BRIT scientists, led by R.J. Johns and in collaboration with staff from national and regional herbaria in New Guinea and Indonesia, are working to document the botanical and ecological diversity, toward better strategies for management and conservation.
Exploration and collecting are directed to critical areas of the island. The development of the collections database, based on new expeditions and documentation of records from existing collections, uses the BRIT database program Atrium as key to the data organization.
Specific activities in the New Guinea research:
(1) Documentation of collection data from the records, field notes, and specimens in the National Herbarium at Lae. This will include full field records for all collections at the LAE and NGF herbaria. Local help will be hired to assist in this effort and train them to enter data. The data will be entered into the BRIT Atrium database.
(2) Intensive botanical collecting in target areas of Papua and Papua New Guinea. Even supposedly well collected areas have poorly known floras (60% of the plants from 2007 were new generic and species records). The ultramafic and limestone floras of the Milne Bay Archipelago will be emphasized; 240 endemic vascular plant species (none in protected areas) are recorded so far from this area. High quality herbarium material, photographs, and living collections will be included. Duplicate collections will be deposited in major international herbaria. Two experienced PNG staff at Lae (A. Kairo, J. Simaga) will be employed as assistants.
(3) Addition of records to the "Checklist of The Vascular Plants of New Guinea." Scientific name, authority, place of publication, type collection, references, and endemism are included. An estimated 25,000 to 30,000 accepted species of vascular plants are known thus far in New Guinea. The Pteridophyte checklist, currently with 5000–5500 entries in the database, is planned for publication in 2010.
The specimen database lists all vascular plant collections from the Indonesian Province of Papua, previously Irian Jaya (now divided into two Provinces), and Papua New Guinea. Because of its floristic associations with New Guinea collections from the Aru (Aroe) Islands (Maluku Province) are included. Records are also included from the North Solomons Province (Buka and Bougainville), politically part of Papua New Guinea. Extension of the database to the Solomon Islands would include all records for the biogeographical region known as Papuasia.
Over 350,000 collections of vascular plants have so far been entered into the database. Each collection is being geo-referenced so that digital distribution maps can be constructed for all collections, families, genera, and species. Information on type collections and recent revisions will be especially important for researchers and students in New Guinea, where there are limited library and e-mail facilities.
The checklist and database will highlight areas where the flora is unknown or poorly known and will act as a guide for future expeditions. They will form an essential tool to identify conservation areas and biodiversity priorities for all levels of government in New Guinea.
Also see "Specialist Databases" (separate page).
(4) Continuing work on the "Common Forest Trees of New Guinea," with additions to the database of tree records and illustrations and map distributions for the book. The first edition was originally written by R. J. Johns and has had various revisions (1973-1986). Staff from the National Herbarium and the University of PNG and the PNG University of Technology have agreed to co-author various timber families within the book. Distribution maps are being prepared for the major commercial species, and the main timber genera are being databased – particularly collections in Bogor -- to give an ‘island wide’ portrayal of their distributions. Training of students at University and Research levels is an important component of this work.
(5) Completion of the updated "Dictionary of the Families and Genera of Vascular Plants of New Guinea." This work is in collaboration with Dr. O. Gideon and staff at the National Herbarium in Lae.
(6) Publication of Flowering Plants of Papuasia, Vol. IV(A) Dilleniales. A draft of Vol. IV(A) has been prepared, covering the following families: Dilleniaceae, Ochnaceae, Dipterocarpaceae, Theaceae, Actinidiaceae (Saurauiaceae), Elatinaceae, Clusiaceae, Elaeocarpaceae, Tiliaceae, Sterculiaceae, Bombaceae, Malvaceae, Barringtoniaceae, Droseraceae, Flacourtiaceae, Bixaceae, Violaceae, Passifloraceae, Cucurbitaceae, Begoniaceae, Capparidaceae, Capparaceae, Brassicaceae, Moringaceae, Bataceae, Clethraceae, Epacridaceae, Ericaceae, Sapotaceae, Ebenaceae, Symplocaceae, Myrsinaceae, and Primulaceae.
