Where the tropics speak and stories grow – from canopy to community.
Welcome to the Tropical Studies Blog that takes you behind the scenes of OTS fieldwork, told by students, researchers, staff, and communities on the front lines of discovery.
In News
Traveling to South Africa for the first time with OTS
Photo credit: Laurence Kruger My friend and I traveled together from Denver, CO. As we lugged our bags through the Johannesburg airport, a man approached us and asked if we were with OTS. Although we had no identifiable markings as...
In News
Letting the Tree Stand: OTS Experiences South Africa 2024
Photo credit: Laurence Kruger I ended up in South Africa on a whim, and while this may make me seem like an unserious person, in truth, I am not. But having toured OTS in La Selva almost twenty years before,...
In News
Carpenter Bequest
Photo via LinkedIn All of us at OTS are deeply grateful and excited to announce the bequest to OTS of $430,000 from the Francis Lynn Carpenter Trust. Lynn, a professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at University of California, Irvine,...
In News
OTS South Africa turns 20
It's been just over 20 years ago that we launched the OTS African Ecology and Conservation courses in South Africa after two years of careful discussions. Thanks to the initial funding from the Mellon Foundation, a partnership between OTS, WITS,...
In News
An excerpt: “Quetzals: Icons of the Cloud Forest”
Quetzals: Icons of the Cloud Forest Alan F. Poole Photo credit: Zona Tropical Publications The following is an excerpt from Alan F. Poole's book, Quetzals: Icons of the Cloud Forest: “……a bird of such incredible beauty that for 200 years...
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Open Doors Festival 2024 at Las Cruces Research Station
Photo credit: Ramon Morales Garro Open Doors is a tradition that was born in 2008. The event has been evolving as a means of community outreach at the Las Cruces Research Station and Wilson Botanical Garden, with the intention of...
In News
In Remembrance of Rodolfo Silva Vargas
Photo credit: Carlos Silva I share the sad news that Rodolfo Silva, a long-time OTS friend and supporter, passed away on July 10, 2024, at the age of 91, leaving behind his wife Margaret, his son Carlos and wife Irene,...
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OTS community news – September 2024
Photo credit: BioQUEST OTS is represented in the OCELOTS network. New online modules for teaching tropical biology are based on research by the OTS community. La Selva researchers G. Small and C. Ganong created a module to allow students to...
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Publications – September 2024
La Selva mammals are in the spotlight. Using exclusion plots, Osorto Nuñez et al. 2024[1] showed that the presence of collared peccaries increased seedling diversity, seedling height, and evidence of herbivory at La Selva, whereas at a nearby comparison site...
In News
Nora Bynum
Dr. Nora Bynum, a long-term staff member who made significant contributions to the development and implementation of OTS’ education program, retired in July 2024. Dr. Bynum was integral to the OTS education program in a variety of roles for almost...