Beaufort Signature Courses| Fall Semester
Experimental Tropical Marine Ecology class studies in Panama
watch a video from our 2007 trip here >
The following is an account of the Experimental Tropical Marine Ecoloy class trip to Panama in the Fall of 2006 by PhD student Joshua S. Osterberg. Photos are by Matt Ogburn.
Duke Marine Lab professors Dan Rittschof, Humberto Diaz, and Richard Forward led a class of undergraduate and graduate students on a week-long experimental field course in Panama over fall break. Half of the class studied on the Caribbean coast at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute’s (STRI) Galeta Marine lab and half studied on the Pacific coast at the STRI Natural Center on Culebra Island.
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The rocky Pacific side of Panama is characterized by a 17-foot tidal range, while the Caribbean side experiences a tidal range of less than one foot. Students on both coasts performed experiments measuring the activity and orientation of land hermit crabs and ghost crabs to see if their responses differed by coast.
Pacific coast students investigated the distribution, orientation, and shell damage of chitons as well as investigated local gastropods for signs of abnormalities resulting from anti-fouling paints that coat the bottoms of ships transiting the nearby Panama Canal. Students working on the Carribean side aided graduate student Maria Wise in her search for the sea urchin Lytechinus variegatus for dissertation studies of variations in morphology and color.
The class took time to visit Panama City, tour a tropical rain forest from above in the STRI Canopy Crane, hike Pipeline Road, a world-renowned birding trail, see up close the workings of the Panama Canal’s Miraflores Locks and frequently sample the local ice cream shop. Students encountered kinkachus, tucans, two- and three-toed sloths, anteaters, howler monkeys, crocodiles, fruit bats, spotted eagle rays, and moral eels.