Outcome magazine reports on a major long-term project to study coastal marine biodiversity and ecosystems around the globe, and which includes a field location in Belize.
The project is made possible by a $10 million donation from Suzanne and Michael Tennenbaum, to the Smithsonian research institute. The goal of the project—Smithsonian’s Tennenbaum Marine Observatories—is to monitor the ocean’s coastal ecosystems over a long period of time.
The project will have five field sites: the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Md., on the Chesapeake Bay, the Institution’s marine station at Fort Pierce, Fla., Carrie Bow Cay in Belize and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute’s two locations in Panama—Bocas Del Toro on the Caribbean and Naos station on the Pacific. As the project grows, the Smithsonian will establish additional research sites with collaborators around the globe to monitor coastal ocean health, with the goal of at least 10 new sites within the next decade.
