This Biotic Survey and Inventory project will be conducted in Chile, a country that is a virtual biotic island and includes one of the world's five major temperate rainforest systems and the only such system in South America. The Chilean temperate forests have been isolated since the Tertiary, resulting in an extraordinary number of endemic taxa that represent many ancient lineages clearly connected to the Australian biota. This project will enable an inventory of beetles, and the collection of many other arthropods from the species rich and critically threatened Valdivian Temperate Forests. The project includes canopy-fogging. This method targets species that are seldom sampled otherwise and are an important and unknown part of the world's biodiversity. Understanding the distribution and diversity of such groups is fundamental to building the context of biotic change in the southern continents and within Chile. Additionally, it is widely recognized that this region is under-protected and rapidly succumbing to human land-use practices, namely fragmentation and land conversion. The data and understanding of the temperate forests resulting from the project will have long-term impacts on the field of biology and Chilean management practices.
The project will provide high quality specimens and data for systematics and taxonomic research, resulting in a prominent increase in publications that address taxonomy, phylogeny, ecology, and biogeography. Products of the project will include a specimen-level database, the development of identification keys, species checklists, broadly available information and images via the internet. This project will provide specimens for both Chilean and US museums and will have a lasting impact on arthropod research for Chile and the international community. These collections are vital resources for future research and crucial to developing an active intellectual community of arthropod biologists in Chile. Finally, it provides critically important biodiversity data for Chilean conservation organizations. Future policy-making, conservation planning, and education are dependent on the baseline data available. Presently arthropod data are entirely lacking in Chile. The project will address this gap in our knowledge, permanently changing the course of research and management in Chile and abroad. Both USA and Chilean undergraduate and graduate students will be incorporated throughout this project. They will be trained in collecting methods, specimen identification and preparation, bioinfomatic data collection and museum methods.
Joint support for the international aspects of this research was provided by the Office of International Science and Engineering of NSF.
