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Physical Monitoring Program |
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Program Directors: Karl Kaufmann & Steven Paton |
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| The Physical Monitoring Program began in 1972 on Barro Colorado Island and included a full suite of meteorological and hydrological parameters. In 1973 the first Marine physical monitoring station was established on Punta Culebra.
Since then, the program has grown to encompass many more terrestrial and marine locations. The Terrestrial physical monitoring program began with two stations on BCI: one located in a clearing near to several laboratory buildings and referred to as the 'Clearing' or 'El Claro'; a second located inside a small catchment area named after the trail which passes through it - Lutz. This station consists of a 48m ( increased from 42m in Sept. 2001) walk-up tower plus a weir. Both stations monitor some or all of the following: precipitation, temperature, humidity, wind, soil moisture, potential evapotranspiration, solar radiation, air pressure and run-off data. A third hydrological station, known as Conrad, was added to BCI in 1995. This station is located near the Conrad trial to the Southwest of the 50-ha plot and currently consists of a weir and a tipping bucket. In 1990, the STRI installed the first of two canopy access construction cranes in Parque Natural Metropolitano on the edge of Panama City on the Pacific side of the Isthmus. A meteorology station was placed on the side of the crane in January of that year. For more information about the Canopy Crane Access Project, click here The ESP Physical Monitoring Program counts on the support of the Panama Canal Authority (ACP for its initials in Spanish ) which has generously provided us with data from their extensive physical monitoring program which covers most of the Panama Canal Watershed. More information about the Panama Canal and the PCA can be found at www.pancanal.com/ In 1998, the ESP Physical Monitoring Program, in cooporation with the Mpala Research Station, established a meteorological station at the Mpala Research Station in Kenya. This met. station is run by the staff of the Mpala RS with technical and financial support provided by STRI. More information about the Mpala RS can be found at the following links: www.stri.org/english/research/facilities/affiliated_stations/mpala/index.php www.mpalafoundation.org/researchctr |
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| The marine physical montoring program monitors both physical and biological parameters that affect the growth and health of marine organisms. The physical data include hourly records of both meteorological and oceanographic parameters such as rainfall, solar radiation, and salinity. These are recorded primarily from our two field stations in Bocas del Toro and Galeta on the Caribbean coast of the Republic of Panama. In addition, we monitor sea temperature at 12 sites on both coasts. The biological monitoring records productivity and biomass and is designed to document decadal fluctuations in three important tropical habitats -- coral reefs, grassbeds, and mangroves. A major part is based on a protocol developed by CARICOMP, a Caribbean-wide monitoring program in which the MP has been a participant since 1999. The MP has substantially extended the Caricomp protocol in order to follow environmental changes more intensively over a wider area. These extensions are sub-projects run by the MP investigators. The Panama Reef Monitoring Network under the direction of Hector Guzmán monitors the population structure of coral reefs at permanent transects at 18 sites on both sides of the isthmus. The Marine Environmental Assessment Study (MAREAS) under the direction of Luis D'Croz has been recording water quality and plankton parameters at a permanent site at the Pacific end of the canal since 1985 and is overseeing the operation of two data loggers that continously record salinity, chlorophyll, and several other parameters at two Caribbean sites. The Mangrove monitoring project under the direction of Candy Fuller monitors mangroves at three sites in addition to the Caricomp site and extends each to include quadrats further back from the shore. |
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Site Descriptions:Click on the following links (or on the cirlces in the map below) to go to a description of our Research Sites: |
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| Click here to see a list of climate related links | |
