Christian Ziegler - A Magic Web: The Tropical Forest of Barro Colorado Island

I first met Egbert Leigh while wearing a cast over a broken leg during my interview to become a research scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI). That was more than 20 years ago. Egbert had already been at STRI for at least that long before my eventful trip, and by reputation he was a formidable evolutionary ecologist. If I hoped to join the scientific staff of this wonderful institution, I knew that I had best follow his enlightened lead around the trails of Barro Colorado Island (BCI).

Your tour of BCI through A Magic Web will be considerably less strenuous, though no less insightful. No one knows the terrain better or has a greater command of the science that has been carried out under the canopy of BCI than Egbert.

While I missed many of the sights on that first visit to Barro Colorado Island, youll feel as if you are walking the trails of the island via the photography of Christian Ziegler. Christian came to STRI as a research fellowa future scientist with an eye for photography. Much of great science owes to thoughtful observation, and Christian has turned his eye and lens to the fusion of science and art in order to share the wonder of tropical nature with others.

Christian and Egbert collaborate through A Magic Web to reveal the science and beauty of nature on BCI. The island sits in Gatn Lake, facing the giant container ships that pass from ocean to ocean through the Panama Canal. Panama has been home to our scientists since the Smithsonians third Secretary, Charles Walcott, and U.S. President William H. Taft championed the 19101912 Smithsonian Expeditions to document the exquisite biological diversity of the Canal Zone. President Pablo Arosemena of Panama then asked the Smithsonian scientists to extend the biological survey to the entire national territory, initiating a friendship and partnership that has sustained the discovery of tropical knowledge for the past 100 years. In 1924, the original research station on Barro Colorado Island was constructed, begetting a legacy in tropical research that continues to promote exceptional intellectual leadership. STRI now has nine research facilities in Panama, owing to the generosity of the people of Panama and the United States.

For the uninitiated, a question might come to mind: Why Panama? As recently as three million years ago, the Isthmus of Panama connected two continents and divided two oceans. The land bridge between North and South America provided for an exceptional exchange of flora and fauna, and has led to remarkable studies of biological invasion, diversification, and extinction. The separation of the Eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea set in motion the origin of new marine species, and it was this event that first drew my attention to the Isthmus, and the unparalleled opportunities for the study of speciation. For tropical biologists, the Isthmus of Panama is the single greatest natural laboratory available to study the past, present, and future of tropical biodiversity.

From the beginning, the research station at BCI attracted scientists across disciplines. Their evening discussions with one another after a days research in the field stimulated penetrating science and yielded new knowledge for the benefit of humankind. BCI, known as a mecca for tropical biologists, is widely regarded as the site of the longest-running conversation in tropical biology. That tradition continues today as STRI hosts 40 staff scientists and more than 1,200 scientific visitors and students every year, each of whom asks questions of the Earth and engages in rigorous scientific debate.

With A Magic Web, Egbert and Christian have provided us a heady glimpse of a tropical forest ecosystem, and together they reveal the beauty and necessity of Nature. As we face continued population growth around the globe, our needs for the goods and services of a rainforest growas does the need to harvest such goods and services sustainably. For that we must strive to understand more about tropical forests, fresh water, biodiversity, and the evolution and ecology of living things that make up