Magnificent ocean giants
Tracking blue whales through oceanic corridors.
March 27, 2025
Blue whales, the largest animals on Earth, travel hidden ocean highways.
Blue whales, the largest animals on Earth, travel hidden ocean highways.
Research teams studying bats and birds gather in Panama’s Soberanía National Park to celebrate the launch of a long-term census of bats designed to complement the bird census which will celebrate its 50th anniversary next year.
The brightly colored, science-packed van is bringing the Smithsonian experience to students around the country. First stop: the province of Herrera in western Panama.
Researchers compared DNA from corals and their symbiotic organisms from two sites along the Pacific coast of Panama to better understand how the different members of the coral holobiont influence their ability to tolerate temperature extremes.
Estimating shark populations on degraded Caribbean reefs is complicated, especially when there few around. A pioneering member of the O’Dea lab has developed a technique to estimate shark populations — both past and present — using their microscopic skin scales
My research interests span a broad range of subjects from conservation biology and restoration ecology to collaborations with social scientist and economists on subjects related to human behavior and land management. The common theme is the applied nature of my work and the effort to provide...
My primary research focus is on Panamanian frogs that are likely extinct in the wild due to a fungal infection but are kept alive in captive breeding programs in Panama and the United States. Our lab has collected founding individuals for these amphibian colonies, devised methods to sustainably...
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...
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.