulm, Germany, to study oral microbiota of Netropical bats, on BCI.
Veronique Grenier, Université Catholique de Louvain-la- Neuve, Belgium, to study the natural history of Panamanian Cassidine beetles, in Gamboa.
Gregory Gilbert, University of California in Santa Cruz, to study long-term effects of a canker disease on populations of Lauraceae, on BCI.
Aisha Rickli-Rahman, Eckerd College, to study hawksbill turtle population recovery and research in the Comarca Ngobe Bugle Chiriqui Beach/Escudo de Veraguas and the Bastimentos Island National Marine Park, at Bocas del Toro.
More arrivals
Ximena Bernal and Mason Moreland, Texas Tech University, to study coloration patterns of leaf litter frogs, in Gamboa.
Estrella Sotomayor, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, to explain the distribution and dominance of lianas and tree species across the Panamanian Isthmus, in Gamboa.
Sabrina Amador, University of Texas at Austin, to study the effect of the society size in the behavior and brain anatomy of its members, at the CTPA.
Owen Lewis, University of Oxford, to study seed
predation by insects in tropical forests: a quantitative food web approach, on BCI.
Douglas Weidemann and Dustin Baumbach, Pacific Union College, to study neck variation and implications for taxonomy in Butorides herons in Panama, on BCI.
Alexis Jimenez, Universidad de Panamá, to study diversity, spatial distribution and conservation of flora in the Coiba National Park and its Special Zone of Marine Protection World Heritage site, at Tupper.
Participants of the East Carolina University 2011 Marine Field Ecology field course, at Galeta, Gamboa and San Blas.
Departures
Carlos Jaramillo to Sydney, Cairns and Melbourne, Australia to give a conference at the 18th International Botanical Congress and visit with colleagues.
Al investigar los cambios en la composición de especies, los científicos no solo aumentan la comprensión de la ecología de bosques tropicales y sus respuestas a disturbios a gran escala, sino que también mejoran su habilidad de predecir cómo los cambios
globales futuros han de impactar los servicios críticos que suministran ecosistemas tan importantes como la cuenca del Canal de Panamá.
Puede obtener el artículo de [email protected]
Beach cleaning at Culebra
Personnel of STRI´s Punta Culebra Nature Center and friends celebrated June, Natural Resources Month with a beach cleaning of Playa de los Cangrejos, at the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal.
The activity, held on June 27 was also meant to celebrate the World Oceans Day, June 8. The group collected half a ton of garbage from the beach.
El personal del Centro Natural Punta Culebra de STRI y amigos celebraron el mes de los recursos naturales con una limpieza de la Playa de los Cangrejos, localizada en la entrada del Pacífico del Canal de Panamá. La actividad, llevada a cabo el 27 de junio, también se aprovechó para celebrar el Día Internacional de los Océanos, el 8 de junio. El grupo recogió cerca de media tonelada de basura.
Departures
Javier Mateo Vega to Washington DC and New Haven, to attend a meeting with Conservation
International and with ELTI staff based at Yale University.
New publications
Christy, John H., and Rittschof, Dan. 2011.
"Deception in visual and chemical communication in crustaceans." In Breithaupt, Thomas, and Thiel, Martin (Eds.), Chemical communication in crustaceans: 313-333. New York:
Springer.
Faircloth, Brant, Title,
Alexandra, Tan, Kevin, Welty, Justin, Belthoff, James, and Gowaty, Patricia. 2010.
"Eighteen microsatellite loci developed from western burrowing owls (Athene cunicularia hypugaea)."
Conservation Genetics Resources 2(1): 167-171.
Heckadon Moreno, Stanley.
2011. "Armagedón Hartmann:
con Alexander Wetmore en Tonosí, 1957." "Épocas"
Tercera Era (Supplement to El Panamá América) 26(1): 2-3.
Heckadon Moreno, Stanley.
2011. "Armagedón Hartmann y Alexander Wetmore en Tonosí, 1957." "Épocas"
Tercera Era (Supplement to El Panamá América) 26(3): 10-11.
Heckadon Moreno, Stanley.
2011. "Alexander Wetmore y Armagedón Hartmann: En el Chagres, 1955." "Épocas"
Tercera Era (Supplement to El Panamá América) 26(4): 8-9.
Heckadon Moreno, Stanley.
2011. "A. Hartmann y A.
Wetmore y los pueblos del Río Chagres, 1955." "Épocas"
Tercera Era (Supplement to El Panamá América) 26(5): 10-11.
New publications
Heckadon Moreno, Stanley.
2011. "A. Hartmann y A.
Wetmore en la Estación de Juan Mina, Rio Chagres, 1955." "Épocas" Tercera Era (Supplement to El Panamá América) 26(6): 10-11.
Rodriguez-Quiel, Eyvar, Arrocha, Clotilde, and Salazar-Allen, Noris. 2010.
"Utilization of Thuidium delicatulum (Hedw.) Mitt. as bioindicator for
environmental zinc, copper and lead contamination in Boquete, province of Chiriqui, Panama." Tropical Bryology 32: 14-18.
Wanek, Wolfgang, and Zotz, Gerhard. 2011. "Are vascular epiphytes nitrogen or phosphorus limited? A study of plant 15N fractionation and foliar N: P stoichiometry with the tank bromeliad Vriesea sanguinolenta." New Phytologist:
doi:10.1111/j.1469-8137.2011 .03812.x
Westbrook, Jared W., Kitajima, Kaoru, Burleigh, J.
Gordon, Kress, W. John, Erickson, David L., and Wright, S. Joseph. 2011.
"What makes a leaf tough?
Patterns of correlated evolution between leaf toughness traits and demographic rates among 197 shade-tolerant woody species in a Neotropical forest." The American Naturalist 177(6): 800-811.
STRI in the news
¿Cuándo nació América Central?, by Alejandra Martins. 2011. BBC Mundo (July 7) with Carlos Jaramillo.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mund o/noticias/2011/07/110707_
panama_nacimiento_istmo_a m.shtml
Tough or fragile leaves?
Researchers from the University of Florida and the Smithsonian led by Jared Westbrook found that natural selection favors tough leaves in the deep shade of a moist tropical forest. The information was published in the latest issue of the American Naturalist (see citation at right).
Using 15 years of census data on 200 woody species from Barro Colorado Island, the researchers conclude that species with tough leaves survive better while growing at rates comparable to
competitors with more fragile leaves in the shade. Although leaves that are dense and fibrous require more energy to produce than thin leaves, this cost is offset by enhanced protection from herbivores and pathogens.
The cost of leaf toughness only becomes apparent when resources are abundant, such as in the high light environment of canopy gaps where species with tough leaves grow slower than species with thin, fragile leaves. Leaf toughness is but one dimension in which plant species differ in diverse tropical forest communities. The tradeoff between high survival in the shade and fast growth in high light may explain, in part, why so many species coexist in moist tropical forests.
Investigadores de la
Universidad de Florida y del Smithsonian, liderados por Jared Westbrook, encontraron que la selección natural favorece las hojas fuertes en la sombra de los bosques tropicales húmedos.
Con 15 años de información sobre 200 especies leñosas de la Isla de Barro Colorado, los investigadores concluyeron que las especies con hojas fuertes sobreviven mejor mientras crecen a tasas comparables a sus competidores con hojas más frágiles, a la sombra.
Aunque la producción de hojas densas y fibrosas requiere de mayor energía que las hojas frágiles, el costo se equilibra con una mayor protección contra herbívoros y patógenos.
El costo de producir hojas fuertes solo se hace aparente cuando los recursos son abundantes, como en
ambientes de mucha luz en los claros del dosel. Entonces las especies de hojas fuertes crecen más lentamente que aquellas de hojas frágiles. Esta fortaleza no es más que otra dimensión en que difieren las plantas en las diversas comunidades de los bosques tropicales. El trueque entre alta sobrevivencia en la sombra y un crecimiento rápido a la luz puede explicar en parte por qué hay tantas especies coexistiendo en los bosques tropicales húmedos.