Botanical Diversity and Biogeography of Southern Thailand

由哈佛大学的大卫·米德尔顿和斯图尔特·戴维斯及其同事开展的调查项目将记录泰国半岛的植物多样性。从植物学和地理角度来看，泰国半岛是泰国最多样化的地区，也是亚洲热带地区唯一一个从季节性森林到强烈季节性森林的连续土地。据估计，它包含7500种植物，包括世界25个生物多样性“热点”中的两个的部分地区，这些地区因物种多样性高而被认可，许多物种非常局部分布（地方性），可能因栖息地丧失而濒临灭绝。实地采集将在三年内与泰国森林植物标本室和国家公园部门的工作人员合作，在选定的地点进行。地点的选择涵盖了半岛内的地理、气候、土壤类型和海拔梯度的全部范围，并且将在一年中的不同时间进行收集，以允许季节性开花和结果。这些集合将被建立数据库，交互式识别密钥将被构建以供网络访问使用。该项目旨在为世界各地的专家提供更多的植物收藏，以便对目标类群进行分类修订，并为完成《泰国植物志》的大规模工作做出贡献，并为正在进行的《马来植物志》项目做出贡献。该项目还将促进泰国和美国哈佛大学的学生培训。该项目还将获得基线数据，用于探索东南亚植物分化和迁移的生物地理历史假设。

The inventory project by David Middleton and Stuart Davies of Harvard University and their colleagues will document the plant diversity of Peninsular Thailand which is botanically and geographically the most diverse part of the country and is the only continuous stretch of land in the Asian tropics that includes the geographic transition from aseasonal forests to strongly seasonal forests. It is estimated to encompass 7,500 species of plants and includes parts of two of the world's 25 biodiversity "hot spots," which are recognized for high species diversity with many species of very local distribution (endemic) and likely endangered by habitat loss. Field collecting will occur over three years in selected sites in collaboration with staff of the Thai Forest Herbarium and National Park Department. Sites have been selected to span the full range of geographical, climatic, soil type, and elevational gradients within the Peninsula, and collections will be made at different times of year to allow for seasonal flowering and fruiting. The collections will be databased, and interactive identification keys will be constructed for web-accessible use. The project aims to increase botanical collections available to specialists worldwide for taxonomic revisions of targeted groups and for large-scale efforts to complete the Flora of Thailand, and to contribute to the ongoing Flora Malesiana program. The project will also facilitate student training both in Thailand and at Harvard University in the U.S. Baseline data for exploring hypotheses about the biogeographical history of plant divergence and migration in southeast Asia will also be acquired.