Profile: Anthony Coates
Sea of fossils
Agosto 09, 2013
A Smithsonian emeritus scientist takes a field trip to some of Panama’s most important known marine fossil deposits for a quick lesson the age of the Ithsmus of Panama.
A Smithsonian emeritus scientist takes a field trip to some of Panama’s most important known marine fossil deposits for a quick lesson the age of the Ithsmus of Panama.
As Director Emeritus of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, a unit of the Smithsonian Institution headquartered in Panama City, Panama, I retired in June, 2020 from the job of managing more than 400 employees, an annual budget of $35 million, and the institute’s research facilities ...
The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute will celebrate 100 years of tropical forest research at Barro Colorado Island Field Station in Panama with exhibits and events.
Plant ecologist S. Joseph Wright received an award for his illustrious career at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, in Panama.
STRI staff scientist Joe Wright and colleagues present results in Science indicating that diversity among adult tropical trees can be maintained if spatial repulsion among individuals of the same species is greater than spatial repulsion among individuals of different species.
Existing conservation policies rarely reward local people who care for old-growth forests. In this study, Indigenous Emberá residents worked with scientists to show how, through their sustainable lifestyle in communities established during the 1960’s-1980’s in one of Central America’s most pristine, old-growth forests, they act as custodians, conserving this, shared space.
The new GEO-TREES initiative addresses the uncertainty of satellite estimates of forest carbon by creating a trustworthy global carbon verification system based on existing collaborations among scientists at forest research sites worldwide. Supported by the Bezos Earth Fund, all data will be available free, online.
Based on clues ranging from microscopic pollen samples to massive petrified trees and larger-than-life-sized turtle and crocodile fossils, my lab pieces together millions of years of evidence to reconstruct the deep-time history of tropical ecosystems. I help to build international networks of...
Five Panamanian scientists share a glance at the experience of working in the tropical biologist’s dream, Barro Colorado Island.
Long-term research at Barro Colorado Island Research Station and at many other locations show that there are more woody vines in tropical forests, but very little is known about them. They are difficult to measure and so are often overlooked. This research group measured the biggest vine they have found on the island—but is this the biggest liana in the world? The authors challenge others to come up with a bigger one.