Principal Investigators
Jefferson Hall
Jefferson S. Hall is a Staff Scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) and the Agua Salud Project Leader. He is responsible for the overall vision, leadership, technical guidance, and direction in the development and performance of research and management of Agua Salud project. As a Forest Ecologist, he oversees all aspects of research related to vegetation dynamics and ecosystem function within the project. He is the Director of the PRORENA Project, a member of the STRI Carbon Neutral Committee, and sits on the Board of the Environmental Training Leadership Initiative (ELTI).
Robert Stallard
Dr. Robert F. Stallard studies of how land-cover and climate change affect water movement through soils, weathering, and erosion, and how these, in turn, affect the composition and dispersal of dissolved and solid phases in rivers and trace gases in the atmosphere. In addition to being a Staff Scientist at STRI, he is also a Research Hydrologist and Biogeochemist in the National Research Program of the U.S. Geological Survey. For 35 years, he has studied natural and human-altered landscapes, in the Americas, Southeast Asia, and Africa, including most of the Amazon, Orinoco, Mississippi and Panama Canal Basins. He started working at STRI in 1984. His work on the Agua Salud started in 1996 with funding through 1999 from USAID on the Canal Watershed Monitoring Project for which he was PI on the soils and hydrology component. In the Agua Salud Project, he focuses on water and biogeochemical budgets, on hydrological-process analysis, and on landscape characterization for the purpose of designing robust hydrological models.
Fred Ogden
Fred L. Ogden is the Cline Distinguished Chair of Engineering, Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, where he holds joint appointments in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and the Haub School of Environment an Natural Resources. Prof. Ogden has been developing hydrologic models since 1990, and is one of the lead developers of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Gridded Surface/Subsurface Hydrologic Analysis (GSSHA) model. Together with his students, he has been conducting research on runoff generation in Panama since 2003.
Helmut Elsenbeer
Post-Docs
Michiel van Breugel
Michiel van Breugel is a Post-doctoral Fellow at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) where he works on research related to vegetation dynamics and ecosystem function within the Agua Salud project. Under guidance of Jefferson Hall, he was responsible for the design and establishment of the native timber species plantation and the secondary forest monitoring network (SFMN). He coordinates and supervises the annual monitoring campaigns in both study systems.
He leads research related to the SFMN and coordinates research with partner institutions, including the supervision of student projects.
Beate Zimmermann
Beate Zimmermann is a post-doc at the University of Potsdam, Germany.
Since 2008, she has worked with Helmut Elsenbeer on hydrological and pedological aspects of the Agua Salud Project. She developed the sampling schemes for the monitoring of soil hydraulic parameters, throughfall and overland flow in the research catchments, organized field campaigns and supervised field technicians and students.
http://www.uni-potsdam.de/u/Geooekologie/institut/personal/zimmermann_engl.html
Students
Dylan Craven
Dylan Craven is a PhD candidate at the Yale School of Forestry in Dr. Graeme Berlyn’s tree physiology lab. His dissertation research focuses on using plant functional traits to understand community assembly processes in tropical secondary forests. He is taking advantage of an extensive network of tropical secondary forest transects that lie within the Agua Salud Project. Mr. Craven received an M.F.S. from Yale FES in 2006, and spent the intervening year working with the Applied Ecology program of the Center for Tropical Forest Science (PRORENA-CTFS) and the Environmental Leadership and Training Initiative (ELTI) in Panama, both Yale FES initiatives.
Frank Baese
Frank Bäse is a PhD student in Geoecology at the Institute of Earth and Environmental Sciences of the University Potsdam, Germany. His PhD focuses of the interception behaviour of different land covers in the tropics. For his thesis research he measured throughfall in the transitional forest and soybean fields in Mato Grosso in Brazil as well as in young secondary forest and teak plantations in the Agua Salud study site in Panama. He graduated 2005 with a Dipl. Geography from Friedrich Schiller University in Jena. He has since participated in land use change analyses in Germany, South Africa, Brazil and Panama (Agua Salud Project).
Link: http://www.uni-potsdam.de/u/Geooekologie/institut/personal/baese.html
Sibylle Hassler
Sibylle Hassler is a PhD student at the University of Potsdam, Germany. Her dissertation research focuses on soil saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) and its link to surface runoff generation. She is especially interested in different sources of variability for Ks,a possible shift in Ks with land use change and hydrological relevance thereof. Each year since 2008, she organised and participated in extended field campaigns and supervised Potsdam students.
Link: http://www.geo.uni-potsdam.de/webpage/member-details/show/165.html
Trey Couch
Trey D. Crouch is currently a Master of Science student in Civil Engineering at the University of Wyoming where he also received his Bachelor’s. Trey has worked under Fred L. Ogden since 2008 as a research and field assistant in support of the Agua Salud Project hydrologic objectives.
Project Management
Daniela Weber
Daniela L. Weber W. works under the guidance of Jefferson Hall and is the Agua Salud Project Manager. She oversees land management, is in charge of managing personnel and contractors and oversees logistics. She also serves as a liaison with different institutions collaborating on the Agua Salud Project.
Federico Davies
Federico Davies works under the guidance of Daniela Weber and is the site coordinator of the Agua Salud Project. He supports all field logistics, assists in land management activities and serves as the liaison with the local community.
Hydrology Team
Felix Rodriguez
Felix A. Rodriguez H. is a Chemist working under the guidance of Robert Stallard. He is responsible of the chemical analysis of water samples collected as part of the Agua Salud project.
Aquilino Alveo
Aquilino Alveo S. is a hydrology technician working under the guidance of Fred Ogden. He is responsible for data collection and quality assessment for data collected at automated instruments. He is responsible for the installation and maintenance of instruments related to stream flow, precipitation, and wells.
Jorge Batista
Jorge S. Batista D. is a hydrology technician working under the guidance of Fred Ogden and Robert Stallard. He is responsible of the collection, processing, and basic analysis of all water samples collected as part of the Agua Salud project. In addition he helps with the installation and maintenance of instruments.
Juan Carlos Briceño
Lorenzo Sanchez
Vegetation Team
Mario Bailón
Mario Bailón is a vegetation technician working under the guidance of Jefferson Hall and Michiel van Breugel. He is the team leader for field inventories of secondary forest, responsible for management of day to day activities and botanical identifications.
Fernando García
Fernando García is a vegetation technician working under the guidance of Jefferson Hall and Michiel van Breugel. He participates in field inventories of secondary forest and measurement of the native species plantations. He also assists in botanical identifications.
Anabel Rivas
Anabel Rivas is a vegetation technician working under the guidance of Jefferson Hall and Michiel van Breugel. She oversees data collection during measurement campaigns of the native species plantations and participates in field inventories of secondary forest. In addition she serves as a team leader for different vegetation related projects.
Yuritza Guerrero
Yuritza M. Guerrero P. is a vegetation technician working under the guidance of Jefferson Hall and Michiel van Breugel. She participates in field inventories of secondary forest and measurement of the native species plantations. In addition she serves as a team leader for different vegetation related projects.
Jenny Calvo
Jenny Calvo is a vegetation technician working under the guidance of Jefferson Hall and Michiel van Breugel. She is responsible for data entry and database management. In addition helps with field inventories of secondary forest and measurements of the native species plantations.
Johana Balbuena
Johana I. Balbuena V. is a vegetation technician working under the guidance of Jefferson Hall and Michiel van Breugel. She participates in field inventories of secondary forest and measurements of the native species plantations. She assists in data entry.
Guillermo Fernandez
Guillermo A. Fernandez is a research assistant working under the guidance of Jefferson Hall and Michiel van Breugel. He participates in field inventories of secondary forest and measurement of the native species plantations. In addition he assists managers, researchers, and students in a variety of activities related to land management and different research projects.
Carlos Diaz
Carlos Diaz is a research assistant working under the guidance of Jefferson Hall and Michiel van Breugel. He participates in field inventories of secondary forest and measurement of the native species plantations. In addition he assists managers, researchers, and students in a variety of activities related to land management and different research projects.