One of the world's largest and highest-quality set of observations on live tropical insects and their host plants has led researchers to reinterpret the structure of tropical insect communities. The team of scientists who collaborated on this analysis includes Scott Miller of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, Yves Basset of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Vojtech Novotny of the Czech Academy of Sciences and George Weiblen of the University of Minnesota.

The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) proudly presents A Magic Web: The Tropical Forest of Barro Colorado, published by Oxford University Press. Palms walk, transparent wings flash, teeth gnash and wasps oviposit when STRI staff ecologist, Egbert Leigh, and photographer, Christian Ziegler, team up artfully to celebrate one of the most intensively studied tropical forests on the planet, Panama's Barro Colorado Island.

Global climate change predictions and greenhouse gas models desperately need to be tested in the Amazon, home of 45% of the world's tropical forest. The Amazon Forest Inventory Network (RAINFOR), representing nearly fifty researchers from five Amazonian countries, Europe and the U.S., is a new effort to monitor biomass and dynamics of forests across the entire Amazon basin.

The Association for Tropical Biology honored Dr.Ira Rubinoff for "exceptional service in the fields of tropical biology and conservation" at its 2002 Annual Meeting in Panama (July 29-August 2). "Six billion people inhabit the earth", Rubinoff remarked as he accepted honorary ATB membership: "we are struggling both scientifically and politically to determine how enormous developments associated with this magnitude of human activity are changing the planet and the biological systems that keep us alive."

For more than a century humans have been changing the composition of the world's atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels, agriculture, and other activities. The resulting climate changes may already be having far-reaching impacts on tropical forests. A symposium at the 2002 meetings of the Association for Tropical Biology, hosted by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), Panama, examined the evidence for these changes and their implications for the future.

Panama City, Panama--Difficult environmental conditions and complex biological interactions make it tough for tropical biologists to understand animal behavior, climate change effects and highly biodiverse plants and forest organisms. On Monday, July 29, 2002, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) convened a diverse group of rainforest biologists with engineers at the forefront of sensor and communications technologies to brainstorm new ways to apply technology in tropical research and conservation efforts.

Panama City, Panama-Today the world's tropical forests are not only being cleared at an extraordinary rate, they are also increasingly being divided into fragments that can rapidly lose their original rich biodiversity. At the 2002 meetings of the Association for Tropical Biology, hosted by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), Panama, this conservation crisis was addressed in a symposium bringing together concerned investigators from throughout the tropics.

The Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History historic bird collections was critical in determining that the 1918 influenza pandemic that killed 20 million to 40 million people worldwide did not originate from birds, as previously thought.

Panama City, Panama - Although they have persisted for tens of millions of years, neotropical lowland forests have changed greatly in extent and composition due to climatic variation and to human impacts. In a symposium at the 2002 meetings of the Association for Tropical Biology, hosted by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), Panama, scientists presented the latest results of research on neotropical forests and their transformations up to the time of Columbus.

Distinctly sculptured opaline phytoliths in soil and plant remains tell archaeologists which plants were present thousands of years ago. However, the production and purpose of these tiny glassy structures common in plant tissues is poorly understood. Dolores Piperno at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama and colleagues predict that a single genetic locus controls both lignin and phytolith production in squash (Cucurbita spp.), making phytoliths even better evidence of plant domestication events.