Latin American Archaeology Program Dr. Betty J. Meggers of the Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, has been collaborating with numerous colleagues throughout Latin America since the 1950s. At present, she is coordinating the Programa Nacional de Pesquisas Arqueologicas na Bacia Amazonica, with funding from the museum's Neotropical Lowlands Research Program. Archeological fieldwork is conducted by Brazilians, whose institutions provide salaries, laboratory facilities and other assistance. Abelardo Sandoval has carried out a similar survey in the Manu region in southeastern Peru under auspices of the museum's Biological Diversity in Latin America Project. Paulina Ledergerber is conducting similar investigations in eastern Ecuador.
Negotiations are underway to create a national program in Cuba based on the Brazilian model.
Dr. Betty J. Meggers, Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History. The effects of ozone depletion on photosynthesis by algae in the ocean around Antarctica is being studied in a research project under the direction of Dr. Patrick J. Neale of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. Responses to radiation doses are measured in laboratories at Antarctic bases and aboard the research ice breaker Nathaniel B. Palmer operated by the National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs. Field work was conducted in 1993 in the Weddell-Scotia seas and is proposed for October to December 1996 at Palmer Station in the Antarctic Peninsula and for October to November 1997 aboard the Palmer. Project operations are based out of Punta Arenas, Chile, and also involve scientists from the Argentine Antarctic Institute.