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.
