Room 400, School of Arts and Sciences
Ahmedabad University, Central Campus
This seminar will explore the goals and achievements of a five-year effort to document biodiversity in the Mekongga Mountains, Sulawesi, Indonesia. The region remained largely unexplored until our multi-taxonomic team began surveys in 2009. The biological exploration was funded by the International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups program administered by the National Institutes of Health. The ICBG is a program that addresses the interdependent issues of biological exploration and discovery, socioeconomic benefits, and biodiversity conservation. This seminar will dive into the rich diversity of tropical forests of the rugged Mekongga Mountains. The surveys were conducted over a four-year period and has yielded untold numbers of undescribed species of plants, insects, and vertebrates. The survey work also provide evidence to help secure this region as a new National Park in Indonesia. The seminar will outline the framework of the study, the logistics of carrying out specimen-based research, and the current outcomes from the studies, including the descriptions of several new taxa.
Andrew Engilis is the Curator of the Museum of Wildlife Fish Biology (MWFB) in the Department of Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology at the University of California Davis. He has held that position since 2000. Andy is also a Research Associate of the Bishop Museum, Hawaii where he has conducted research in New Guinea and the Hawaiian Islands dating back to the 1980s. His primary research is on specimen-based, avian, mammalian, and herpetological diversity and biogeography studies in the United States and globally. He has conducted specimen-based research and biodiversity work on five continents over the span of his career.
