Biodiversity Surveys in the Southern Borderlands of the People's Republic of China

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This project represents an integrated effort to document the terrestrialvertebrate biodiversity of the southern borderlands of China, one of theleast well explored regions worldwide. Specialists working with birds,mammals, reptiles, and amphibians will staff the expeditions, accompanied byexperts with various parasite groups (fleas, flies, ticks, lice, nematodes,cestodes, blood parasites, coccidia, etc.). The 5 expeditions will eachfocus on a different sector of the borderlands region, including the borderareas with Laos, Vietnam, Burma, and northeastern India. Each specialistwill use tools for inventory that are the 'state of the art' in his or herown field. The end result will be extensive series of specimens and othernew biological material for detailed study, as well as numerous scientificpublications documenting local vertebrate and parasite communities,taxonomic insights, and new species. Parasite specimens will be collectedand stabilized, with a view towards long-term curation and eventual study.Project data will be served to the broader scientific community with maximumefficiency via Internet-based distributed database technology.This project is near-unique in its broad-spectrum assessment of vertebratesand many groups of parasites. Such a view of vertebrates and the full (or atleast a broad sample of the) diversity of their parasites is available fromfew places on Earth, making for a new view into the true biological richnessof an area. In the case of the Chinese southern borderlands, not only willmany of the parasites be unknown to science, but even some or many of thevertebrate hosts as well. Many new insights into the conservation ofbiological diversity will come from such detailed views of the nature ofthis diversity. This information will go beyond the quick-and-easyvertebrate-based conservation priorities that currently dominateconservation biology to provide a detailed view of the true dimensions ofbiological diversity in a complex and little-known region.