The Chocó-Darién region is one of the 25 global biodiversity hotspots.  Our lab was invited to do fieldwork in a remote area in Río Balsas, Darién. The project, spearheaded by Dr. Catherine Potvin (Mcgill University), aims at documenting this important biodiversity hotspot while sharing and exchanging knowledge with local Emberá communities. Dr. Potvin’s team has established a long-term 15-ha plot in an old growth forest with trees of over 60 meters.

With Adriel Sierra Pinilla we traveled from Panama City to Metetí (Darién), then we did a 6-hour trip in piragua in the Río Balsa up to Manené. We were the first users of the permanent plot collecting leaves from the low canopy (between 6-12 meters) from nearly 40 species of the commonest angiosperms. We aimed at studying the functional diversity of microbes (bacteria and fungi) of old tropical forests. We will be back next year to continue work on the phyllosphere and genomic diversity of key components (e.g., Dipteryx oleifera) of this amazing tropical rainforest.