Tupper 4pm seminar
Tuesday, December 11, 4pm
seminar speaker will be Brian
Leung, McGill University
Forecasting and
management of biological
invaders
Monthly talk
Wednesday, Decmber 12, 6pm
Monthly talk speaker will be
Aydee Cornejo, Movimiento
de Investigaciones Biológicas
de Panamá, at the Tupper
Center Auditorium
Insectos acuáticos del
Parque Nacional Campana 
Arrivals
Michael Kaspari, University of
Oklahoma, to study the
regulation of local
decomposition: four
experiments at BCNM.
Christopher Dick, University
of Michigan, to study the
population genetic structure
of widespread Neotropical
trees, on BCI and Gamboa.
Suzanne Rutishauser,
University of Wisconsin, to
work on the project "Do
lianas cause chronic
disturbance and alter
successive trajectories in
tropical forests?", in Gamboa.
Chris Jiggins, University of
Cambridge, to study the
mimicry, genetic variation and
speciation in butterflies, in
Gamboa.
Departures
Jefferson Hall to Washington
DC, to attend the Agua Salud
Meeting.
Rachel Collin to Washington
DC, to attend the Agua Salud
Meeting, then to Montreal, to
participate in the STRI-McGill
NEO Program student
preliminary exam.
 STRI news
 
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panamá           www.stri.org         December 5, 2007
OBIO brings maps, shots, news to your PC!
The Office of Bioinformatics
(OBIO) is pleased to announce
the Digital File Manager
(DFM) website at
www.stri.org/dfm
The DFM replaces the former
STRI photo database system.
As well as providing access to
STRI's digital photographic
collection, the DFM also
includes virtually all kinds of
digital files including: audio,
video, document files (see:
STRI News, below),
PowerPoint presentations,
maps, etc.
The DFM is backed by an
extensive metadata system that
allows contributors to
document almost all aspects of
each file's contents (i.e. who,
what, when and where). This
system also allows contributors
to control how files are made
available, how they may be
used, and who can see them.
The DFM is also linked to the
most recent, up-to-date species
lists to aid in file searches.
As of this date, the DFM has
over 11,000 photos, 150 audio
files (see audio files, below) and
1,500 documents. We expect
these numbers to increase
rapidly as new contributors
come forward, and as OBIO 
continues to digitize the STRI
Photographic Department slide
collection. If you have digital
photos, audio recordings, videos
or important documents that
should be added to the DFM,
please contact Steven Paton.
OBIO will continue to work on
the DFM over the next  months
to improve its functionality. Any
comments on how to improve
the site are welcome.
STRI Ne w s . OBIO and the
Office of Communication and
Public Programs are happy to
announce that the entire
collection of STRI News can
now be found on-line on the
new DFM. Beginning in 1979,
STRI News (and occasional
editions of Informa, FullMoon
and STRI Research News) has
been published over 1360 times
and represents a unique set of
snapshots of who and what we
have been. We would like to
thank Annette Aiello for
providing her almost pristine
collection of newsletters, and
Omar Díaz for digitizing this
collection, without whom, this
accomplishment would not have
been possible.
Audio Files. Earlier this year,
Diane Hope, a sound recorder
specialist donated her time and
skills and came to STRI in order
to make professional quality
sound recordings. The
approximately 150 recordings
include: sounds capes, individual
species recordings, and
interviews with a number of
STRI scientists and key staff
members. The recordings are
available on the DFM. Thanks
to all those who made
yourselves available to be
interviewed.
La Oficina de Bioinformática
(OBIO) se complace en
anunciar el nuevo sitio de web
Digital File Manager (DFM) en:
www.stri.org/dfm
New publications
Hu, Xin-Sheng, He, Fangliang,
and Hubbell, Stephen P. 2007.
"Species diversity in local
neutral communities." The
American Naturalist 170(6):
844-853.
Kaiser, Kirstie L. 2007. The
recent molluscan fauna of Ile
Clipperton (Tropical Eastern
Pacific). San Diego, California:
San Diego Shell Club.
Krause, G. Heinrich, Jahns,
Peter, Virgo, Aurelio, garcia,
Milton, Aranda, Jorge E.,
Wellmann, Eckard, and
Winter, Klaus. 2007.
"Photoprotection,
photosynthesis and growth of
tropical tree seedlings under
near-ambient and strongly
reduced solar ultraviolet-B
radiation." Journal of Plant
Physiology 164(10): 1311-1322.
Turner, Benjamin L., Condron,
Leo M., and Richardson, Sarah
J. 2007. "Soil organic
phosphorus transformations
during pedogenesis." Ecosystems
10(7): 1166–1181.
Thesis
Coronado Rivera, James. 2007.
Netelia gray (Hymenoptera:
Ichneumonidae: Tryphoninae)
de Costa Rica; y anatomía del
sistema reproductor de las
hembras de Ichneumonidae.
Tesis de maestría. San José
Universidad de Costa Rica.
Advisor: William Eberhard.
STRI in the news
“Around the Mall: Up in
Smoke? by Jess Blumberg.
2007. Smithsonian 38(9): 27, 31.
“Need for environment
education stressed.” 2007. Golf
Times (November 24). Qatar.
El DFM reemplaza la antigua
base de datos fotográfica.
Además de suministrar acceso
a la colección fotográfica
digital, DFM también incluye
todo tipo de documentos
digitales como audio, video,
archivos de documentos (vea
STRI News abajo), presentacio-
nes en PowerPoint, mapas, etc
El DFM está apoyado por un
sistema de metadata extensiva
que permite a los contribuyen-
tes documentar casi todos los
aspectos del contenido de cada
archivo (i.e. quien, qué, donde
y cuándo). Este sistema
también permite a los
contribuyentes controlar la
manera en que los archivos
estén disponibles, cómo deben
usarse, y quienes los pueden
ver. El DFM también tiene
enlaces a las listas más
recientes de especies para
ayudar en las búsquedas de
archivos.
En este momento, el DFM
tiene más de 11,000 fotos, 150
audios (vea audios abajo) y
1,500 documentos. Esperamos
que estos números aumenten
rápidamente cuando los nuevos
contribuyentes se acerquen a
OBIO para continuar
digitalizando la colección de
diapositivas del Departamento
de Fotografía de STRI. Si usted
tiene fotos digitales, grabaciones
de audio, videos o documentos
importantes que deben ser
incluidos al DFM, favor de
ponerse en contacto con Steve
Paton. OBIO continuará
trabajando con el DFM durante
los próximos meses para
mejorar su funcionamiento.
Cualquier comentario para
mejorar el sitio será bienvenido.
STRI Ne w s . OBIO y la
Oficina de Comunicaciones y
Programas Públicos se compla-
cen en anunciar que la colección
completa del STRI News puede
encontrarse digitalizada en el
nuevo DFM. Empezando en
1979 el STRI News (junto
ocasionales ediciones del
Informa, Luna Llena y STRI
Research News han sido
publicadas más de 1360 veces y
representan un juego de vistas
únicas sobre quienes somos y
qué hemos estado haciendo.
Queremos agradecer a Annette
Aiello por haber suministrado
su colección casi prístina de del
STRI News, y a Omar Díaz por
la digitalización de dicha
colección. Sin él, este logro no
hubiera sido posible.
Audios. A principios de este
año, Diane Hope, profesional
de grabaciones de audio donó
su tiempo y habilidades para
venir a STRI y hacer
grabaciones de calidad
profesional. La colección de
cerca de 150 grabaciones
incluyen: grabaciones
ambientales, grabaciones de
especies individuales, entrevistas
como científicos y miembros
clave del personal. Las
grabaciones están disponibles en
DFM.
Agradecemos a todos los que se
prestaron para ser entrevistados.
Adriana Sautu appointed to the
Metropolitan Park's Patronato
STRI acting director Eldredge
Bermingham appointed CTFS'
biologist Adriana Sautu as
STRI representative at the
Metropolitan Park's Board of
Directors effective July 7, to
replace Elena Lombardo.
Sautu graduated as biologist at
La Plata National University,
and holds a master's degree in
environmental education from
the University of Kentucky.
She started working for STRI
in 1991, as a volunteer in the
STRI Herbarium. Her seed
biology research, initiated in
1994, was conducted at the
Metropolitan Park for six years.
In 2005 Sautu and members of
STRI's Office of
Communications and Public
Programs obtained the funds
to carry out a pilot program “A
Living Book” for continuous
docent training in the use of
informal environmental
educations centers, based on
the Park. To this date, over 100
teachers have benefitted from
the program. Additional funds
were approved to continue the
effort.
El director encargado de STRI,
Eldredge Bermingham nombró
a Adriana Sautu como
representante de STRI en el
Patronato del Parque Natural
Metropolitano a partir del 7 de
julio de 2007, en reemplazo de
Elena Lombardo, de STRI.
Sautu se graduó de bióloga en la
Universidad Nacional de La
Plata y obtuvo una maestría en
educación ambiental en la
Universidad de Kentucky.
Empezó a trabajar en STRI en
1991 como voluntaria en el
Herbario de STRI. Sus investi-
gaciones sobre biología de
semillas se llevaron a cabo en el
Parque durante seis años, a
partir de 1994. En 2005. Sautu y
miembros de la Oficina de
Comunicaciones y Programas
Públicos obtuvieron fondos
para llevar a cabo un programa
piloto “Un Libro de Vida” para
la capacitación continua de
docentes en el uso de centros
de educación informales,
llevado a cabo en el Parque.
Hasta la fecha, más de 100
educadores se han beneficiado
de este programa. Se han
aprobado fondos adicionales
para continuar con este
esfuerzo.
Sally Craig Levings 
From Steve Garity  
I am sorry to report the death
of Sally Craig Levings on
August 2, 2007, after a ten-year
battle with cancer. As many of
you will recall, she spent various
periods at STRI from the late
1970s until the mid 1990's.
Sally first arrived at STRI in
1975 as a Harvard graduate
student with an NSF pre-
doctoral professional
development grant to study
forest floor leaf litter
arthropods at BCI. It was here
she did her dissertation research
and contributed to the ESP
project until leaving for
Cambridge in 1978 to finish her
Ph.D. requirements and
continue her work at the
Museum of Comparative
Zoology. In 1979, she married
Steve Garrity, another frequent
visitor of STRI, and
accompanied him in 1981 when
he returned to Panama to
commence a STRI pre-doctoral
fellowship. Until leaving for a
position at University of Rhode
Island (URI) in 1983, she
collaborated with Steve, Mark
Bertness, John Cubit, Haris
Lessios, and many others at BCI
and both marine laboratories.
After a number of years as a
visiting assistant professor at
the Zoology Department at
URI, Sally moved to the
panhandle of Florida, where she
and Steve formed the consulting
firm of Coastal Zone Analysis.
Their first major contract was
to participate in the study of the
effects of the Panama refinery
oil spill on the biota of the
Caribbean coast. Sally returned
to Panama many times to help
Steve with fieldwork and to
participate in that project's
meetings and analysis of data.
Subsequent to that project, she
and Steve were contracted
through the 1990's by local,
state, and federal agencies for
assessments and analysis of the
effects of oil spills on the
marine environment in such
areas as Hawaii, Tampa Bay,
and American Samoa.
Although the uncertainty
resulting from Sally's cancer
diagnosis and subsequent
treatment prevented her from
making the same level of
commitment for field work and
travel, she could not be tied
down for long and continued
some writing and analysis.
When she felt well enough, she
helped at her friends' nursery on
a part time basis. Later on
(2001-2004), her apparent
remission and improvement
allowed her to work for the
Florida Department of
Environmental Protection,
developing biomonitoring
programs for the analysis of
industrial discharges and their
associated ecological effects.
After that, she traveled twice to
Asia with Marian Goldsmith of
URI to participate in an
international program which
examined research programs at
universities in China and
instructed scientists and
students on experimental design
and data analysis.
When Sally was diagnosed with
metastatic cancer in early 1997,
the physicians gave her little
hope for surviving until the end
of the year. Those of you who
knew her would not be
surprised at her reaction after
the initial shock subsided. At
that point Dr. Levings started
on a remarkable journey to try
to prove them wrong. She first
immersed herself in all the
literature and research that
could be found for her disease,
including the latest research on
its characteristics, causes, and
treatment, including ongoing
clinical trials. Simultaneously,
she consulted with a number of
oncologists for their opinions,
none of which were very
encouraging. 
Her dissatisfaction with most of
these ideas and the various
things she learned in her own
research led her to design her
own treatment regime. With this
in hand, she and Steve
commenced a search for an
appropriate oncological group
who were receptive to her ideas
and thought they were worth
trying along with some new
procedures that were showing
some promise. I am sure that
they (she?) left more than a little
turbulence in their wake as they
weeded out those who didn't
make the short list! 
One of the procedures in her
regime was oophorectomy,
which most oncologists at the
time would be too timid to even
suggest to their patients.
Interestingly, that same
treatment has become a
mainstream option in current
treatments. Sally endured the
pain and suffering of multiple
surgeries, total stem cell rescue,
radiation, and chemotherapy,
and became essentially cancer
free when the dust settled.
Interestingly, Sally's
bibliography includes
authorship with her oncologist
on a paper describing her
treatment regime that was
presented at an oncology
conference. 
Annual testing showed no sign
of the cancer's return until late
2006. Unfortunately, the same
options could not be repeated
and Sally died surrounded by
family and friends at the home
she and Steve built in
Sopchoppy, Florida. She is
survived by Steve, her mother,
her sister, a son, a daughter, five
grandchildren, and a large circle
of other family and friends.
Those of us who knew Sally and
experienced her tenacity,
determination, and work ethic
—whether in the field, during
the question period of a
seminar, in the dining hall, or in
the middle of good argument—
must agree that she wasn't the
recipient of a gift of an
additional number of years of
life. She took them! Her family
and friends will miss this
extraordinary woman.
“Up in smoke?”
Taken from Around the Mall, Smithsonian
December, 2007: 27, 31
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Decmeber 7, 2007
Story: Jess Blumberg
Smithsonian
Summary: M Alvarado
and ML Calderon
Photo: MA Guerra
In the December issue
of the Smithsonian
magazine, Jess
Blumberg offers an
update of the efforts
conducted by the
Biological Dynamics
Forest Fragments
Project (BDFFP) to
study “how to save the
imperiled Amazon rain
forest. Now, their
research is also under
siege.”
The BDFFP, operated
jointly by STRI and
Brazil's National
Institute for Amazonian
Research have
gathered crucial data
for nearly 30 years on
the environmental
impact of farming,
logging and human
settlements.
“Now, however, the
study area is
threatened by those
very same activities. “It
would be tragic to see
a site that's given us
so much information
be lost so easily” says
STRI's  William F.
Laurance, who has
been working on the
project for 12 years.
Laurance and
colleagues have
focused their studies
on forest
fragmentation, finding
that the larger the
fragment, the better. If
it's too small, the
entire ecosystem
unravels: drying winds
penetrate the interior,
killing trees. However,
the Brazilian
government is “within
its mandate to use
land for economic
development”.
The scientists are
seeking the help of
sympathetic agencies
in Brazil. Laurance
emphasizes that is
little to be gained by
colonization, as the
Amazon’s low-quality
soils makes for poor
agriculture. “The
social and economic
benefits are paltry
relative to the
scientific and
conservation
benefits,” he says.
Read the complete
story at:
http://www.smithsonia
nmag.com/science-nat
ure/upinsmoke-200712
.html
En el número de
diciembre de la revista
Smithsonian, Jess
Blumberg ofrece una
actualización de los
esfuerzos que lleva a
cabo el Proyecto de
Dinámica Biológica de
Fragmentos de
Bosques (BDFFP) para
estudiar "como salvar
el bosque tropical del
Amazonas que se
encuentra en peligro.
Ahora, las
investigaciones
también están bajo
ataque.”"
El BDFFP, operado
conjuntamente entre
STRI y el Instituto
Nacional de Brasil para
Investigaciones, ha
acumulado
información crucial por
cerca de 30 años sobre
el impacto que la
agricultura,
substracción de
madera y
asentamientos
humanos tienen sobre
el ambiente.
"Ahora, sin embargo,
el área de estudio está
amenazada por estas
mismas actividades.”
"Sería trágico ver que
un lugar que ha
suministrado tanta
información se pierda
tan fácilmente"
aseguró William F.
Laurance de STRI,
quien ha trabajado en
el proyecto for 12 años.
Laurance y colegas
han enfocado sus
estudios en la
fragmentación de
bosques, encontrando
que mientras más
extenso es el
fragmento, mejor. "Si
es muy pequeño, todo
el ecosistema se
desintegra: vientos
calientes penetran en
el interior, secando y
matando a los
árboles." Sin embargo,
el gobierno de Brasil
tiene "en su mandato
usar las tierras para el
desarrollo económico".
Los científicos están
reclutando agencias
brasileñas para que los
apoyen. Laurance
enfatiza que hay muy
poco que ganar con la
colonización, ya que
los suelos del
Amazonas son pobres
para la agricultura.
"Los beneficios
sociales y económicos
son triviales al
compararlos con los
beneficios científicos y
de conservación"
asegura.
Lea la historia
completa en:
http://www.smithsonia
nmag.com/science-nat
ure/upinsmoke-200712.
html