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Scientists think that climate change may have greater impact the largest trees in tropical forests, and the death of these giants has a major impact on the forest, but because these monumental trees are few and far between, almost nothing is known about what causes them to die.

Coral reefs in the Tropical Eastern Pacific (TEP) are exposed to a broad range of environmental conditions defined by the upwelling of cold, nutrient-rich water from the deep ocean. Regional variation in upwelling activity along the TEP make it an ideal natural laboratory to understand the importance of changing environmental conditions for reef health and resiliency. Watch Panamanian scientist Andrew Sellers explain the aims of the ambitious Rohr Reef Resilience (RRR) Project, and his experience in recent research expeditions to the Panamanian and Costa Rican Pacific.

How did people survive in the tropics, hundreds and even thousands of years ago? Where did they live, and what did they eat? What diseases did they encounter? New methods allow archaeologists to reconstruct the individual lives of people in more detail than ever before. Listen to Smithsonian archaeologists Ashley Sharpe and Nicole Smith-Guzmán examine the lives and histories of three very different villages in ancient Panama.

Understanding when and where trees die in vast tropical forests is a challenging first step toward understanding carbon dynamics and climate change. Researchers explained variations in tree mortality over a five-year period by analyzing drone images of one of the most-studied tropical forests in the world, Barro Colorado Island in Panama.