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Caribbean Panama

Caribbean Panama

Coral reef
Carolina Cesar under water
Boza retrieving data from loggers
Coral Reef survey

Caribbean, Panama,
STRI Bocas del Toro station

“Bocas del toro, a Caribbean jewel and a natural laboratory that connects scientists from all over the world”

The archipelago of Bocas Del Toro is a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea, located in the northwest of Panama. The archipelago has three main marine habitats: coral reefs, seagrasses, and mangroves, and hosts a broad variety of fauna including sea turtles, sharks and rays, and dolphins, as well as sloths, howler monkeys, and poison dart frogs. In 1998, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Station (STRI) founded Bocas del Toro Research Station (BRS) on the main island of Isla Colon, and has provided field accommodation to many scientists around the world since 2004. Bocas Del Toro is a remarkable natural laboratory for studying evolution, climate change, marine biology and ecology, invertebrate, taxonomy, and human impacts on marine ecosystems. In addition, the archipelago forms a semi-enclosed tropical embayment, Bahia Almirante, which experiences seasonal hypoxia. Hypoxia can be detrimental to all marine ecosystems, and researchers have been working to understand and monitor this phenomenon. The MarineGEO program was launched at Bocas in 2015 and its research is active year-round at the station. The first MarineGEO staffer working at Bocas del Toro was Dr. Janina Seemann. MarineGEO currently supports monitoring of weather and water quality via a multiparameter sonde (sensor package) installed on a platform just off STRI’s dock as well as weekly monitoring of water quality at eight sites around the archipelago. MarineGEO technicians conduct standardized seagrass and coral reef surveys, and MarineGEO’s annual coordinated experiments. A collaborative habitat mapping project is currently is being performed around the archipelago.

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Rachel Collin

Director

Smithsonian Tropical Research Insitute, Bocas del Toro Research Station

Ximena Boza

Research Technician III

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute | Bocas del Toro Research Station

Viviana Bravo

Research Technician I

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Bocas del Toro, Panama

Carolina César

Research Technician I

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute | Bocas del Toro Research Station
9.341300
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Link to Smithsonian Institution homepage(link is external)
The Marine Global Earth Observatory (MarineGEO), directed by the Smithsonian’s Tennenbaum Marine Observatories Network (TMON), is a network of partners researching biodiversity as the heart of healthy, productive, coastal ecosystems, where marine life and people are concentrated and interact most. MarineGEO marshals the Smithsonian’s leadership in discovery and convening power to advance knowledge useful to decision-makers in supporting innovative management and protection of marine life.