A tiny land bridge between North and South America, the Isthmus of Panama is home to biodiversity disproportionate to its size. Panama’s terrestrial flora and fauna originates in two hemispheres. The country’s tropical waters astound researchers both for their vastly different biology and for their proximity—only 50 miles apart at Panama’s narrowest point.

STRI’s nine research stations facilitate work in lowland tropical forest, cloud forest, coastal mangrove swamps and in both the Caribbean and the Pacific. The platform provides a singular opportunity to study the interactions of complex and varied organisms.