Centers for Tropical and Caribbean Research

Introduction

 The Center for Tropical and Caribbean Research at the University
of Puerto Rico, one of the National Science Foundation s Center s
for Research Excellence in Science and Technology (CREST), is
organized around a core theme, tropical biodiversity and
resources, that takes advantage of unique attributes of the
island's geography, scientific establishment, culture, and human
resources.  The objectives of the research programs are to
develop a better understanding of the development and maintenance
of biodiversity in tropical ecosystems and to use that
understanding to identify, isolate, and sustainably develop
natural products based on this biodiversity.

Puerto Rico's singular position as the only part of U.S.
territory with terrestrial and marine ecosystems representative
of the New World tropics presents us with excellent research
opportunities on the cutting edge of ecological science. The
well-educated, bilingual populace provides us with the human
resources to serve as one of the principal focuses for the
interface of U.S. science with tropical ecosystems.  The presence
of a strong industrial base within Puerto Rico offers the
opportunity to integrate basic and applied studies.  The diverse
graduate programs at the University of Puerto Rico attract a
strong cadre of students both from the United States and Central
and South America, demonstrating the competitive vigor of the
institution.  Evidence for the competitive strength of Puerto
Rican ecological research is found in the localization of key
federal programs such as the Luquillo Long-Term Ecological
Research Site and the International Institute of Tropical
Forestry (USDA-Forest Service) in Puerto Rico.

 The Puerto Rico CREST forms a crucial element in the strategic
plan developed to help the University of Puerto Rico complete its
phase transition from a teaching to a fully competitive
teaching-research institution.  CREST provides a critical focus
for the growth of graduate programs in terrestrial and marine
ecology at UPR and an important pathway to advanced degrees for
students in tropical biodiversity and resources.  The basic
academic infrastructure of UPR is enhanced significantly by the
equipment, student support, and research opportunities provided
through the CREST program.  By energizing and integrating
scattered research projects, CREST sets and maintains an upward
trajectory toward research excellence.  The CREST program serves
as an incubator for students, young faculty, and developing
research projects until they are able to attract their own
competitive funding.  CREST provides a point of contact for
industry with the pool of talent existing at the UPR, both at the
faculty and student levels.  Most important, CREST provides a
recognizable entity for cooperative ventures among university,
industry, local government, and federal agencies like NSF.


Structure and Management

The successful development of our CREST requires strong,
supportive, pro-active leadership at all levels of the University
system.  In order to insure continuity in goals and efforts
through the UPR administrative structure, UPR President Norman I.
Maldonado serves as the CREST Principal Investigator (PI). The
Co-PI is Dr. Stuart Ramos, Chancellor, UPR-Mayaguez.  Dr. Robert
Waide, Director of the Institute for Tropical Ecosystem Studies
and Principal Investigator of the NSF-funded Luquillo Long-Term
Ecological Research program is the CREST Director.

Research Focus and Direction

Under the CREST program, research on biodiversity and natural
products is conducted in three departments and an institute on
the Mayaguez and Rio Piedras campuses of the University of Puerto
Rico.  Artificial enhancement of primary productivity is being
used to examine the controls of plant and animal diversity in
tropical rain forest.  The stability of nutrients cycling in
tropical ecosystems is examined through studies of the nitrogen
cycles in forest plots under a fertilization regime.  The
recovery of forests cleared for pasture and then abandoned has
been found to depend on the ability of seeds to arrive in
appropriate sites for germination.  The genetic substructure of
populations of a common palm species along an altitudinal
gradient suggests that natural selection can maintain
morphological differences even where geneflow is not interrupted. 

The abundance of pollinators strongly influences reproductive
success and possibly the strength of selection of floral
characteristics among orchids.  A rare species of frog is limited
to cave environments by aspects of locomotion, desiccation, and
metabolism.

Marine natural products are being examined for their efficacy in
treating disease.  Ciguatera, a sometimes lethal effect of
consuming contaminated seafood, is associated with the presence
of Palytoxin, which is present in the marine food chain from
benthic dinoflagellates to barracuda.  Antimicrobial activity has
been detected in extracts from three species of Caribbean marine
algae.  Extracts of gorgonian shallow reef corals that show
toxicity to fish also contain more than 30 structurally
characterized compounds that are highly toxic to CHO-K1 tumor
cells.  Five new bacterial species and one new genus have been
isolated from salt beds. Catalytic activities of these bacteria
are being assessed for their use in bioremediation systems.