Small Collections Grant

Studying plants in hyper diverse forests represents a titanic challenge given the high proportion of unknown species, and the huge diversity of plants needed to be recorded. However, recording species from biodiversity hotspots has never been more urgent, given the current rates of forest degradation and deforestation1,2. For this reason, we, at Herbario Icesi, have undertaken the task of recording and studying plants at Anchicayá, a reserve located on the Western slope of the Western Andean Colombian Cordillera, at the very heart of Choco biodiversity hotspot in South America3,4. With an estimation of 9,000-12,500 plant species and more than 5,000 endemic3,4, the Choco region remains largely unexplored5.
For the past year and a half, staff from Herbario Icesi have set up six 0.1 ha plots, and one 1 ha permanent plot to monitor lowland humid tropical forest in a 300-ha reserve in Anchicayá. All trees, palms, and lianas with diameter at breast height (DBH) ≥ 2.5 cm have been marked, measured, and collected (at least two samples per species). In addition, plants (trees, palms, lianas, shrubs and lianas) with reproductive structures (flowers or fruits) have been collected from forests surrounding the monitoring plots. As a result, more than 1000 plant samples have been oven-dried but need to be mounted and digitalized at the herbarium. To do this, we will hire a biologist who has already been trained at the herbarium, for mounting and digitalizing 800 of these samples.