Forest unearthed

English

An extinct mangrove forest discovered on Panama’s Barro Colorado Island

A volcanic eruption 22 million years ago triggered a sediment flow that preserved a mangrove forest around what is now Barro Colorado Island, providing a better glimpse of the vegetation that existed in a highly changing area.

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Barro Colorado

Paleontology and Paleobiology Natural History Evolutionary Ecology Biodiversity Ecosystem Ecology Global Change Life in Deep Time Barro Colorado brown Carlos Jaramillo
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Forest
unearthed

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Beetle Expert

English

Remembering Entomologist
Henry P. Stockwell

Elizabeth (Liz) Stockwell sent this obituary of her father, STRI research associate, Henry Stockwell, in May, 2023.  We published a brief mention at the time and include the entire text here.

beetle expert cover Entomology Taxonomy Natural History Entomology Taxonomy Natural History Biodiversity Connections in nature: Plants, Animals, Microbes and Environments Earl S. Tupper beetle expert thumbnail brown Annette Aiello
beetle expert cover

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Living Color

English

A new underwater photo studio yields pixel-scale fish color pattern data

The first winner of the D. Ross Robertson Postdoctoral Fellowship for Field Studies on Neotropical Reef Fishes, Floriane Coulmance, tests a new, underwater camera system to study the connection between hamlet color patterns and genetics in fish from four countries around the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico.

Story location

Panama

Evolutionary Biology Taxonomy Bioinformatics Biodiversity Marine Biology Origins of Species and Societies Bocas del Toro Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute brown D. Ross Robertson William Wcislo
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Living
Color

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

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Ruth Bennett

English
Conservation Biology Biodiversity Ecology

Tropical landscapes are mosaics of diverse social and ecological systems. But the intensification of global change places these systems at risk. It is imperative that we develop knowledge and solutions to strengthen the resilience of these landscapes to meet the needs of their human and animal inhabitants. The Smithsonian Bird Friendly® certification and research program aspires to be one such solution.

STRI Coral Reef

My research seeks to optimize the conservation of birds and biodiversity in tropical working landscapes, especially coffee and cocoa growing regions of Latin America. I lead the Smithsonian Bird Friendly® program, which offers a gold standard certification for coffee and cocoa farms that conserve high quality habitat for wildlife. By studying how birds are impacted by farms and their surrounding landscapes, we can refine our certification and conservation strategy. Research in socioecological system requires interdisciplinary approaches, and we collaboratively study topics such as the economic and social drivers of conservation behaviors and the interactions between wildlife habitat, crop productivity, and human wellbeing.

What is a Bird Friendly certified farm, and is it better for birds?

Coffee and cocoa are unique crops because they can be cultivated under a canopy of shade trees. When farms retain diverse and native shade trees, they provide habitat for many species of birds and wildlife that would otherwise be excluded from the agricultural landscape. To become certified, a farm must demonstrate organic management, zero deforestation in the past ten years, and wildlife habitat conservation through retention of native shade trees or forest. Our research shows that farms that meet the Bird Friendly certification standard conserve up to four times as many birds as coffee and cocoa monocultures. Additionally, these farms provide numerous ecosystem services, such as pest control and soil nutrient replenishment, that improve the financial and ecological sustainability of the farm.

What is a Bird Friendly Landscape?

Landscapes in coffee and cocoa growing regions are shaped by the decision of hundreds or thousands of farmers, community members, and public and private organizations. Building a Bird Friendly landscape that supports biodiversity and human wellbeing requires local ecological knowledge and collaboration among the landscape’s many human stakeholders. Our program is working to build a Bird Friendly landscape standard that develops pathways for local communities to assess landscape sustainability and develop action plans to protect or rebuild critical forests and agroforestry systems. Our work draws heavily on the governance framework for OECMs, or Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures, which was recognized by the IUCN World Commissions on Protected Areas in 2018.

How do surrounding landscapes impact the biodiversity of Bird Friendly farms?

The community of bird species using Bird Friendly farms depends in large part on the composition of the surrounding landscape, and many bird species depend on nearby forests for portions of their lifecycle. Our research shows that many groups of birds—especially forest specialists, frugivores, insectivores, and nectarivores—need forest habitat and landscapes with over 40% forest cover (in a 2km radius) to maintain their diversity. As forest cover decreases on the landscape, the complexity of vegetation in a habitat patch, such as a Bird Friendly farm, required to maintain these species increases.

What are food hub trees and why are they important?

One of our lines of research seeks to determine which tree species provide the most abundant food resources to birds in coffee growing landscapes. We call these “food hub trees.” Our preliminary results show that trees in the genus Inga provide disproportionate resources for insectivore birds throughout the year, while many diverse and often endemic fruit producing trees provide most of the food resources for the frugivore bird community. Because farmers face tradeoffs between coffee production and tree cover, we want to recommend a suite a shade tree species that will maximize the food availability to birds on coffee farms. We have thus far published shade-tree catalogs that promote these food hub trees for four regions of Colombia and Peru.

B.A. Pacific Lutheran University, 2006


M.S. Michigan Technological University, 2013


Ph.D., Cornell University, 2018.

Bennett, R. E., Sillett, T. S., Rice, R. A., & Marra, P. P. 2021. Impact of cocoa agricultural intensification on bird diversity and community composition. Conservation Biology. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13779

Valente, J. J., Bennett, R. E., Gomez, C., Bayly, N. J., Rice, R. A., Marra, P. P., Ryder, T. B., Sillett, T. S. 2022. Land- sparing and land-sharing provide complementary benefits for conserving avian biodiversity in coffee agroforestry landscapes. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2022.109568

Nicolas Gatti, Miguel I. Gomez, Ruth E. Bennett, T. Scott Sillett, Justine Bowe. 202. Eco-labels matter: Coffee consumers value agrochemical-free attributes over biodiversity conservation. Food Quality and Preference. Volume 98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2021.104509

Bennett, R. E., Rodewald, A. D., & Rosenberg, K. V.  2019. Overlooked sexual segregation of habitats exposes female migratory landbirds to threats. Biological Conservation, 240. (IF=5.9) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2019.108266

Bennett, R. E., Rodewald, A. D., Rosenberg, K. V., Chandler, R., Chavarria-Duriaux, L., Gerwin, J. A., & Larkin, J. L. 2019. Drivers of variation in migration behavior for a linked population of long-distance migratory passerine. The Auk, 136(4). https://doi.org/10.1093/auk/ukz051

Bennett, R. E., Leuenberger, W., Bosarreyes Leja, B. B., Sagone Cáceres, A., Johnson, K., & Larkin, J. 2019. Conservation of Neotropical migratory birds in tropical hardwood and oil palm plantations. PLOS ONE, 13(12). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0210293

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Scientist Type: 
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Name

Ruth

Last name

Bennett

Chronic drying

English

Getting to the roots: How does limiting rainfall affect tropical forest carbon storage?

An experiment preventing up to 70% of rain from reaching tropical forest soils aims to understand how important underground carbon stocks will respond to climate change.

Story location

Text by Leila Nilipour

Soil Science Forest Ecology Global Change Ecosystem Ecology Microbial Ecology Ecosystem Services Sustaining a Biodiverse Planet Barro Colorado Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute brown S. Joseph Wright
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Chronic
drying

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

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Farewell Seminar

English

Purpose and Chance in the Making of an Academic Career (Or, at least, in my academic career)

Personal happiness, that is success, don't measure it in terms of accumulation of goods, measure it in accumulation of satisfaction.

Anthropology Archaeology Exploration Geography and Biogeography Paleontology and Paleobiology Sociology Origins of Species and Societies Earl S. Tupper Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute brown Fernando Santos-Granero
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Farewell
Seminar

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

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Gallant Storyteller

English

Anthony G. Coates,
Senior Scientist Emeritus (1936-2022)

Geologist Tony Coates changed the way we think about the ground under our feet. He confirmed the date when North and South America were connected at about 3 million years ago. We remember Tony not only as a skilled field geologist, but as a kind person and storyteller, who captured the imagination of scientists and non-scientists alike with his ability to spin a tale.

Story location

Byline: Beth King

Geology Geography and Biogeography Paleontology and Paleobiology Biodiversity Evolutionary Biology Zoology Life in Deep Time Earl S. Tupper Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute brown
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Gallant
Storyteller

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

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