Facilities Improvements at the Tiputini Biodiversity Station in Eastern Ecuador

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A grant has been awarded to the Tiputini Biodiversity Station (TBS) of Boston University under the direction of Dr. Thomas Kunz for partial support to enhance the Station's ability to serve as a base for research and higher education learning in the Amazonian rainforest. TBS is located in the Amazonian rainforest on the Tiputini River in eastern Ecuador, adjacent to the Yasuni Biosphere Reserve. It is a unique field station influenced by its association with the Andes to the west and the expansive lowland rainforest to east. The primary goal of TBS is to support research and education that will help conserve and manage the Amazon ecosystem. Current facilities at the TBS are inadequate to meet the research and educational goals of the station. Funds will be used to erect a new laboratory building that will significantly increase laboratory space for researchers, install a satellite downlink/uplink for Internet access, construct new housing for long-term researchers, and improve the transportation system for provisioning TBS with supplies and equipment. All of these improvements will significantly bolster the research capabilities of users of the station and will facilitate communication between researchers.In its nine years of operation, over 200 researchers, including 40 graduate students, have visited or conducted research at TBS. In addition, over 2,000 university students from North America, South America, and Europe have participated in courses taught at the TBS by the Universidad San Francisco de Quito and Boston University. TBS provides unique opportunities for scientists and students to engage in ecological, evolutionary, and conservation research in a region with diverse and complex species assemblages, coupled to an environment that is being influenced by both natural and anthropogenic forces.