How have tropical oceans endured periods of environmental change over centuries and millennia? Did the reef environment shift after the arrival of humans in the isthmus of Panama thousands of years ago? These are some of the questions that scientists in the O’Dea lab at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute are hoping to answer by coring the ocean floor with six-meter-long aluminum pipes and then analyzing the contents extracted. In this episode we join the O’Dea lab in a coring expedition around Isla Iguana, a volcanic island in the Panamanian Pacific, and then back in the lab to explore some of their preliminary findings. For more information: stri.si.edu/biodiversa