PIRE--Ancient biodiversity and global change in the New World Tropics: A once-in-a-century opportunity along the Panama Canal

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The New World Tropics (NWT) contain extraordinarily high levels of biodiversity that are threatened today by climate change, human impacts and extinction. Yet comparatively little is known about when this biodiversity originated and how it has evolved over time. This PIRE project seizes upon a unique opportunity for research presented by the Panama Canal expansion project in which fossil-bearing rock strata are being exposed for the first time since the canal's completion a century ago - a rare and exciting opportunity to significantly advance our knowledge of the origins and evolution of this rich biodiversity. This international research and education collaboration between four U.S. and three Panamanian institutions - the Panama Canal Project (PCP) - focuses on the systematic documentation of the ancient biodiversity of the NWT in the 25-million-year record preserved in the canal basin.The PCP builds upon prior individual initiatives to collect and study fossil, geological, and archaeological samples in the canal basin where remarkable fossil discoveries provided a glimpse into the diverse ancient biota preserved in the basin. As excavation activities intensify over the next several years the PCP fossil recovery effort will exponentially add to the world's NWT fossil specimen collection for immediate study and to be housed in museum collections for future study. These fossils have the potential to transform our understanding of several significant geobiological issues including: the magnitude and timing of major episodes of diversity change in the NWT; the biogeographic origins, relationships, and dispersal history of Central American fauna and flora; the antiquity of the rainforest; and the temporal effects of global and regional climate change on tropical biodiversity. Also ripe for scientific exploration are fundamental questions relating to the impacts that the emergence of the Isthmus of Panama - which severed the marine connection between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and created the land bridge linking North and South America - had on ancient marine and terrestrial biota.The next generation of international scientists produced by this project will be technically competent in their field of specialization, internationally experienced, and have a heightened appreciation for the broader impacts of science on society and the important role of science education. Through innovative international experiences participants will spend semesters or summers abroad working in the field and/or in laboratories, teaching in partner institutions, interning in museums, and learning another language and culture. Students and faculty will be engaged in a variety of outreach projects in Panama and the U.S., such as seminars, websites accessible to K-12 and public audiences, an on-line database enabling global-wide research access to the fossils, and bilingual educational courses. The PIRE program will add an international dimension to the career development of students earning traditional or non-traditional science degrees, preparing them for international engagement in academic or scientific research environments or alternate careers in science education, museums, NGOs, government agencies, and industry.Participating institutions will use this PIRE award and partner funding to further develop, internationalize and strengthen scientific infrastructural capacity, particularly in fossil collections and museum technology areas, and sustain the benefits far beyond the lifetime of the project by institutionalizing the infrastructure and educational tools to be developed during the project. A new museum dedicated to biodiversity, the Biomuseo, will open near the canal in 2011 and this PIRE project will develop a bilingual travelling exhibit, Panama Canal Discoveries. This exhibit, complemented by coordinated web-based components, will be hosted at the three PCP museums and other venues throughout the U.S. and Panama. The Biomuseo and travelling exhibit are expected to engage a combined 750,000 international visitors annually. The PCP also presents an opportunity for the University of Florida - Florida Museum of Natural History to strengthen their recently re-designed museum collections information system, and test how new technologies might improve usability interfaces between PCP data resources and other on-line and literature-based scientific research databases. This PIRE project has the potential to leverage various institutional grants and initiatives, including new faculty, to add value to and sustain the PCP into the future. The four key U.S. Institutions are: Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH) at the University of Florida, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) - Panama campus, New Mexico Museum of Natural History (NMMNH), Florida State University - Panama Canal campus. The three international institutions are: Biomuseo (Ancón, Panamá), Universidad de Panamá, and Sociedad Mastozoológica de Panamá (SOMASPA). Panamanian funding partners include the Secretaría Nacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (SENACYT) and the Autoridad del Canal de Panamá (ACP).This award is co-funded by NSF's Office of International Science and Engineering, the Division of Earth Sciences, and the Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings.