Amazonia represents the quintessence of biodiversity – the richest ecosystem on earth. Yet a study by Smithsonian scientists, published this week in the journal Science, shows that differences in species composition of tropical forests are greater over distance in Panama than in Amazonia. The finding also challenges recent models proposed to explain forest species composition. Researchers compared data from tropical forests in Panama, Ecuador and Peru, observing similarities of species composition in the western Amazon.

U.S. and Brazilian scientists led by William Laurance of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute find that deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon have accelerated over the last decade. Analyzing deforestation estimates based on satellite images of the Amazon since 1978, the team reports that – contrary to Brazilian government claims that threats to Amazonian forests have fallen in recent years because of improved environmental laws and public attitudes – rates of deforestation have risen sharply since 1995.

In the January 8 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), The Cucurbit Network and the University of Puerto Rico establish mitochondrial DNA analysis as a powerful tool for understanding relationships among flowering plants. A comparison of mtDNA from cultivated squash, pumpkins, gourds and their wild ancestors strongly supports hypotheses based on archeological and ethnobotanical evidence for six independent domestication events in the New World.

The Smithsonian Institution will bring together ecologists, cocoa production experts, cocoa industry representatives and other experts interested in the economics of and the variety of life around small family cocoa farms for a "Sustainable Cocoa Workshop." The meeting will be held March 29 through April 2 at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama.