Picture the Unseen
A community of scientists put microbial ecosystems back together again using anvi’o
January 14, 2021
Post-doc Jarrod Scott is an active contributor to anvi’o, a set of computational tools to visualize microbial communities.
Post-doc Jarrod Scott is an active contributor to anvi’o, a set of computational tools to visualize microbial communities.
The next time you eat seafood, think about the long-term effects. Will consistently eating the biggest fish or the biggest conch, mean that only the smaller individuals will have a chance to reproduce?
At the Smithsonian’s Bocas del Toro Research Station, in Panama, marine biologist Rachel Collin runs an educational program that recruits international experts to teach and create videos about how to collect, preserve and observe marine invertebrates, passing down their very specific knowledge to aspiring taxonomists.
Large marine animals generally have unique functions for the ecosystem. They are also more susceptible to extinction when their habitats are altered. Around 3 million years ago, at least one third of the marine megafauna became extinct, possibly due to sea level fluctuations and the contraction of coastal habitats. This also led to a loss of some of their ecological functions. In the current era, many large marine animals are deemed at risk of extinction. What will be the consequences of this potential loss?
Secretary of the Smithsonian awards medal to Oris Sanjur for her exceptional work in Panama
An entrepreneur who dreamed of becoming an oceanographer teams up with STRI researchers and young Latin American biologists to find out if some coral reefs are more resilient than others. His yacht will be the center of operations as they deploy high tech sensor arrays at sites around the tropical eastern Pacific.
Most coral species fared better in the shaded environment offered by the mangrove canopy
Picture this: What to do at a party when you try to carry on a conversation, but the music is too loud? A Panamanian doctoral student is trying to figure out how dolphins communicate underwater during heavy boat traffic in the Bocas del Toro Archipelago.
The guide aims to be a clarifying, science-based framework guiding the global community in the establishment of Marine Protected Areas
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.