Panamá study seeks to prove
tropical forests sponge effect


Tropical forests reduce peak runoff during storms and release stored water during droughts, according to researchers working at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panamá. Their results lend credence to a controversial phenomenon known as the sponge effect, which is at the center of a debate about how to minimize flood damage and maximize water availability in the tropics.

During nearly 450 tropical storms, a team of visiting scientists from the University of Wyoming measured the amount of runoff from pastureland, abandoned pastureland and forested land as part of a large-scale land-use experiment in the Panama Canal watershed initiated by the research institute.

Data collected by institute staff and analyzed by University of Wyoming students indicate that land-use history has complex, long-term effects. “We measured large differences in hydrologic response between watersheds with different land-use histories and land cover,” said Fred Ogden, a senior research associate at the institute and a civil engineering professor at the University of Wyoming. “Our ultimate objective is to better understand these effects and include this improved understanding in a high-resolution hydrological model that we are developing to predict land-use effects in tropical watersheds.”

“The result for storm peaks is spectacular,” said Robert Stallard, institute hydrologist and the U. S. Geological Survey who developed the statistics for data analysis. “Storm-water runoff from grazed land is much higher than from forested land. The results are clearest after big storms.” On the other hand, forests released more water than grasslands and mixed-use landscapes during the late dry season, pointing to the importance of forests in regulating water flow throughout the year in seasonal climates.

Evidence to support the sponge effect was lacking for tropical forests, leading some to question its validity. “One of the reasons why there isn’t more scientific evidence for the sponge effect is that you have to take what nature dishes out,” said Stallard, a staunch proponent of the sponge effect, who is often seen wearing Sponge Bob socks. “It requires a long-term institutional commitment to get good results. The USGS, STRI, University of Wyoming and the Panama Canal Authority have the resources to do that.”

Severe drought forced Panama Canal authorities to impose draft restrictions on transiting ships in 1997. In 2010, a major December storm system, examined in this study, halted shipping in the canal for 17 hours. Land use in the watershed not only affects world commerce but also water availability for Panama’s major urban areas. The study is particularly relevant to land use decisions throughout the tropics where more than 50 percent of forests are now secondary forests that have grown back after logging or on abandoned pastureland.

The 700-hectare Panamá watershed experiment, also known as Agua Salud, will run for 20 to 30 years, making it the largest ongoing study of land use in the tropics.


Bigger pay increases sought
for those on low end of scale


Public employee advocates seek major increases in the salaries of the lowest paid civil servants. They listed guards at public schools, workers at state child care centers, park guards, office and service workers lower ranking police and immigration officers.

The request came from the Asociación Nacional de Empleados Públicos y Privados.

Salary negotiations for the public sectors are expected to begin this week, and generally the union organization is seeking a 3 to 5 percent pay hike. However, it appears that more is being sought for the lowest paid workers.

The association's requests were in a letter to Olman Segura Bonilla, minister of Trabajo y Seguridad Social, and Edgar Ayales Esna, the minster of Hacienda.


Bulls sent 39 to hospital,
Cruz Roja reports on Zapote


The Cruz Roja said that 39 bull baiters had to be hospitalized during the run of the fiesta de Zapote.

The emergency agency maintains a clinic adjacent to the bull ring where they who have been mauled by an animal can seek help. The agency said its medics treated 215 persons. The bull baiting was a twice-a-day event from Dec. 25 until Sunday. Many more had to be treated at the fiesta. The Cruz Roja reported 437 persons sought aid. But only 30 of these had to be hospitalized.

Over all the holiday events, including the Festival de la Luz, the Desamparados carnival and the Tope Nacional horse parade, the emergency agency treated 921 persons and sent 107 to the hospital.

The bull baiting involves individuals entering the ring with one of those powerful creatures. Participants tempt death because some of the horned bulls weigh in at 1,300 pounds. There were no deaths reported this year.


Bulk of the political ads here
are from Google ad campaigns


This newspaper believes in free speech, and encourages everyone to speak their mind about the Feb. 2 Costa Rican general elections. The newspaper management also sees paid advertising as a way of expressing an opinion.

However, A.M. Costa Rica does not actively seek campaign ads from local political parties because most expats here, our readers, cannot vote.

However, the newspaper welcomes the presentations that political parties may make through the various Google ad campaigns to which this newspaper subscribes.


Germany's chancellor breaks
pelvis in skiing accident


German Chancellor Angela Merkel has fractured her pelvis in a cross-country skiing accident and is walking with the help of crutches, forcing her to call off some foreign visits and official appointments, her spokesman said Monday.

Ms. Merkel fell while skiing over the Christmas vacation. What she first thought was heavy bruising turned out to be a partial fracture, meaning she must take it easy for three weeks and work from home where possible, said her spokesman Steffen Seibert.

The news comes a week after Germany was shocked by the far more serious skiing accident of former Formula One champion Michael Schumacher, who is in critical condition in a French hospital.

"The chancellor is of course able to work and is in full communication," said Seibert. He added that Ms. Merkel's accident occurred at low speed but he declined to give further details.

The 59-year-old chancellor, a keen hiker who has said she prefers cross-country to downhill skiing, has postponed a visit to Warsaw scheduled for Wednesday and a meeting in Berlin with Luxembourg's new Prime Minister, Xavier Bettel.