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Updates every hour. Last Updated: 22-Dec-2025 10:11 ET (22-Dec-2025 15:11 GMT/UTC)

Red-eyed treefrog embryos actively avoid asphyxiation inside their eggs

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Red-eyed treefrog embryos react to environmental oxygen concentration before they have blood or muscular movement

Journal: Journal of Experimental Biology
Funder: Boston University, National Science Foundation, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

Diversity of trees in Ecuador's Amazon rainforest defies simple explanation

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Trees in a hyper-diverse tropical rainforest interact with each other and their environment to create and maintain diversity, researchers report in the Oct. 24 issue of the journal Science. This study was conducted in the Yasuni forest dynamics plot of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, the most diverse tropical forest site associated with the Center for Tropical Forest Science/Smithsonian Institution Global Earth Observatory network.

Journal: Science

Smithsonian perspective: Biodiversity in a warmer world

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Will climate change exceed life's ability to respond? Biodiversity in a Warmer World, published in the Oct. 10, 2008, issue of the journal, Science, illustrates that cross-disciplinary research fostered by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama clearly informs this urgent debate.

Journal: Science

Smithsonian works with Embera community to offset carbon emissions

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Business Announcement

Thanks to a collaborative agreement signed between the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the Organization for Unity and Development of the Community Ipeti-Embera, the Institute in Panama will offset its estimated carbon emissions for the next three years.

A recipe for saving the world's oceans from an extinction crisis

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Jeremy Jackson, senior scientist emeritus of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, asserts in the Aug. 12 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, that the following steps, if taken immediately, could reverse the demise of the oceans.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Meeting: Arthur M. Sackler Colloquium of the National Academy of Sciences

Extinction most likely for rare trees in the Amazon rainforest

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Common tree species in the Amazon will survive even grim scenarios of deforestation and road-building, but rare trees could suffer extinction rates of up to 50 percent, predict Smithsonian scientists and colleagues in the Aug. 12 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Funder: National Science Foundation, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

The drivers of tropical deforestation are changing, say scientists

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A shift from poverty-driven to industry-driven deforestation threatens the world's tropical forests but offers new opportunities for conservation, according to an article coauthored by William Laurance of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. "New Strategies for Conserving Tropical Forests" will be featured in the September issue of the leading journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution.

A new species of predatory bagworm from Panama's tropical forest

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

University of Panama and Smithsonian researchers report the discovery of a new bagworm moth species, in the Annals of the Entomology Society of America. Unlike nearly all other bagworms, Perisceptis carnivora have predatory larvae. Strangest of all, according to Annette Aiello, staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, the adult moths wrap their eggs individually in beautiful cases fashioned from golden abdominal hairs called setae, a behavior unique among insects.

Journal: Annals of the Entomological Society of America

Insect warning colors aid cancer and tropical disease drug discovery

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Brightly colored beetles or butterfly larvae nibbling on a plant may signal the presence of chemical compounds active against cancer cell lines and tropical parasitic diseases, according to researchers at Smithsonian's Tropical Research Institute in Panama. Such clues could speed drug discovery and provide insight into the ecological relationships between tropical-forest plants and insects that feed on them.

Journal: Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment
Funder: National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada, U.S. National Science Foundation Directorate for Engineering, U.S. Department of Agriculture's International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups program, U.S. National Institutes of Health, Levinson Fellowship- STRI-McGill NEO

Smithsonian coral biodiversity survey of Panama's Pearl Islands

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A comprehensive survey of coral biodiversity in Panama's Las Perlas Archipelago, published in the journal Environmental Conservation by researchers from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and their colleagues, has resulted in clear conservation recommendations for a new coastal management plan.

Journal: Environmental Conservation
Funder: UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, UK Darwin Initiative, Heriot-Watt University, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute