{"id":56,"date":"2019-07-17T21:48:31","date_gmt":"2019-07-17T21:48:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/striresearch.si.edu\/bci-soil-map\/?page_id=56"},"modified":"2019-07-19T15:28:13","modified_gmt":"2019-07-19T15:28:13","slug":"bci-survey-area","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/striresearch.si.edu\/bci-soil-map\/content\/bci-survey-area\/","title":{"rendered":"BCI Survey Area"},"content":{"rendered":"

Location and access<\/h2>\n

BCI is in the Gatun Lake, at the northwestern (Caribbean) end of the Panama Canal, in the central part of the Republic of Panama, Central America, at latitude 9\u00ba 08\u2019 \u2013 9\u00ba 11\u2019 N, and longitude 79\u00ba 49\u2019 \u2013 79\u00ba 52\u2019 W. Access is easy, about 0.5 – 1 hour by boat from Gamboa, which is about 25 km by blacktopped road from Panama City.<\/p>\n

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Barro Colorado Island<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The shape of the 1571 ha island resembles a compact star, with original spurs forming the current peninsulae and valley heads forming the bays. It stretches about 6 km N-S and E-W. There are 41 km of well-maintained foot trails. The laboratory\/residential complex is on the northeastern coast. All points on the trail system can be reached in < 1.5 hours walk from the lab, and there is nowhere on the island that is more than 1.2 km from a trail. Less accessible areas can also be reached by boat to the nearest shore and then inland on foot.<\/p>\n

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Barro Colorado Island<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Climate<\/h2>\n

There are summaries of the climate of BCI in Leigh (1999) and Leigh et al.<\/em> (1996). Important features for soil development and correlation include:<\/p>\n