Darwin Initiative Project 17-022 Conservation of the Lowland Savannas of Belize Second Year Annual Report - Botany April 2010 March 2011 Zoë Goodwin
Summary of Year 2 Activities...3 Project website launched and periodically updated (Activity 1.1)...4 Plant diversity surveys conducted in lowland savanna (Activity 1.3)...4 Live plant collections made for Belize Botanic Garden Trail and educational displays (Activity 1.4)...4 Determination of savanna collections using UK herbaria and literature (Activity 1.5)...5 Recuration of savanna collections at Belize National Herbarium (Activity 1.6)...5 Development of a savanna plant distribution database (Activity 1.7)...5 Training in field botany, taxonomy and herbarium curation (Activity 1.8)...6 Database available on-line (Activity 1.9)...7 Checklist of savanna plants highlighting species of conservation importance drafted (Activity 2.1)...7 Photographic savanna fieldguide developed and field tested (Activity 5.1)...8 Additional Activities...9 Paper on San Pastor Savanna...9 Public Engagement in Science Specimen Preparation Demonstration of Savanna Plants from Belize...9 Supervision of MSc Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants Dissertation Projects...9
Summary of Year 2 Activities Project year 2 has seen significant progress with many of the botanical activities for the project. The project database in BRAHMS software (version 6.6) for the savanna plants has been further added to and cleaned. Over 700 herbarium specimens and more than 2,200 field observations were made, which supplement in excess of 4,000 pre-existing records of plant collections obtained from a variety of sources, including the RBGE s internal collections and several databases of international plant collections. Each record has been checked for consistency, duplicate plant names removed and the records entered into the database. The second and third field seasons of plant collecting were carried out in Belize this year by the UK Darwin Botanist Zoë and the Belizean Darwin Botanist German Lopez, between April June and October - December 2010. Around 600 botanical collections were made at 70 locations. By combining these new data with existing information from the database, first drafts of a Checklist of Savanna Plants and a Photoguide to the Common Savanna Plants have been prepared. A journal paper prepared by the Darwin Botanist this year, but based upon field collecting undertaken in 2007 has been accepted for publication, reviewed, edited and is due to be published shortly. Three major botanical training courses have been delivered: one training course focused on field identification of savanna plants to rangers, an indepth field identification course for Belizean professionals as part of the RBGE MSc in Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants and a course focusing on the practical outputs of good quality botanical data. The following sections describe the progress of the activities according to the project s Logical framework.
Summary of main activities Project website launched and periodically updated (Activity 1.1) Following the successful creation of the website in project year one by Dr Iain Cameron, news items and educational materials (photoguides and fact sheets) have been regularly added to the website by Zoë Goodwin. A copy of the project database was made available online in mid-march, see activity 1.9 for details. Plant diversity surveys conducted in lowland savanna (Activity 1.3) Figure 1: Pine savanna in Toledo. Rapid botanical surveys were conducted at seventy lowland savanna sites by botanists Zoë Goodwin and German Lopez in two field seasons in April June and October December 2010. At each site within an area of approximately 25 x 25 m a full vegetation description and species list was compiled, with known species recorded and unknown or unusual species collected. This focused species list was augmented with wide patrolling around the core area. 600 plant specimen collections and around 2,000 species observations were made across the seventy survey sites (with a mean of 36 taxa recorded at each site). For further details see Appendix 1. In January 2011, the RBGE MSc Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants field trip to Belize collected quantitative data on pine woodland structure supervised by project staff, in addition to a further 62 plant specimens from the savanna and surrounding forest. Live plant collections made for Belize Botanic Garden Trail and educational displays (Activity 1.4) During field seasons 2 and 3, Zoë Goodwin and German Lopez assisted Belize Botanic Gardens (BBG) to make live plant collections and with the identification of species in the savanna trail. For details, refer to the BBG annual report.
Determination of savanna collections using UK herbaria and literature (Activity 1.5) Over 300 savanna specimens in the existing savanna collections held at RBGE and BRH have been identified by Zoë Goodwin and German Lopez during year 2. Recuration of savanna collections at Belize National Herbarium (Activity 1.6) This activity was started in Field Season 2 and continued in Field Season 3. During Field Season 2 800 specimens from Polygalaceae & Fabaceae subfamilies Caesalpinoideae and Mimosoideae were re-curated, equivalent to approximately 1 herbarium cabinet (Appendix 2). This work was continued throughout Field Season 3 when a further 6 of the 11 cabinets were completely curated, totalling 3,800 herbarium specimens from Acanthaceae to Melastomataceae (112 families). In addition 1,200 recently mounted specimens were incorporated into the collection. The expansion and curation of these collections means that the 7 cabinets now occupy just over 12 cabinets. This work is described in greater detail in Appendix 3. Figure 2: Specimen cabinets at BRH (left) and a cabinet after re-curation (right). Development of a savanna plant distribution database (Activity 1.7) Based upon work from project year 1 additional specimen information has been added to the database to give a total of 5,409 specimens for 4,640 botanical records. These specimens are derived from records from nine institutions. For seven institutions (GH, MO, NY, E, K, US & MICH) the data was derived from online resources (most of the data from E & MO was obtained in year 1); the data from BM and BRH is from specimens seen. The Belmopan hebarium data is the most noticeable new data set in year 2. Most of the specimens from GH, K, US and MICH are primarily type specimens. Table 1: Specimen records in the database and institutions they are collected from. Institution Number of specimen records Belize National Herbarium, Belmopan (BRH) 509 Gray Herbarium (GH) 1 Missouri Botanic Gardens (MO) 3296 Natural History Museum, London (BM) 534 New York Botanical Garden (NY) 25 Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (E) 644 Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K) 1 Smithsonian Institute of Natural History (US) 2 University of Michigan (MICH) 6
Training in field botany, taxonomy and herbarium curation (Activity 1.8) Botanical training in year 2 focused on providing high quality and relevant training to Belizeans in the conservation and environmental resource management community. There was also a focus on continuation of training to candidates with talent. For example Elmar Requena (Toledo Institute of Development and the Environment) a young recent UB graduate was identified during the Introduction to the Vascular Plants of the Belizean Savanna course as possessing a natural ability for natural history and postgraduate potential. Thus he was invited to attend both the RBGE MSc Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants field course and the Botanical Resources for Conservation and Taxonomy course run in January 2011. Elmar Requena is expected to receive Figure 3: Lecturers and attendees of the Introduction to the Vascular Plants of the Belizean Savanna course run in Paynes Creek National Park, November 2010 (top); lecturers and attendees of the Botanical Resources for Conservation and Taxonomy course held at the Environmental Research Institute in Belmopan, January 2011 (below). soil survey training from Prof. Furley in early April 2011. The total number of person training days was 75 and 4 sets of training materials including 2 course booklets, an illustrated glossary to identification terminology and a Belizean IUCN conservation assessment case studies were developed. The Introduction to the Vascular Plants of the Belizean Savanna course run in November 2010 for three days was attended by eleven local professionals (Appendix 4). Three young professional Belizeans received 10 days of botanical training from UK staff during the RBGE MSc Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants field course in January 2011 (Appendix 6). The Botanical Resources for Conservation and Taxonomy course run in January 2011 for three days was attended fulltime by four Belizean professionals (Appendix 5) including the Darwin Botanist, German Lopez. Positive feedback from students in the Introduction to the Vascular Plants of the Belizean Savanna and the Botanical Resources for Conservation and Taxonomy courses to draft copies of the photoguides indicated that photoguides are a great aid to teaching plant identification to rangers and other NGO staff who have no formal taxonomic experience. It is anticipated that the ERI can continue to provide the Introduction to the Vascular Plants of the Belizean Savanna course using materials developed during the project and will be able to develop similar materials for other ecosystems in Belize. Additional training resources developed during for the training this year mentioned previously have also been passed onto the ERI for future use and development.
German Lopez (Belizean Botanist) gained valuable experience by acting as a tutor on the Introduction to the Vascular Plants of the Belizean Savanna course and RBGE MSc Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants field course in January 2011 field course and attended the Botanical Resources for Conservation and Taxonomy course. Additionally he visited the UK (13 th February 6 th March) for further experience of specimens identification, processing and of international herbaria. Further details of German Lopez s activities and training are available in the ERI annual report. Figures 4: German Lopez tutors students on the Introduction to the Vascular Plants of the Belizean Savanna course in November 2010 (left) and studying Crossopetalum in the herbarium at the NHM (right). Database available on-line (Activity 1.9) A copy of the savanna plant database was made available online from mid-march, hosted by the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford on the BRAHMS online website (www.ox.ac.uk/bol/seabelize/home/index). Thanks are given to Denis Filer for making this possible. A link has been posted on the project website. It is anticipated that the copy of the database hosted by the University of Oxford will be the final version of the database produced during the lilfetime of the project, a second copy of the database to be updated post-project will be hosted by the ERI (http://www.eriub.org/). Checklist of savanna plants highlighting species of conservation importance drafted (Activity 2.1) A peer-reviewed checklist of Belizean savanna plants developed from the early draft developed in year 1 has been prepared for publication. It is intended that the checklist will be published as a paper briefly discussing the classification of the savanna, past collection history, collection patterns and species of conservation importance. The checklist will provide an indication of habit (tree, shrub, herb etc), habitat preference (forest, savanna, wetland etc) and a list of voucher specimens by district and geographical location (Appendix 7).
Photographic savanna fieldguide developed and field tested (Activity 5.1) Multiple photoguides to the common savanna plants were drafted thoughout year 2 (Casual User Photoguide in Appendix 9 to illustrate, further examples are available from the project website). The photoguides developed into different forms using newly acquired imagery and updated identifications. The photoguides have already proved to be a useful teaching aid for both undergraduates students and protected area wardens) to perform field identifications of common species. Positive feedback from field-testing such as the field course in November 2010 encouraged the planned development of a technical field guide that includes leaves and other distinguishing characters, in addition to existing flower-based guides. A positive response was also received to the photoguide to endemic and rare species of the savanna for use by protected area management organisations. Laminated copies of draft casual user and endemic plant photoguides were provided to attendees of the Introduction to the Vascular Plants of the Belizean Savanna and the Botanical Resources for Conservation and Taxonomy courses. Three copies of the Casual User, Endemic Species and Melastomataceae photoguides were distributed amongst attendees of the Science Meeting in April 2011. Draft photoguides proved extremely useful for training in plant identification (see Activity 1.8) during the Introduction to the Vascular Plants of the Belizean Savanna course and by the University of Belize BSc Natural Resource Management botany field course held in the upland savannas of Mountain Pine Ridge.
Additional Activities Paper on San Pastor Savanna As described in the year 1 annual report a thesis submitted by Jeff Hicks in 2007 as part of the MSc in Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants course was revised, updated and completed by Zoë Goodwin and submitted to Edinburgh Journal of Botany in March 2010. The paper describes the San Pastor Savanna, a disjunct patch of savanna in the Chiquibul Forest of Belize; 125 species of vascular plants were found including one new species for the country and 28 species new to the Chiquibul. The paper also states the case for a full investigation into the savanna flora of Belize, which is currently in progress. (See Appendix 7). This paper was accepted in August 2010 by Edinburgh Journal of Botany, following positive reviews the paper was edited over the following months and is due to be published early in project year 3. Figure 6 Belizean savanna specimens set up for a mounting demonstration (top) and Jane Corrie chats to visitors (bottom). Public Engagement in Science Specimen Preparation Demonstration of Savanna Plants from Belize At the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh s new visitor centre, the John Hope Gateway, a regular weekly event Behind the Scenes at the Botanics was launched in March 2010. These events are designed to show visitors what goes on at the Botanic Garden. The first session focused on the plants of the Belizean savanna. Taking the form of a herbarium mounting demonstration by RBGE staff member Jane Corrie, Jane discussed with members of the public about the process and function of mounting plant specimens. This was accompanied by explanations about the plants, the area they come from and the importance of herbarium specimens to the work of this Darwin Project and RBGE. All the specimens, information and photos were provided by the Darwin Project. The demonstrations started in March 2010 and continued throughout April and May of that year. This event was well received by the general public and was repeated later in 2010 focusing on other projects based at RBGE. It is anticipated that the Darwin project will return as a focus of this weekly event in project year 3 with updated information, photographs and specimens. Supervision of MSc Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants Dissertation Projects Between May August 2010 two Masters Dissertations supervised by project staff were successfully completed, providing supplementary scientific data that was handed over to the ERI in Oct 2010: Alex Trevaskis Extent to which soil properties contribute to oak (Quercus oleoides Schltdl. & Cham.) distribution within the lowland savannas of Belize (Supervisors: Furley, Harris, Haston & Goodwin) and Lizzie Oldroyd Illustrated user-friendly identification key to the Cyperaceae of Belize (Supervisors: Furley, Harris, Haston & Goodwin). The key produced by Lizzie Oldroyd has been extensively field tested in Belize to great success by
students of the MSc field course and by project staff on the specimens collected during the project. The data collected by Alex Trevaskis will be combined with further field work conducted in April 2011 by Prof. Furley and vegetation data gathered throughout the project by Zoë Goodwin to produce a paper on savanna soil relationships in Belize.
Appendix 1 Field Work Report Appendix 2 Interim Herbarium Report Sep 2010 Appendix 3 Interim Herbarium Report Mar 2011 Appendix 4 Introduction to the Vascular Plants of the Belizean Savanna Course Report Appendix 5 Botanical Resources for Conservation and Taxonomy Course Report Appendix 6 MSc Field Course Report Appendix 7 Copy of Draft Checklist Appendix 8 Casual User Photoguide Appendix 9 Copy of San Pastor Paper proofs