The Botany and Ecology of Los Amigos, Peru: Expanded Exploration and Consolidation of Old and New Datasets for a Lowland Neotropical Flora in Madre de Dios.

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The Southwestern Amazon contains what is probably the largest and least disturbed area remaining of Upper Amazonian and Lower Andean ecosystems. The Department of Madre de Dios, Peru, dominated by the Madre de Dios River basin and tributaries, is an important geopolitical region in the pristine SW Amazon. Research activities will include habitat surveys and botanical inventories of this biologically diverse area, and will result in field guides, online identification tools, and other resources. The study will also integrate historical data from several previous less comprehensive botanical and ecological studies of this area. The survey and inventory activities supported through this project will provide data and images for a variety of publications and information products to come in digital and print format. The study will also serve as a testbed for connecting inventory data with innovative techniques of information management, as specimen data, images, and ecological datasets will be readily available in the Atrium Biodiversity Information System of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas. This project involves education, training, and outreach activities that will engage a postdoctoral fellow in botany and ecology, a graduate student, Peruvian undergraduate students, and numerous students and teachers that visit the Botanical Research Institute of Texas education program on a yearly basis. This study will bring the interested public closer to the techniques and products of plant and habitat inventory, and to the value, diversity, and beauty of Amazonian ecosystems.