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 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
A new study in Nature combining satellite thermal- and in situ warming data found that a percentage of tropical leaves are already reaching the temperatures at which they can no longer function.
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...
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.
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...
What started as a student summer job, became Anibal Velarde’s life’s work. Over fifty years later, he is still at the Smithsonian
A global center
for tropical science
