Latitudinal Gradient Project - Australian contributions
The values provided in temporal and spatial coverage are approximate only. Taken from the 2008-2009 Progress Report: Variations to work plan or objectives: Logistic constraints limited field time, necessitating major changes in the field. Transfer of the herbarium ADT to HO required considerable tim...
| Summary: | The values provided in temporal and spatial coverage are approximate only. Taken from the 2008-2009 Progress Report: Variations to work plan or objectives: Logistic constraints limited field time, necessitating major changes in the field. Transfer of the herbarium ADT to HO required considerable time input. Field work: 4 weeks of field work were planned for the McMurdo Dry Valleys region. Two weeks were lost due to adverse weather (heavy snow falls) and helicopter schedule rearrangements due to a medical evacuation from the field. Ground based studies were carried out at Granite Harbour (with abandonment of work proposed for inland mountains) and in the Darwin Glacier region (where adverse weather and a biotically poor area limited field time to 3 days. Collections of plants made are currently being identified and will provide comparative biodiversity indices for other multi-disciplinary whole ecosystem studies currently being undertaken in the southern Dry Valleys region. A molecular phylogenetic and taxonomic revision of Lecidea s.l., lichens is being undertaken by an Austrian PhD student and should be completed late 2009. Laboratory activity/analysis: Morphological examination of specimens from AAT and Ross Sea Sector is ongoing. As material is fully identified the data is prepared as herbarium packets and incorporated into the Herbarium (ADT - being transferred to the Tasmanian Herbarium HO) and to the AAD Data Centre. This record relates to the Australian component of the Latitudinal Gradient Project. The LGP is largely a New Zealand, US and Italian venture, but a small contribution has been made by Australian scientists. The Australian component of this work was completed as part of ASAC projects 2361 and 2682 (ASAC_2361, and ASAC_2682). Data from this project were entered into the herbarium access database, which has been linked to this record. The list below contains details of where and when samples were collected, and also the type of sample and the method of sampling. Cape Hallett and vicinity (2000, 2004): Biodiversity assessment of terrestrial plants (mosses, lichens); Invertebrate collections (mites, Collembola); plant ecology and community analysis; photosynthetic physiology of mosses and lichens; molecular genetics of mosses and lichens. Random sampling for biodiversity studies; point quadrats, releves for vegetation analysis, field laboratory experiments for physiological studies. Dry Valleys: Taylor Valley (1989, 1996), Garwood Valley (2001), Granite Harbour (1989; 1994, 1996) - plant ecology; plant physiology; biodiversity; invertebrate collections; molecular genetics of mosses. Random sampling for biodiversity studies; point quadrats, releves for vegetation analysis, field laboratory experiments for physiological studies. Beaufort Island (1996) - plant biodiversity; molecular genetics of mosses. Random sampling for biodiversity studies; point quadrats, releves for vegetation analysis, laboratory studies for molecular genetics. Darwin Glacier (1994): plant biodiversity; molecular genetics of invertebrates and mosses (random sampling for biodiversity; laboratory studies of invertebrate and moss molecular genetics). Project objectives: 1. Investigate the distribution of bryophytes and lichens in continental Antarctica 1a). to test the null hypothesis that species diversity does not change significantly with latitude; 1b). to explore the relationships between species and key environmental attributes including latitude, distance from the coast, temperature, substrate, snow cover, age of ice-free substrate. 2. To continue to participate in the Ross Sea Sector Latitudinal Gradient Project and develop an Australian corollary in the Prince Charles Mountains, involving international collaborators, incorporating the first two objectives of this project. 3. To develop an international collaborative biodiversity and ecophysiological program in the Prince Charles Mountains that will provide a parallel N-S latitude gradient study to mirror the LGP program in the Ross Sea region as part of the present RISCC cooperative program (to be superseded by the EBA (Evolution and Biodiversity of Antarctica) program) to address the above objectives. Taken from the 2008-2009 Progress Report: Progress against objectives: Continuing identification of moss and lichen samples previously collected from Cape Hallett, Granite Harbour and Darwin Glacier region. Lecidea s.l. lichens currently being studied in Austria by PhD student. Field work in Dry Valleys significantly curtailed by adverse weather. Field work planned for Darwin Glacier region and McMurdo Dry Valleys, particularly Taylor Valley and Granite Harbour region was severely curtailed due to adverse weather, helicopter diversions due to a Medical Evacuation, and other logistic constraints. 10 days of field time were lost. Limitations on field travel in Darwin Glacier region restricted the field work to a biologically depauperate region. The Prince Charles Mountains N-S transect, the only continental transect possibility for comparison with the Ross Sea area, unfortunately appears to have been abandoned through lack of logistic support. Taken from the 2009-2010 Progress Report: Identification of samples collected from AAT and Ross Sea Region continued during the year, interrupted significantly by the packing of the collection and transfer of specimens to the Tasmanian Herbarium. Work is now proceeding at the Herbarium with sorting, databasing and incorporation of packets into the Herbarium collection. The merging of the collection provides long-term security of curation and significantly boosts the cryptogam collections (35000 numbers) of the Tasmanian Herbarium. |
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