I specialize in forest ecosystem ecology, global change ecology, and climate protection through forest conservation. My approach combines data synthesis and analysis, quantitative ecology, and field research and focuses on understanding how climate — and climate change — shape ecosystems, and...
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 ...
As the first marine- and coastal- policy expert to join STRI’s marine staff scientists, Panamanian Ana K. Spalding will work with coastal communities to understand what knowledge is needed to foster wellbeing for both oceans and people.
Socially foraging bats may find food faster by listening in to the search-phase calls of their group members
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...
Students in Bocas del Toro helped Smithsonian researchers collect environmental data to better understand what factors influence the proliferation of algal deposits in the largest island of the archipelago
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.
What started as a student summer job, became Anibal Velarde’s life’s work. Over fifty years later, he is still at the Smithsonian
Ancient, fossilized grape seeds from Panama, Colombia and Peru, provide perspective on the evolution of plants after the extinction of the dinosaurs.
