The Colonial Origins of Tropical Field Stations: To confront persistent geographic and demographic biases in environmental science, researchers must understand the history of their field sites.

The article discusses the history of colonial ecology's tropical field stations from the late 1890s through the 1960s, including its impact on research bias in environmental science. An overview of American botantist Daniel T. MacDougal's perspective on the research bias that derived from ecologists' focus on temperate environments of Europe and North America, is provided. American colonial science at Barro Colorado Island, Panama is discussed.