Back from the dead
Tropical tree fern repurposes its dead leaves
Febrero 26, 2024
A species of tree fern found only in Panama uses ‘zombie leaves’ or reanimated dead leaf fronds, and turns them into root structures that feed the mother plant.
A species of tree fern found only in Panama uses ‘zombie leaves’ or reanimated dead leaf fronds, and turns them into root structures that feed the mother plant.
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In my lab we try to understand how climate change affects tropical forests by studying how environmental factors influence the physiology and ecology of tropical trees and lianas. We are interested in identifying threshold temperatures for various aspects of plant performance, including carbon...
A global center
for tropical science
A tropical research community
on the edge of the Panama Canal
Studying the forest
from the top down
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 ...
My research focuses on how land-cover and climate change affect water movement through soils, weathering, and erosion, and how these, in turn, affect the composition and dispersal of dissolved and solid phases in rivers and trace gases in the atmosphere. Some of my areas of expertise include...
The Winter lab studies how tropical plants, particularly trees, function and interact with their environment. We explore plant function in the field and under controlled conditions, at the whole organism level and at the level of individual organs, combining physiological, biochemical and...
A new model suggests reforestation could be detrimental to water resources in the Panama Canal. Smithsonian scientists warn of flawed methodology and emphasize case for long-term monitoring.