science, health & technology

Also in this section:
WHO addresses health care worker migration issues
People's perceptions when they observe wildlife on Barro Colorado Island

Diabetes nutrition

STRI research on drought sensitivity and tropical forest plant distribution published in Nature

Do Irish dolphins have a brogue of their own?

STRI scientists find drought resistance key to tropical forest tree distribution

by Eric Jackson

Six biologists from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) and another colleague from the University of Georgia have published a paper in the prestigious journal Nature that concludes that tree and shrub distribution in Panama's forests is largely a function of drought resistance. Bettina Engelbrecht, Richard Condit, Thomas Kursar, Melvin Tyree, Benjamin Turner and Stephen Hubbell, all of whom are affiliated with STRI and most of them also connected with North American or European academic institutions, along with the University of Georgia's Lisa Comita, went several steps beyond the common knowledge that tree distribution in tropical forests tends to follow environmental gradients.

The scientists's work combined observations and statistical analyses in the famous 50-hectare plot of Barro Colorado Island, large forest plots at Cocoli and Fort Sherman and 119 other forest observation sites in Panama and Colon provinces with experiments on how well various trees and shrubs hold up in drought conditions on their own versus how well they do when irrigated. The surveys and experiments were conducted in such a way as to look for other factors like soil nutrients as deterimining factors in where various forest plants thrive and where they don't. They didn't find that soil nutrients were totally irrelevant, but based on statistical analyses they concluded that "it is unlikely that the significant correlations between species distribution patterns and drought sensitivity are driven by variation in nutrient availability."

So what might this mean for this country's forests and the living things that depend upon them? For one thing, it means that with climate change a key factor to watch will be hydrology, "that future changes in hydrological processes and precipitation patterns will have direct consequences for species ranges, tropical forest community composition and ecosystem function." It may seem like a no-brainer in hindsight, but the researchers point out that current models of climate change's effects on tropical forests don't adequately take water into account. A too-simplistic model, in turn, can affect public policy decisions about which species and ecosystems need to be protected in light of changing conditions.

In addition to added international prestige to the scientists involved and to the renowned Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, the publication in Nature also reflects on the other institutions involved, which include the University of Kaiserslautern (Germany) Department of Plant Ecology and Systematics, the University of Georgia (USA) Department of Plant Biology, the University of Utah Department of Biology, the US Department of Agriculture Forestry Service and the University of Alberta (Canada) Department of Renewable Resources. Some of the findings that went into the publication in Nature were the subject of public lectures at STRI's Tupper Auditorium that were reported upon in The Panama News.

WHO addresses health care worker migration issues
People's perceptions when they observe wildlife on Barro Colorado Island

Diabetes nutrition

STRI research on drought sensitivity and tropical forest plant distribution published in Nature

Do Irish dolphins have a brogue of their own?