Ericaceae in the Central Andes: Bolivia and Adjacent Southern Peru

摘要James LuteynDEB 0444238 拟议的研究区域，包括玻利维亚和邻近的秘鲁南部的安第斯山脉，是南美洲最不为人所知的地区的植物，包括那些在蓝莓植物科（杜鹃花科）。 该植物科在山地栖息地中占据生态主导地位，是动物和较小程度上人类的食物来源，并通过抗氧化特性具有药用潜力。 通过野外工作，收集和观察植物在其自然栖息地，博物馆研究收藏来自世界各地，和尖端的分子实验室研究相结合，蓝莓家族将在与当地玻利维亚和秘鲁学生，纽约植物园研究生，以及在维克森林大学和纽约城市大学的同事合作的主要研究员进行分类学修订。 科学上全新的植物有望被发现和描述。 一份硬拷贝的分类处理将以书籍形式在一份国际植物科学杂志上发表。 电子版将通过因特网传播。 该项目对系统植物学、保护生物学、基因组学、植物遗传学、信息学和物种水平的研究产生了广泛的影响。 它综合了所有可用的数据，并产生了新的信息，在玻利维亚和秘鲁南部的蓝莓家族的植物，并为未来的专题/进化研究的阶段。 它增强了对植物进化历史以及接近其分布范围极限的物种的生态和分布模式的理解，并为其他鲜为人知的植物群的额外工作提出了方向。 与其他研究人员共享数据，并提供材料，以纳入分子数据的多样性水平很少。 该项目通过向当地和国际博物馆提供新的收藏品和设备，提高和加强科学基础设施。 该项目通过其培训部分和与科学家的互动，加强了合作网络，并向拉丁美洲代表性不足的群体提供最新技术方法方面的教育。 最后，它将在互联网上向所有人提供样本数据和所有其他产品。

ABSTRACT James LuteynDEB 0444238 The proposed study area, encompasing the Andes mountains of Bolivia and adjacent southern Peru, is the least known region in South America for plants including those in the blueberry plant family (Ericaceae). This plant family is ecologically dominant in montane habitats, is a source of food for animals and to a lesser degree humans, and has medicinal potential through antioxidant properties. By a combination of field work to collect and observe the plants in their natural habitats, museum studies of collections from throughout the world, and cutting-edge molecular laboratory studies, the blueberry family will be taxonomically revised by the Principal Investigator in colaboration with local Bolivian and Peruvian students, a New York Botanical Garden graduate student, and colleagues at Wake Forest University and the City University of New York. Plants totally new to science are expected to be discovered and described. A hard-copy taxonomic treatment will be published in book form in an international plant sciences journal. An electronic version will be disseminated through the Internet. This project has broad impacts for systematic botany, conservation biology, genomics, phylogenetics, informatics, and species-level studies. It synthesizes all available data and generates new information about plants in the blueberry family in Bolivia and southern Peru and sets the stage for future monographic/evolutionary studies. It enhances understanding of plant evolutionary history and ecological and distributional patterns of species near the limits of their range, and suggests directions for additional work in other lesser known groups of plants. Data is shared with other researchers and materials are provided to incorporate molecular data at a level of diversity seldom available. The project enhances and strengthens the infrastructure of science by providing new collections and equipment to local and international museums. Through its training component and interactions with scientists, the project strengthens networks of cooperation and educates underrepresented groups in Latin America in the latest technological methods. Finally, it will make specimen data and all other products available to everyone on the Internet.