STRI news
Tupper 4pm special
Tuesday is Carnival Day and a
holiday for STRI. On
Wednesday, February 25, 4pm
seminar speaker will be Noelle
Michele Holbrook, Harvard: 
Why are baobab trees so fat?
Water relations and bio-
mechanics in the genus
Ad an s o n ia
Bambi seminar
Thursday, February 26, Bambi
seminar speaker will be Noelle
Michele Holbrook, Harvard
University
Title to be announced
Arrivals
Kirstin Übernickel and Inga
Geipel, University of Ulm,
Germany, to study the
echolocation and foraging
behavior of the Neotropical
bat Noctilio leporinus and
Macrophyllum macrophyllum and
its significance for biomimetic
applications, on BCI.
Billy Bau and Kipiro Damas,
Papua New Guinea Forest
Research Institute, to
participate in the field course
"CTFS -SIGEO Papua, New
Guinea Training Workshop"
on BCI.
Sehel Mclem Kenneth,
Cliffson Idigel and Sehel
Mclem Kenneth, New Guinea
Binatang Research Center, to
participate in the field course
"CTFS -SIGEO Papua, New
Guinea Training Workshop"
on BCI.
Eleanor Reagan, Balwin
Wallace College, to participate
in the Barro Colorado Island
mammal census, on BCI.
Benjamin Birnbach, University
of Constance, Germany, to
participate in the Field Course
Princeton 2009, at Bocas del
Toro.
Scientists: Klaus Winter, Noris Salazar, Stanley Heckadon, Charles Alcock &
Rachel Collin
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panamá        www.stri.org        February 20, 2009
Charles 
Alcock visits 
STRI
Charles Alcock, SI acting
undersecretary for Science and
director of the Harvard-
Smithsonian Center for
Astrophysics, wife May-Ying
Chu, vice-president of
Operations of PolyPlus Battery
Company, and children Chloe
Chu Alcock, 13 and Leo Chu
Alcock, 9, visited STRI from
February 13-21. The group
was hosted by director Biff
Bermingham and acting deputy
director Bill Wcislo. Their first
visit to STRI was on BCI.
They enjoyed a research-led
tour through the forest and a
boat tour around the Island
perimeter and met with
researchers of the Automated
Radio Telemetry System
(ARTS). Later they visited
Gamboa and the Agua Salud
project located in the Panama
Canal Watershed.
On Monday, Alcock and
family traveled to Bocas del
Toro and spent some time in
the Station and surrounding
areas. A visit to Parque
Metropolitano’s canopy crane
was hosted by STRI scientist S.
Joseph Wright. Stanley
Heckadon- Moreno hosted a
visit to the Galeta Marine
Laboratory. At Galeta, Alcock
participated with the first live
broadcast beamed by Galeta 
via internet to hundreds of
children in New Jersey. Alcock
had the opportunity to talk to
the children of his wife´s school
town in New Jersey, showing
them the wonders of the coastal
tropics and Galeta´s evergreen
mangroves.
At the Tupper Center on Friday,
deputy director Bill Wcislo and
colleagues hosted the visitors to
the Laboratory for Behavior &
Evolutionary Neurobiology.
Bermingham, Wcislo, the
Alcock family and other
members of the STRI
administration met with the rest
of the scientists during lunch at
the Tupper Conference Center,
visited Punta Culebra Nature
Center with its director Mark
Torchin and Panama´s
BioMuseo, a Smithsonian
Affiliated Museum with its
senior director Anthony G.
Coates, senior scientist emeritus
and former deputy director
of STRI.
Charles Alcock, subsecretario
encargado para Ciencias del
Smithsonian y director del
Centro de Astrofísica de SI y
Harvard, su esposa May-Ying
Chu, vicepresidenta de
Operaciones de PolyPlus
Battery Company e hijos Chloe
Chu Alcock, 13, y Leo Chu
Alcock, 9, visitaron STRI del 13
al 21 de febrero. El grupo fue
atendido por el director
Eldredge Bermingham y el
subdirector encargado Bill
Wcislo. Su primera visita a STRI
fue a Barro Colorado, donde
disfrutaron de un recorrido
científico a través del bosque y
alrededor del perímero de la isla
en bote, y se reunieron con
investigadores del Sistema de
Radio Telemetría Automatizada
(ARTS). Luego visitaron
Gamboa y el proyecto de Agua
Salud localizado en la Cuenca
del Canal de Panamá.
El lunes, Alcock y su familia
viajaron a Bocas del Toro donde
More arrivals
Liduine van Toor, University
of Konstanz, Germany, to
participate in the Field Course
Princeton 2009, at Bocas del
Toro.
Maria Angela Echeverry-
Galvis and Sergio Cordoba,
Princeton University, to
participate as instructors, in
the Field Course Princeton
2009, at Bocas del Toro.
Therese Frauendorf, Southern
Illinois University, to work in
the Tropical Amphibian
Declines in Streams (TADS)
project, in Gamboa.
New publications
Alvarez-Clare, Silvia, and
Kitajima, Kaoru. 2009.
"Susceptibility of tree seedlings
to biotic and abiotic hazards in
the understory of a moist
tropical forest in Panama."
Biotropica 41(1): 47-56.
Anderson, L.O., Malhi,
Yadvinder, Ladle, R.J., Aragao,
O.C., Shimabukuro, Y.,
Phillips, Oliver L., Baker,
Timothy R., Lopez-Gonzalez,
G., Monteagudo, Abel, Nunez
Vargas, Percy, Peacock, J.,
Quesada, C.A., Almeida,
Samuel, and Vasquez Martinez,
Rodolfo. 2009. "Influence of
landscape heterogeneity on
spatial patterns of wood
productivity, wood specific
density and above ground
biomass in Amazonia."
Biogeosciences Discussions 6(1):
1-45.
Muller-Landau, Helene C.
2009. "Carbon cycle: Sink in
the African jungle." Nature
457(7232): 969-970.
R, R & R
STRI organizes teacher training workshop
recorrieron la Estación y áreas
aledañas. También visitaron el
Sistema de Acceso al Dosel del
Parque Natural Metropolitano,
guiados por el científico S.
Joseph Wright. Stanley
Heckadon-Moreno los
acompañó a visitar el
Laboratorio Marino de Galeta,
donde Alcock participó en la
primera transmisión en vivo y
en directo desde Galeta via
internet a cientos de
estudiantes en escuelas de
New Jersey. Alcok tuvo la
oportunidad de hablar con
estudiantes de la escuela de su
esposa en New Jersey, y
mostrarles las maravillas de los
trópicos y los siempre verdes
bosques de manglar.
En el Centro Tupper el viernes,
el subdirector Bill Wcislo y
colegas guiaron a los visitantes
al Laboratorio de
Comportamiento y
Neurobiología Evolutiva.
Bermingham, Wcislo y otros
miembros de la administración
de STRI se reunieron con los
científicos durante un almuerzo
en el Centro de Conferencias
del Tupper, visitaron Punta
Culebra con su director Mark
Torchin así como el BioMuseo
de Panamá, un museo afiliado al
Smithsonian con su director
senior Anthony G. Coates,
científico senior emérito y
antiguo subdirector de STRI.
In coordination with Panama´s
Ministry of Education
(MEDUCA) STRI´s Bocas del
Toro Research Station
organized the 3rd Teacher
Training Workshop for local
docents "Dynamic Connections
between Nature, Science and
Knowledge 2009",  from
February 16-20 on Isla Colon. 
During this workshop, 28
docents attended talks from
STRI researchers including
Antonio Baeza, who works on
animal behavior using shrimps
and other crustaceans, and
Rosana Rocha who studies
tunicate organisms and their
diversity among mangrove
roots. James Roper spoke on
tropical bird studies, Arcadio
Castillo talked about different
long term projects on the
station, and Plinio Gondola
talked on ocean dynamics and
climate change. Also
participating from MEDUCA,
were Otilia Arroyo from
Environmental Education and
Marivel Centeno, regional
coordinator.
The aim of the workshop was
to share new findings on coastal
marine environments with the
teachers, teaching techniques
and hands on activities to
enhance the learning teaching
experience in the classroom.
En coordinación con el
Ministerio de Educación
(MEDUCA), la Estación de
Investigaciones de STRI en
Bocas del Toro organizó el
Tercer Taller de Capacitación
de Maestros, para docentes
locales “Conecciones
Dinámicas entre la Naturaleza,
la Ciencia y el Conocimiento 
2009" del 16 al 20 de febrero en
Durante el taller, 28 docentes
asistieron a charlas de
investigadores de STRI que
incluyeron a Antonio Baeza,
que trabaja en comportamiento
animal con camarones y otros
crustáceos, y Rosana Rocha
quien estudia organismos
tunicados y su diversidad entre
las raíces de manglares.
James Roper habló sobre
estudios de aves tropicales,
Arcadio Castillo habló sobre los
diferentes estudios a largo plazo
que se llevan a cabo en la
Estación y Plinio Góndola
habló sobre Educación
Ambiental y cambio climático. 
Del Ministerio de Educación
(MEDUCA) también
participaron Otilia Arroyo, de
Educación Ambiental y Marivel
Centeno, coordinadora regional.
Publications update ‘08
Cadena, Edwin, Jaramillo,
Carlos, and Paramo, Maria E.
2008. "New Material of Chelus
Colombiana (Testudines;
Pleurodira) from the Lower
Miocene of Colombia." Journal
of Vertebrate Paleontology 28(4):
1206-1212.
Chew, David M., Magna,
Tomas, Kirkland, Christopher
L., Miskovic, Aleksandar,
Cardona, Agustin, Spikings,
Richard, and Schaltegger, Urs.
2008. "Detrital zircon
fingerprint of the Proto-Andes:
Evidence for a Neoproterozoic
active margin?" Precambrian
Research 167(1-2): 186-200.
Glynn, Peter William, Enochs,
Ian C., McCosker, John E., and
Graefe, Abigail N. 2008. "First
record of a pearlfish, Carapus
mourlani, inhabiting the Aplysiid
Opisthobranch mollusc
Dolabella auricularia." Pacific
Science 62(4): 593-601.
McCoy, Krista A., Hoang,
Loan K., Guillette, Jr., Louis J.,
and Mary, Colette M.St. 2008.
"Renal pathologies in giant
toads (Bufo marinus) vary with
land use." Science of the Total
Environment 407(1): 348-357.
Oviedo, Lenin, Guzman,
Hector M., Florez-Gonzalez,
Lilian, Capella, Juan, and Mair,
James M. 2008. "The song of
the Southeast Pacific
humpback whale (Megaptera
novaeangliae) off Las Perlas
Archipelago, Panama:
Preliminary characterization."
Aquatic Mammals 34(4):
458-463.
STRI in the news
"University ecologists explore
'rainforest pharmacy' for cures,
investment" by Brian Maffy.
2009. The Salt Lake Tribune:
February 15.
"Newsmakers: award in cash"
2009. Science 323(5916): 859.
February 13.
Photo collections on-line
The Office of Bioinformatics,
in corporation with the STRI
Library, has been scanning a
large collection of mostly black
and white photographs taken
between the 1920’s and the
1980’s. The photos have been
scanned at high resolution and
are available in JPG and Tiff
formats. The
photos can be
found at:
Q:\OBio\S
TRI\BW\Li
brary
Collection
 and  are
viewable from
any computer
connected to
the STRI intranet. The
contents of most of the
photographs have not yet been
identified. If you have
information about a particular
photograph please record the
information in the supplied
Excel files. Thank you. 
The Q drive is intended to be
the permanent storage location
for STRI’s institutional digital
archives. There are currently
over 70,000 files (900
GigaBytes) on-line, including
photos, audio and
video recordings,
maps, and
documents. We
expect this
collection to
double in the next
12 months. 
La Oficina de
Bioinformática, en
colaboración con la Biblioteca
de STRI ha escaneado una
extensa colección de fotografías
en blanco y negro tomadas
entre 1920 y 1980. Las fotos se
escanearon el alta resolución y
aparecen en formatos de TIFF
y JPEG. Estas fotos se pueden
encontrar en el disco:
Q\OBio\STRI\BW\Library
Collection
y se pueden ver desde cualquier
computadora conectada al
intranet de STRI. El contenido
de la mayoría de las fotos no se
han identificado. Si usted tiene
información sobre una
fotografía en particular, le
agradecíamos que registrara la
información en los documentos
de Excel que hemos
proporcionado.
El disco Q se obtuvo con el
propósito de ser el depósito
permanente de los archivos
digitales institucionales de
STRI. Actualnente hay 70,000
archivos (900 GigaBytes) en
línea, incluyendo fotos,
grabaciones de audio y video,
mapas y documentos.
Esperamos que esta colección
doble su tamaño en un período
de 12 meses.
New publications
Malhado, A.C.M., Whittaker,
R.J., Malhi, Yadvinder, Ladle,
R.J., Ter Steege, H., Aragao,
O.C., Quesada, C.A., Araujo,
A.M., Phillips, Oliver L.,
Peacock, J., Lopez-Gonzalez,
G., Baker, Timothy R., Butt,
N., Anderson, L.O., Arroyo,
Luzmilla, Almeidas, S., Higuchi,
Niro, Killeen, Timothy J.,
Monteagudo, Abel, Neill, D.A.,
Pitman, Nigel C.A., Prieto, A.,
Salomao, Rafael P., Silva,
Natalino A., Vasquez Martinez,
Rodolfo, Laurance, William F.,
Alexiades, M.N., and Ramirez
A., H. 2009. "Spatial
distribution and functional
significance of leaf lamina
shape in Amazonian forest
trees." Biogeosciences Discussions 6:
1837-1874.
Ramos, Ruth, Cipriani,
Roberto, Guzman, Hector M.,
and Garcia, Elia M. 2009.
"Chronology of mercury
enrichment factors in reef
corals from western
Venezuela." Marine Pollution
Bulletin 58: 222-229.
Smith, J. Travis, and Jackson,
Jeremy B.C. 2009. "Ecology of
extreme faunal turnover of
tropical American scallops."
Paleobiology 35(1): 77-93.
Wcislo, William T., and
Tierney, Simon M. 2009.
"Behavioural environments and
niche construction: the
evolution of dim-light foraging
in bees." Biological Review 84(1):
19-37.
STRI in the news
“Hot carbon storage” by Sid
Perkins. 2009. Science News:
February 18.
“Mmmm, carbon!” by Phil
Berardelli. 2009. ScienceNOW
Daily News: 18 February
ARTS: Watching your
every move, 24-7
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute         February 20, 2009
Story: Adapted from
“Tracking forest
creatures on the move”
by Natalie Angier, New
York Times: 02/02/09.
Edited by M Alvarado
and ML Calderon
Photos: MA Guerra,
2005
Capuchin monkeys are
said to be
exceptionally
quick-witted. “Nothing
seems to slow them
down,” says Margaret
Crofoot, 29, recently
selected to run the
Automated Radio-
Telemetry System
(ARTS) on Barro
Colorado Island. She is
an anthropologist
graduated from
Harvard, and studies
the social relations of
Cebus capucinus.
ARTS relies on seven
40-meter-high radio
towers scattered on
BCI, capable to
monitor data from
many individuals at the
same time, at all times,
all year long.
Once a monkey has
been outfitted with a
transmitting device,
the towers track its
unique radio signature
and, by triangulation,
indicate its location on
the Island, its
movements and
encounters with any
other radio-endowed
individual.
The constant data
streams feed into
computers at a central
lab building on the
island, allowing
researchers to stay
abreast of far more
animal activities
than they could
possibly follow
through direct
observation.
Only five of the
BCI’s estimated 250
to 300 capuchin
monkeys are wearing
radio collars. Once
Crofoot is able to
monitor
simultaneously on a
representative
sampling of the 15 to
20 capuchin social
groups that roam the
island, she can better
address her abiding
interest in intertribal
politics.
Se dice que los monos
cariblancos son
excepcionalmente
alertas y que
responden
rápidamente a
cualquier estímulo.
“Nada parece
detenerlos” comenta
Margaret Crofoot,
recientemente
seleccionada para
liderar el proyecto de
Radio-Telemetría en
Barro Colorado
(ARTS.) Graduada en
antropología en
Harvard, estudia las
relaciones sociales de
Cebus capucinus.
ARTS se basa en siete
torres de radio de 40
metros de altura
construidas en
diferentes lugares en
BCI, capaces de
monitorear
información de
muchos individuos al
mismo tiempo, en todo
momento, a lo largo de
todo el año.
Una vez se le ha
colocado el radio-
transmisor al mono,
las torres empiezan a
recibir su firma de
radio única y, por
triaqulación, indican
donde está en la Isla,
sus movimientos y sus
encuentros con
cualquier otro
individuo que porte un
radio-transmisor.
La transmisión
constante de datos que
alinmentan las
computadoras en el
laboratorio central en
la Isla, permite a los
investigadores estar al
tanto de muchas más
actividades del animal
de lo que podrían
lograr observándolos
directamente 
Sólo cinco de un
estimado de 250 a 300
cariblancos de BCI
portan collares de
radio. Una vez Crofoot
pueda monitorear
simultáneamente una
muestra representativa
de los 15 o 20 grupos
sociales de
cariblancos que andan
en la Isla, ella podrá
satisfacer su interés en
la política inter-tribal
de estos primates.