May 1, 2006 (Vol. 26, No. 9)
URL:
http://ctfs.si.edu/datasets/bci
Rating:
Strong Points: Useful info
Weak Points: Limited audience
Summary:
A small site with a small focus but perhaps big importance, the Center for Tropical Forest Science is a relatively small effort (50 hectare tree plot) established in 1980 in the tropical moist forest of Barro Colorado Island of Panama by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Six censuses of trees at least 10 mm in diameter of breast height have been performed. Amazingly enough, this constitutes over 350,000 trees, catalogued over the last 25 years. Visitors to the site can download the dataset and access similar datasets from other locations in Panama. With concerns about tropical rainforests at an all time high, projects such as these provide important data in the war of words going on with regards to this subject.
