Department of Biological Sciences, NUS
Qualifying Examination
Speaker: Louise Neo (Graduate Student, Dept. of Biological Sciences, NUS)
Date: 25 April 2018, Wednesday
Time: 3pm
Venue: Seminar Room 2 (S2 Level 4, #04-15)
Supervisor: Assoc Prof Hugh Tan T W
Co-Supervisor: Dr Wong Khoon Meng (Principal Researcher, Singapore Botanic Gardens)
Abstract: –
The narrow geographical ranges of endemic plants that make them regionally or globally rare, render them of special interest for biogeographic research and conservation. Endemic genera can be unique evolutionary lineages. Centers of generic endemism, where these are concentrated, can indicate special environments, or could be areas of active speciation or refugia. The highly biodiverse rainforests of Borneo have been a major source of speciation and dispersal for plant lineages in Southeast Asia since the pre-Miocene, but they are hypothesized to be in a refugial state at present and, therefore, highly threatened. Centers of plant generic endemism have never been examined, although they can highlight priority areas for biogeographic research and conservation. I use a taxonomy-informed approach to gather the known occurrences of the endemic and near-endemic plant genera of Borneo from critically identified herbarium specimens, with the aims of (1) mapping distribution patterns of the genera, (2) identifying centers of generic endemism and their environmental correlates, (3) understanding distribution patterns and centers of generic endemism within the historical biogeography context of Borneo, and (4) assessing conservation exigencies for these genera.
All are welcome