A Botanical Survey of Madagasar's Endangered Littoral Forest

马达加斯濒临灭绝的滨海森林的植物学调查

• 批准号: 0102727
• 负责人: Gordon McPherson
• 金额: $ 22.5万
• 依托单位: Missouri Botanical Garden
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2001
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2001-09-01 至 2005-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0102727&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Botanical; Survey; Madagasar; Endangered; Littoral

A Botanical Survey of Madagascar's Endangered Littoral ForestsThis project involves a detailed botanical survey of selected littoral forest areas along Madagascar's east coast in order to compile a comprehensive checklist of the plant species that occur in this highly threatened ecosystem. Littoral forests on sand were once widespread and continuous along the coastline, but are now reduced to small, isolated patches that cover less than 1% of this island nation and continue to be degraded by intensive human exploitation. Despite their small size, however, these forests probably contain well over 1,000 native plant species, or about 10% of the total Malagasy flora, and many of them are restricted to this very specialized and localized ecosystem, occurring nowhere else on Earth.A team of U.S. and Malagasy botanists will systematically visit six representative littoral forest sites distributed along the ca. 1,500 km coastline, covering nearly 12 degrees of latitude. The flora of the study sites will be fully documented though the collection of dried herbarium specimens (ca. 1,400 per site); digital color images will be taken of 30-40% of the species, and information will be gathered on local uses and threats to the forest areas. The herbarium material will be identified and compared with historical collections made during the last 150+ years and stored in major institutions in St. Louis, Madagascar, and Paris, France (which has the largest collection of Malagasy plants). Critical specimen data (e.g., species name, geographic location, date of collection, etc.) will be compiled and made available on the Internet as a Survey of the Vascular Flora of the Humid Evergreen Littoral Forests of Madagascar, with a summary list and statistics for each site, and an integrated mapping capability for individual species, often accompanied by digitized images.The results of this study will greatly improve our knowledge of Madagascar's highly threatened littoral forests. Many species new to science will likely be discovered during the project, and hundreds more will be documented for the first time in decades, including many now threatened with extinction and therefore of critical conservation importance. Using data from the study we will evaluate whether species composition changes from north to south along the coastline. Preliminary data suggest that most species are restricted to only a portion of the littoral forest ecosystem, with gradual changes in species composition along a latitudinal gradient. If this hypothesis is proven to be correct, we will identify specific areas where the establishment of protected areas (parks or reserves) would collectively ensure the continued survival of the unique plants that comprise Madagascar's littoral forests.

马达加斯加濒危沿岸的森林植物学调查该项目涉及对马达加斯加东海岸沿着选定的沿岸的森林地区进行详细的植物学调查，以便编制一份在这一高度受威胁的生态系统中出现的植物物种的全面清单。 沙滩上的沿岸的森林曾经广泛分布，沿着海岸线绵延不断，但现在已经减少到小而孤立的斑块，覆盖了这个岛国不到1%的面积，并继续因密集的人类开发而退化。 尽管面积很小，但这些森林可能包含超过1，000种本土植物物种，约占马达加斯加植物群的10%，其中许多仅限于这个非常专业和本地化的生态系统，在地球上其他任何地方都不存在。一个美国和马达加斯加植物学家小组将系统地访问分布在沿着CA的六个代表性沿岸的森林地点。1，500公里的海岸线，覆盖近12个纬度。 通过收集干燥的植物标本（约100个），将研究中心的植物群完整记录下来。每个站点1，400个）;将拍摄30-40%的物种的数字彩色图像，并收集有关当地使用和对森林地区威胁的信息。 植物标本馆的材料将被识别，并与过去150多年来的历史收藏进行比较，这些收藏品储存在马达加斯加圣路易斯和法国巴黎的主要机构（拥有最大的马达加斯加植物收藏）。 关键样本数据（例如，物种名称、地理位置、采集日期等）将汇编成马达加斯加潮湿万年青沿岸的森林维管植物群调查报告，并在因特网上公布，其中包括每个地点的摘要清单和统计数据，以及对个别物种的综合绘图能力，通常还附有数字化图像，这项研究的结果将大大增进我们对马达加斯加高度受威胁的沿岸的森林的了解。 在该项目期间，可能会发现许多新的科学物种，数十年来将首次记录数百个物种，其中包括许多现在面临灭绝威胁的物种，因此具有重要的保护意义。 利用这项研究的数据，我们将评估物种组成是否沿着沿着海岸线从北到南发生变化。 初步数据表明，大多数物种仅限于沿岸的森林生态系统的一部分，物种组成沿着纬度梯度逐渐变化。 如果这一假设被证明是正确的，我们将确定具体的地区，在那里建立保护区（公园或保留地）将共同确保组成马达加斯加沿岸的森林的独特植物的继续生存。