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OTS 50th Anniversary: ATBC-OTS Meeting
Registration Opens Soon
Our plans for the joint 50th anniversary meeting in San José (June 23-27, 2013) are actively moving forward. Click here to find out more about the lineup of symposia, workshops, and special programs and to sign-up to receive e-mail updates for news and announcements. The registration site will open on or around March 26.
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OTS 50th Anniversary: Historical Reflections
Historical Reflections: A Roundtable
By Julie Denslow
One of the highlights of the joint meeting with the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation will be a chance to hear the perspectives of six scientists who helped shape the direction of research on tropical organisms and ecosystems during the last fifty years.
E. O. Wilson, Gordon Orians, Mary Jane West Eberhard, Peter Raven, Jay Savage and John Terborgh have been seminal contributors to our understanding of Neotropical biodiversity, evolution, ecology, and behavior during the years following the founding of OTS and ATBC. What were the questions that took them to the tropics, how has our understanding of these systems changed, and how do they see their fields evolving during the coming decades?
Do you have questions for them? Let me know and help shape the discussion!
Julie S. Denslow
jdenslow@att.net
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OTS 50th Anniversary: Seeking Golden Datasets
In the interest of preserving the tremendous data legacy collected at our field stations, the OTS Science Committee is launching a program to locate and archive the foundational datasets, i.e. the Golden Datasets.
Golden Datasets are the pivotal historical datasets that typify the best of tropical science. Included among these data sets could be multi-investigator project datasets, such as those of the PLOTS, GAPS, and HUERTOS projects or individual data sets of special value from the 1960s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. We are asking for nominations by the tropical research community to help us identify these valuable datasets. We are especially interested in early datasets that might be endangered by retirements or the passing of pioneer investigators.
Please help the OTS Science Committee identify these pivotal datasets by nominating datasets that meet these criteria (including your own datasets). The OTS Science Committee will choose the highest priority data sets and make every reasonable effort to assure their long-term preservation in accordance with OTS data policies.
Click here to nominate a dataset.
For more information, please contact Dr. Steve Oberbauer, Florida International University.
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Photo Exhibit Launches 50th Anniversary Activities
The photo exhibition, Miradas al Mundo Natural: Celebrando 50 Años de la Organización para Estudios Tropicales and tribute to OTS' heroes, opened on March 19 at the National Museum of Costa Rica and provided the perfect platform for the official launch of special events scheduled to celebrate OTS' 50th Anniversary.
 Attended by OTS' President and CEO, Dr. Elizabeth Losos, and a number of OTS' close friends and supporters, the exhibition consisted of 52 photographs and four sculptures representing the Costa Rican biodiversity through the eyes of sculptor, Jonathan Torres and four photographers: Karla Kruse, Carlos de la Rosa, Giuseppe Tarnero and John Joseph Pucci.
Anniversary activities are planned throughout 2013. Our next event in Costa Rica will be a public lecture, sponsored by the University of Costa Rica, addressing the environmental challenge of water. The guest lecturer will be Carlos Fernández-Jauregui and is scheduled for May 14 at 4:00 pm.
Click here for more information and a full listing of events in Costa Rica.
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Las Cruces Improves Maintenance Practices
 The Las Cruces Biological Station has taken another important step towards becoming more environmentally friendly through the implementation of new green practices and a thorough training process for maintenance personnel.
A major motivator for this step was desire to continue to be recognized by the Bandera Azul Program (Protected Natural Areas and Actions for Addressing Climate Change) and the Certification for Sustainable Tourism, certified Costa Rican Tourism Institute.These programs encourage change in the daily practices and mindset of staff and visitors.
Specifically, the station has replaced the use of synthetic chemicals with organic and natural products and practices. Fertilizer is now produced from waste obtained in the high season. The waste is mixed with coffee dregs and livestock manure to feed earthworms and thus produce vermicompost, which yields both a solid and liquid fertilizer. With fruit scraps mixed with molasses and leaves of various plants, biofermentation is achieved and used as foliar fertilizer and protection against insect pests. Both can be applied to plant foliage and the root system.
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Palo Verde Donates School Supplies to Local School
 | | Sergio Padilla, Palo Verde Biological Station employee, delivering supplies donated. |
Thanks to the efforts of Palo Verde Biological Station's Environmental Education Program (EAP), the Palo Verde station was pleased to donate critical school supplies to the Primary School Falconiana of Bagaces on February 28, 2013.
The donation is part of the station's outreach efforts to the surrounding communities. The donated items consisted of 60 books, 2 reams of paper, 2 pieces of artwork, 12 scissors, 12 boxes of crayons and 2 packages of colored paper.
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La Selva's Successional Plots
by Orlando Vargas
The Successional plots are considered Managed Habitats by the La Selva´s master plan. In 1970 a series of five successional strips was initiated in response to the growing isolation of La Selva´ s primary forest by surrounding pastures. The specific objective was to maintain representative patches of the early successional stages by cutting one strip (ca. 0.5 ha) each year on a five-year rotation. (La Selva Ecology and Natural History of a Neotropical Rain Forest pp. 77, Lucinda A. McDade et. al)     For more information, please contact Orlando Vargas.
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Howard University Seeks Two Tenure-Track Faculty in the Biology Department
 Howard University invites applications for two tenure track positions at the rank of ASSISTANT PROFESSOR starting in August 2013:
1. Invertebrate Biologist with some aspect of aquatic biology preferred
2. Plant Biologist with some aspect of global climate change preferred
Qualifications:
Candidates for these positions should have completed a Ph.D. in the relevant field and have an established record of research productivity. Teaching and postdoctoral experience are required. Successful candidates are expected to develop an externally funded research program, direct M.S. and Ph.D. students, and participate in teaching in the introductory general biology courses, as well as develop courses in their own specialty. Interested applicants should submit curriculum vitae along with a brief description of research interests, teaching experience and teaching philosophy, and arrange to have three letters of reference sent directly to:
Dr. Franklin Ampy, Chairman, Department of Biology
415 College Street NW, Room 126
Washington, D.C. 20059
Requested materials should be emailed to fampy@howard.edu by April 2, 2013. Candidates making the final list will be required to submit additional material. Screening of applications will be ongoing until the positions are filled. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply.
Howard University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin, sex, marital status, religion or disability.
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Be sure to note the time of the first photograph of 6:15:11, when the ocelot is viewed crossing the bridge. Just 35 seconds later, at 6:15:46, a researcher is caught on camera crossing the same bridge. 
Not to be out done, Palo Verde recently installed a camera trap at a water pool located approximately 10m from the dining hall. At the end of February, while the Spring 2013
