The Bocas del Toro province, Republic of Panama, hosts a
complex of diverse habitats, from coral and sponge reefs, to seagrass
meadows and mangrove cays that yield a species-rich marine flora
and fauna. Recent investigations have uncovered a biota, although similar
to Caribbean Islands, that may be more species-rich than other, better-studied
areas. Based on our lab's preliminary recent collecting efforts, done in
collaboration with Brian Wysor, Wilson Freshwater, and James Norris,
we estimate macroalgal species richness for Bocas del Toro region to be
very high. The high diversity is not surprising given the short history
of marine botanical investigations in the region. Our initial studies of the region’s
intertidal and subtidal algae have resulted in published new species, many
new distribution records for Panama, numerous tentative new species, and
revealed that much of the marine floristic diversity for Caribbean
Panama is represented by species throughout this unique region.
Our video clips below and to the right
show some of the typical subtidal environments in the Bocas area.