RUI: Studies of Neotropical Myxomycetes

9705464 Stephenson这个项目将从中南美洲和加勒比地区岛屿和大陆地区的土壤和落叶中收集疟原虫黏菌。一个重要的问题正在得到解决：热带黏菌比温带黏菌的多样性更多还是更少？这个问题的答案可能对其他生物的生物地理学和生物多样性研究非常重要。此外，将收集与热带森林黏菌有关的甲虫，因为对黏菌与这些甲虫之间的相互作用知之甚少。美国国家真菌收集和他们的数据库将允许在万维网上提供这个项目的结果。来自哥斯达黎加和墨西哥的专家及其学生将参与这项研究，一些美国本科生也将参与其中。

9705464 Stephenson This project will make collections of plasmodial slime molds from soil and leaf litter from island and mainland areas in Central and South America and the Caribbean. A major question is being addressed: Are tropical slime molds more or less diverse than temperate ones? The answer to this question is likely to be very significant for biogeographic and biodiversity studies of other organisms. In addition, beetles associated with the slime molds of tropical forests will be collected, because very little is known about the interaction between the slime molds and these beetles. The U. S. National Fungus Collections and their database will allow provision of the results of this project over the WWW. Specialists from Costa Rica and Mexico and their students will be involved in the research, as will a number of U.S. undergraduates.