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Biological Diversity of the Guiana Shield

photo by M. Robbins

New feature: Expeditions! Interactive maps using Google Earth software trace collecting expeditions made by BDG Program resident collectors, complete with stories from the field, photo galleries, and full lists of plants collected. Currently, full expedition information is available for two collectors: Lynn Gillespie and Karen Redden.

Kelloff, C.L. 2008. Structure and diversity of a riparian forest at Kaieteur National Park, Guyana. J.Bot. Res. Inst. Texas 2(1):521-545.

Georeferencing Plants of the Guiana Shield: US Types. Type specimens in the U.S. National Herbarium from the Guiana Shield region have been georeferenced and a Google Map display and Google Earth placemarks are provided. A discussion of the methodology for determining coordinates for older specimens is presented.

The “Field Checklist of the Birds of Guyana, 2nd Edition.” (Braun, M.J, D.W. Finch, M.B. Robbins and B.K. Schmidt. 2007) was published. It contains 814 bird species that have been documented as occurring in Guyana. It is aimed at a general audience and is set up for bird watchers to be able to check off the species that they see.

The “Checklist of the Plants of the Guiana Shield” (Funk, V., T. Hollowell, P. Berry, C. Kelloff, and S.N. Alexander, 2007) covers all vascular plants known to occur in the Guiana Shield region of northeastern South America. It is the product of the combined efforts of two research initiatives, the Smithsonian Institution’s Biological Diversity of the Guiana Shield Program (BDG) and Missouri Botanical Garden’s Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana.

The BDG and Dr. Pat Herendeen, currently at the Chicago Botanic Garden (NSF grant) co-sponsored Dr. Karen Redden as a post-doctoral fellow to work on the Leguminosae collections from the Guiana Shield and to organize, participate in, and analyze results from collecting expeditions to the Guiana Shield. This year (2007) she spent three weeks as a resident collector in Guyana, and also made a collection trip to French Guiana. On these trips she made about 935 botanical collections, most with silica collected leaves for DNA work.

From January to April of 2007, Dr. Karen Redden made an expedition to Warashema and the Meamu Mountains in the Middle Mazaruni region of Guyana, accompanied by C. Perry, P. Benjamin, and D. Singh. The Meamu Mountain area is a fascinating amalgam of tepuis and lowland rainforest, and both mountains and the creeks leading to the mountains had never before been explored. The team collected over 600 plant specimens, including at least three newly identified species, one new hybrid, and numerous species that had never before been collected in the surrounding areas. This area also has a very diverse fauna; they observed two jaguars, a cock-of-the-rock lekking ground with over 40 birds, tapir, peccary, 3 species of monkeys, anacondas, and numerous other birds, reptiles, mammals and fishes.

Warashema mountain, Guyana
Warashema mountain, Guyana.

Cristián Samper, Director of the National Museum of Natural History, and Hans Sues, Associate Director for Research and Collections, traveled to Guyana with Vicki Funk and Carol Kelloff in February 2007 to look at field sites and review the progress of the Biological Diversity of the Guiana Shield Program.

Hans Sues, Christian Samper, and Vicki Funk on a canopy walk
Hans Sues, Christian Samper, and Vicki Funk on a canopy walk in Iwokrama rainforest in Guyana

The University of Guyana is using students interested in biodiversity studies to work in the CSBD collections to help process and curate under the supervision of the Scientific Officers. This work/study program is helping the students lean more about the field of museum collections and has provided CSBD with a workforce. The CSBD has also begun a monthly biodiversity seminar, under the direction of Calvin Barnard. This seminar is open to staff, students, and the public.

Funk, V.A. 2007. The Guiana Shield: 20 years and counting. The Plant Press 10 (2): 1, 12-15.

Feuillet, C. 2007. Folia taxonomica 3. Passiflora davidii (Passifloraceae), a new species in subgenus Passiflora and a key to the sections of supersection Stipulata. J. Bot. Res. Inst. Texas 1(2): 895-898.

Strong, M. T. 2006. Taxonomy and distribution of Rhynchospora (Cyperaceae) in the Guianas, South America. Contributions of the United States National Herbarium 53:1-225.

DaSilva, P., V. Funk & C. Kelloff (editors). December 2005. Biodiversity and Conservation Studies in Guyana: 1, 2, and 3. Contribution to the Study of Biological Diversity 2: 1-78. This volume was published by the Centre for the Study of Biological Diversity in Guyana and the authors were several recent graduates of the University of Guyana.

BDG Newsletter head

BDG Newsletter, Number 1. June, 2005. Take a look to see what almost all of the people who have associated with the BDG have been up to! (pdf)

Funk, V.A., K.S. Richardson, and S. Ferrier. 2005. Survey-gap analysis in expeditionary research: Where do we go from here? Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 85: 549–567.

Floras: A Model for Biodiversity Studies or a Thing of the Past? Presentation made by Vicki Funk at the Smithsonian Botany Symposium, The Future of Floras: New Frameworks, New Techniques, New Uses. National Museum of Natural History & the US Botanic Garden, Washington DC. 15-16 April, 2005. (pdf - large download, 10 mb)

Hollowell, T. and R.P. Reynolds, eds. 2005. Checklist of the terrestrial vertebrates of the Guiana Shield. Bulletin of the Biological Society of Washington 13. (pdf)

Clarke, H. David and V.A. Funk. 2005. Using checklists and collections data to investigate plant diversity. II: An analysis of five florulas from northeastern South America. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 154: 29-37. (pdf)


Updated July 2008

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