April 1997: Issue 11
April 1997: Issue 11
Global Taxonomy Initiative
Taxonomy was high on the agenda of the second meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Kew staff took part in two capacities: Noel McGough was part of the UK deleg ation and Kerry ten Kate was a member of the Secretariat of the Convention. The meeting found 'an extraordinary level of agreement' that enhanced taxonomic capacity is fundamental to implementation of the Convention, whose objectives are the conservation of biodiversity, the sustainable use of its components and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from this use. In November, the Conference of the Parties, the principal body of the Convention, endorsed SBSTTA's recommendations. These raised the need to address the scarcity of taxonomists, taxonomic collections and institutional facilities to promote implementation of the Convention, to make existing taxonomic knowledge available to countries of origin, and for the Global Environment Facility to support a 'Global Taxonomy Initiative'. The Initiative would provide the funds needed for building capacity in taxonomy through national, regional and sub-regional training programmes; strengthening reference collections and infrastructure for collections in countries of origin; making information, taxonomy and technologies associated with collections available to countries of origin; and producing and distributing taxonomic information, for example through the Convention's clearing-house mechanism.
Contact: Noel McGough (0181-332 5722)
'Dendronology' - a molecular approach to monogeneric families
The existence of a large matrix of rbcL sequences has allowed elucidation of the taxonomic affinities of a number of small, previously problematic families. The search strategy consists of a preliminary search using a data matrix containing representatives of all clades of eudicots, followed by a more thorough search using a data matrix with increased sampling for the group of families in which the taxon under study fell in the first search. In this way, Diegodendraceae has been shown to be a close relative of Bixaceae, Rhabdodendraceae has caryophyllid affinities, and Duckeodendraceae is embedded within Solanaceae.
Contact: Dr Mike Fay (0181-332 5374)
Brunei Checklist
ON 21st March 1997, Mark Coode, Drs John Dransfield and Don Kirkup visited Brunei to attend the launch of A Checklist of Flowering Plants and Gymnosperms of Brunei Darussalam. The checklist is the product of joint research between the Brunei Forestry Department and Kew begun in 1990.
The Checklist has been printed from a database of collections, bibliographic and geographic information. This database will be central to future work on the Brunei flora, as was recognised at discussions about a further five-year collaborative research programme. By incorporating morphological character information and images, aids to the identification of Brunei's c. 4,000 species could be provided, possibly in the form of interactive keys as part of an electronic Flora of Brunei.
Such a project would complement existing work (e.g. Newman's interactive keys to the Dipterocarps) and draw on information from published monographs, specialists and further fieldwork. A close working relationship is envisaged with the University of Brunei's Tree Flora project. In addition, geographic sampling of the forest canopy species by the Forestry Department staff is proposed to support the mapping of forest types and the study and management of the country's biodiversity using GIS. For these canopy species, where identifications may have to be based on a single fallen leaf, highly specialised identification techniques are envisaged, such as machine vision and automated pattern recognition.
The first phase of collaboration has demonstrated how a printed publication can be produced directly from a working project database at a modest cost. The next phase opens possibilities for reaching a wider audience with the ability to derive popular multimedia accounts for biodiversity interpretation centres, or provide Web access to information via the developing educational intranet within Brunei. We are grateful for the generous support of Brunei Shell Petroleum Co. Sendirian Berhad.
Left:
Satellite photograph of the N Temburung district of Brunei (false
colour composite of LANDSAT TM bands 3,4 &5). Right:
Vegetation types in the same region classified using satellite
imagery (bands 2-5 & 7) verified with ground observations
from the Brunei checklist database: mangrove (purple), peatswamp
forest (blue), lowland forest (green), cultivated and disturbed
areas (yellow).
Contact: Dr Don Kirkup (0181-332 5231)
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