Bocas del Toro Field Station
The Bocas del Toro Field Station is located on Colon Island in Bocas del Toro province near the border with Costa Rica. To the east is  the Caribbean Sea and to the west is a large enclosed bay containing extensive coral reefs and  grassbeds  surrounded by banana plantations, farms, and forests including extensive mangroves.  The area is rapidly being developed for tourism.  Weekly and daily measurements of  rainfall, air and sea temperature are taken at the field station.  In 2002, an automated NOAA type station was installed which records hourly values of  oceanographic and meteorological data, including water level, rainfall, and solar and quantum radiation.   Hourly sea temperature is also recorded at 7 remote sites in the surrounding area, shown to the right.
Since 1999, we have been participating in CARICOMP, a Caribbean wide program to monitor the health of coral reefs, mangroves, and grassbeds. The three CARICOMP sites where annual to weekly biological and physical monitoring are done are shown in the map above. The grassbed site consists of two subsites in a Thalassia grassbed about 2 meters deep several hundred meters north west of the pier for the lab. Two times a year standing crop, biomass, growth rate, and the leaf area index are recorded at each subsite.  The mangrove site consists of  3 quadrats 10 m square at the seaward edge near the grassbed sites.  Within each quadrat, each tree is mapped and tree dimensions are recorded each year.  There are 5 one meter quadrats within each larger quadrat where seedling recruitment and growth are recorded. Once a year litter baskets are put out for a month to record the weight of bracts, flowers, fruits, and wood that falls.  The coral site is on the outside of the point about 1 km west of the laboratory.  It consists of  two subsites each 8 to 12 meters deep. Each subsite has 5 10m permanent transects marked. Each year a chain is laid out along each transect and the number of links covered by each species is recorded.