Research

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Field Notes

Natural History

20 June 2002

Arrived, with Master's Student Mary Johnston on Barro Colorado Island this morning on the early boat from Gamboa. After a long flight from Oklahoma City (OKC-DFW-Miami-Panama City) yesterday, we were up early to catch a taxi to Gamboa, about a one hour ride from the middle of the city.  The boat, left the dock, loaded with BCI staff and biologists for a 30 minute trip to the island. It was good to be back, to see old friends, and to feel the humidity and breathe deep the pungency of tropical forest mixed with boat diesel fumes.

Barro Colorado Island was once a hilltop that became and island when the basin it towered over was flooded during the creation of the Panama Canal. BCI is the largest of many islands in this warm water impoundment and  home of a Smithsonian research station. I have been coming to BCI for 12 years, studying the ants and other tiny invertebrates that live in the litter.  The island has been a focus of tropical ecologists since the early 1900's.

BCI is the reddish speck in the middle of Lake Gatun. The Pacific Ocean is toward the bottom (actually East) and the Atlantic Ocean is toward the top (actually West!). Panama City is on the Pacific side, and we catch a boat from the dock in Gamboa, just as the canal widens.

We spend the day unpacking the heavy rolling suitcases and finding our dormitory accommodations.  Also, taking things out of storage, in two large airconditioned units kept on the island for just that purpose. Picture the final scene from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Then picture your trunk about midway up a tower of trunks, some dating back to the 1960s.  A veritable history of research on the island.

Tomorrow we hit the field.

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