Dan's time on Barro Colorado Island

Hello! My name is Dan, and I’m from the Chicago suburbs. I am entering my senior year at Augustana College, a small liberal arts school on the border of Illinois and Iowa. Although my majors(M) and minors(m) are Biology(M), Environmental studies(M), psychology(m), and geography(m), my focus is on animal behavior. While I am in Panama I am studying group decision making and nourishment-based learning in the white faced capuchin monkey. Rather than keeping a written blog, I keep a video blog of my experiences (If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video must be worth millions!). So this is actually the first time I am writing about my experiences here. I wrote an eloquent and nearly poetic narrative of my time here thus far, but realized that (apparently) that's not what blogs are like.  So instead, I offer some pictures and brief descriptions of my amazing time here thus far. 

Every morning I am greeted by this breath taking sunrise. And although I've never been a fan of rising with the sun, the view softens the blow. 

Shortly after the sun peaks over the canal we go out in search of the monkeys. We typically stay with them for between five to six hours. It is a blast watching them interact with one another all day!

Just because we're looking for monkeys doesn't mean we don't see anything else in the forest. We are often distracted by other incredible forms of life.

On Tuesdays we go into Panama City for professional development and an educational seminar. After the academic side of the visit we typically go out for dinner, drinks, and to buy groceries and snacks. 

So far I've really enjoyed my time here. It's hard to believe that I'm already in my fourth week here. I see new things every day, and am hoping this trend continues until the day I leave. The island is full of life, and it is a privilege to be a part of it. 

My experience in the REU program - Nilka

(This is me. My first day in the REU program.)

 

Hello, my name is Nilka Gissette Gondola; I am Panamanian and the third year of study Environmental Biology at the University of Panama. This year I am participating in the REU program. I'm working with gastropods in the laboratory of Dr. Andrew Altieri and his team.

 

 

 

(Rocky shore, of the Pacific of Panama)

 

During my project, I will visit some rocky areas of the Pacific coast of Panama to look for a specific genre of gastropods. Currently I do not have all the pictures of what I've been doing, but I hope to share son.

 

(Welcome dinner)

It has been a wonderful experience to meet students from other countries and share with them. I hope that the stay in Panama of all participants in the REU program rewarding and enriching.
Thanks for reading me!

Azteca Ants - Annika

Hi! My name is Annika Salzberg and I, along with Kate (from the first blog post), am working in Dr. Kaspari's lab with his PhD student Jane Lucas on Azteca ants. I'm a rising sophomore at Haverford College, majoring in Biology - with plans to become an entomologist. I'll be telling you a bit about life on Barro Colorado Island and show you some of the cool stuff Kate and I have been doing!

This is our lab space, where we meet every morning before going out in the field.

The view upon arrival on BCI

A crocodile swimming past the BCI dock

When you arrive on the island, the first buildings you pass as you walk up from the dock are the two labs. There, you'll find offices and labs equipped with everything we need for our indoor experiments.  

The space I use when I need to work with chemicals

Though I've been working a lot with all the various projects the lab is running right now, I've been focused on looking at the effect of antibiotics on various invertebrates. We're examining how the elimination of fungus or bacteria affects creatures like millipedes, isopods, termites, and cockroaches. A the moment, I'm monitoring 120 millipedes!

The lab buildings, with the dock behind them

The cafeteria where everyone on the island has their meals

An average day for our group generally consists of field work in the morning, and lab work in the afternoon. Weather-wise, this is pretty convenient, since it rains more often than not in the afternoon - though the few times we've been caught out in a thunderstorm have been pretty fun! 

Above pictured are Jane Lucas, Kate, and myself, all working on various projects. Today, we went on a long hike to find 30 Azteca nests for Kate's project. We placed seedlings both underneath the nests (resulting in us all being bitten many, many times) and 10 meters away. Kate will be returning to all the seedlings once a week to check on their growth.

Lastly, here are some creatures I've photographed around the island! One of the most exciting parts about being in the tropics is the incredibly biodiversity one finds, even on such a small island. Click on the images to enlarge them!

Cane Toad

Yellow-headed gecko

The cafeteria windows at night attract many insects

A late-night visitor outside my dorm

Pseudoscorpion

Tungara frog

Passing around a giant cockroach

Sphinx moth found on a night hike

A tarantula discovered on a night hike

This grasshopper was about 5 or 6  inches long!

Thanks for reading! 

Azteca Ants- Kate

Hi everyone, and welcome to our blog!  This blog is operated by a group of summer interns with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama.  We hope that this will help to showcase some of the exciting work being done with the Smithsonian this summer!

My name is Kate Henderson, and I'm a rising junior at Villanova University.  I'm spending 10 weeks in Panama with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) as part of a National Science Foundation funded Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) grant.  I'm working with Dr. Michael Kaspari, his PhD student Jane Lucas, and another intern named Annika (who you'll meet in the next post) on a project studying Azteca trigona ants.  This project is based on Barro Colorado Island in the Panama Canal's Gatun Lake.  Barro Colorado Island (often referred to as BCI) is part of the protected Barro Colorado Nature Monument, and has been administered by the Smithsonian since the 1940's.  If you're interested, you can learn more about the island and the STRI's facilities here.  BCI a really fascinating site with lots of long-term tropical research!  You might have heard of the 50 hectare plot, where all of the trees are censused every few years to monitor the dynamics of a tropical forest.

Barro Colorado Island.  Image Credit: NSF

My project examines Azteca ants and how their waste can impact processes and nutrient cycling in the forest.  Azteca make an excellent study subject because they build large, long-lasting nests in trees.  Their refuse will accumulate under these nests, making it easier for us to determine the impacts of this refuse.  A previous study by Clay et al. 2013 on Barro Colorado found that the ant refuse is enriched in several important nutrients, and that decomposition rates were higher under nests than in the surrounding area.  This summer, I'm going to be working on a project that examines several issues related to ant refuse- whether it impacts tree seedling growth, herbivory on tree seedlings, or the behavior of other organisms in the area.

An Azteca trigona nest on Barro Colorado Island

For now, we're still doing setup for a lot of the experiments.  We have tree seedlings growing in pots in the lab now, which we're hoping to bring into the forest sometime within the nest week.  Some will go under Azteca nests, while others will be placed a short distance away.  Once the seedlings are in the forest, I'll measure them and look for signs of herbivory on the leaves once a week.  We also have refuse collection buckets set up under a few nests.  Ant waste falls from the nest into the bucket, and I collect it every few days for use in a future experiment about organism behavior.  Updates to come as the summer progresses!

Refuse collection bucket under an Azteca nest

For now, I have gotten to do some great hiking and see some of Barro Colorado's incredible wildlife!

The view from the STRI facilities on BCI

Snake!  It was so still we almost stepped on it before we saw it

Howler monkey

View of the forest

Me marking a plot for an experiment

Green and black poison dart frog

Thank you for reading!  We'll have updates coming from various projects throughout the summer.  If you want to learn more about the REU program at STRI, you can find their website here.