Gabon – Just Like Panama, But With Hippos

In March I visited Gabon, a small tropical country with a rich and diverse mix of cultures.  

A paradise for biologists: known for vast expanses of tropical forests, dense mangrove swamps, rich bird life and annual visits from breeding humpback whales and nesting turtles.  Sounds just like Panama!  

Panama and Gabon do have a lot in common.

Smithsonian researchers are working to understand tropical biodiversity in both countries:

The SI lab in Gamba, Gabon.  It's not that different 

from the old lab in Gamboa, Panama

Both countries have huge expanses of mangroves:

Black mangrove forest near Gamba, Gabon

Mangroves in Panama don't have hippos lurking offshore
and hippo trails cutting through the mangroves stems.

Red mangroves near Libreville, Gabon

Upwelling and mangrove swamps support productive fisheries:

A trawler working near Libreville, Gabon.  Trawlers in Panama
look similar but are  usually slightly smaller and made of wood.

As well as some large differences….

 

A forest elephant.  Yes it was big and close.

Elephants!   Not something you need to worry about in Panama.

Why was a Marine Biologist watching elephants and hippos? -  Well here’s the backstory.

Permanent Forest Plots - SIGEO.  Just like Panama, Gabon is the site of a Smithsonian Global Earth Observatory (SIGEO).  These sites are part of a global network of permanent forest plots in which every tree is identified, tagged and followed through time, using standard methods.  Through this network an international team of forest scientists seek to answer questions about how tropical forest diversity is generated and maintained; how the world’s forests act to store Carbon; how human activities impact forest ecosystems.   Gabon’s site in Rabi is one of the newest plots and Panama’s site on Barro Colorado Island is the original plot.  

With a "big tree" in Gabon 2013

With a "big tree" in Panama 2007

Unfortunately, as marine biologists we didn’t have the chance to visit Rabi, but we did get to see some very big trees in the forest around the Smithsonian base in Gamba.  Just like home.

Permanent Marine Observatories – MarineGEO

The Smithsonian Institution is launching a network of sites dedicated to understanding the marine realm.  Based on the SIGEO concept, this global network will apply standardized methodologies to questions about the biodiversity of marine ecosystems (reefs, mangroves, saltmarshes, etc.) and the health and resilience of these ecosystems.  The network will expand rapidly from the initial Tennenbaum Marine Observatories run by the Smithsonian Institution in Maryland, Florida, Belize and Panama.  

My colleague, Pat Megonigal, and I visited Gabon to determine how we could extend the existing in-country collaborations to support an expansion of MarineGEO network to Africa.  

Peat and blue carbon:

Pat checking out the sediment in the mangroves.  Some of the

mangroves were associated with extensive peat deposits. 

The weirdest thing was.... there were no mosquitos!

Look rhodoliths:

These pink rocks are actually living red algae.  We found 

beds of rhodoliths  in the intertidal of Gabon,  similar to the 

extensive subtidal beds in the Bay of Panama.

A nerite snail laying eggs:

This nerite snails has laid white egg capsules just outside this

small pool just north of Libreville.  In Panama nerites 

deposit their eggs in the pools.

Beaches and sunsets:

Beach near Cap Esterias, Gabon

Sunset over Cap Esterias, Gabon 

Beach flat at Cap Esterias, Gabon

Sunset over Libreville, Gabon

Check out this Gabon blog by David Korte to learn more about natural history, Smithsonian research, and life in Gamba.

A Day at the Museum

A typical visit to the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco involves checking out the albino alligator, the Indo-Pacific reef exhibit, the living roof of the new green building, and dazzling planetarium.  All well worth a visit!

What a great location!

But for a taxonomist it is a completely different experience.  Behind the scenes museums hold millions of biological and geological specimens.  The fruits of recent biodiversity surveys and environmental impact studies, as well as samples collected from famous and not-so-famous historical expeditions.

Just one row of cabinets
in the Mollusc collection 

In many cases materials donated to museums have not yet been sorted and identified to species.  The shortage of experts and budgetary constraints mean that most museums do not have enough personnel to identify the flood of incoming samples, let alone update the existing collections every time there is some kind name change or taxonomic update.   

So when taxonomists are in town they always spend a few days looking for hidden treasures in the collections.  And of course, helping out the overworked curatorial assistants and collection mangers.


In January I spent a couple of days working on the calyptraeid samples at the CAS.  Check out the draws of unidentified Crepidula.  The Bostrycapulus were pretty easy to sort out.  I just published a revision of the genus.  And the collection team had the labels printed on archival paper in a flash.  

I started with the species 

I've revised most recently.  

There were 3 draws full of un-indetified Crepidula alone! 

Each lot is in a single box. With a label and any
revisions, like my updated species name.

The next day it was all typed up nicely!

Oooops!  Calyptraids from unusual locations - Cook Islands
in this case - often turn out to be imposters.

Nature Comes Out in Support of National Football - Panama Marea Roja!

Last night the Marea Roja, Panama’s national football team tied Costa Rica 2-2 in their struggle to qualify for the 2014 World Cup. 

And this morning it seems that even nature is trying to show support for the team.  Go Panama!

 

We had a great view from the lab as this intense algal bloom developed along the edge of the causeway. 

We started to see it at low tide in the very shallow water.

Noctiluca occurs in shallow water all around the world

Looking at the cells through the micrscope it's easy to identify the single-celled alga Noctiluca, a dinoflagellate.

This big cells are giants among single-celled organisms - reaching up to 2 mm across. You can usually only see one of the flagella (which it uses to feed)  moving slowly back and forth across the cell. They look like pigtails.

Unlike a lot of dinoflagellates which are often highly toxic, Noctiluca appears not to make toxins.  Nevertheless the blooms can secrete high concentrations of ammonia and deprive the local water of oxygen, so these blooms are sometimes associated with fish kills.  Luckily we haven’t seen any dead fish. 

The orange color of our bloom dissipated by the end of the day. But we still had the chance to check out their impressive bioluminescence.  

We had fun shaking tubes of algae in the darkroom.
The blue-green glow was bright enough to photograph

You can see the individual cells glowing as
waves hit the rocks at night!  

Photos by Julia Schmidt-Petersen and Rebecca Rissanen