| NSF Org: |
DEB Division Of Environmental Biology |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | March 29, 2016 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | April 18, 2022 |
| Award Number: | 1555675 |
| Award Instrument: | Continuing Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Maureen Kearney
DEB Division Of Environmental Biology BIO Directorate for Biological Sciences |
| Start Date: | July 1, 2016 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2023 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $153,360.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $202,258.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2019 = $10,208.00 FY 2020 = $12,500.00 FY 2021 = $16,696.00 FY 2022 = $9,494.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
500 COLLEGE AVE SWARTHMORE PA US 19081-1390 (610)328-8000 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
500 College Avenue Swarthmore PA US 19081-1390 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): |
Systematics & Biodiversity Sci, DEL |
| Primary Program Source: |
01001617DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001920DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01002021DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01002122DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.074 |
ABSTRACT
Vanuatu is a group of 80 islands located in the South Pacific, situated roughly equidistant from New Caledonia, Fiji, and the Solomon Islands, all of which are globally important biodiversity hotspots. Despite its significance as a treasure trove of biodiversity, Vanuatu's plants and fungi remain poorly documented, leaving a significant gap in our knowledge of regional biodiversity compared with neighboring island countries, all of which have active or completed flora surveys. The few existing plant surveys in Vanuatu have focused primarily on the northern end of the archipelago. In the southern part of the country, little reliable botanical data exist, and there is great potential for new scientific discoveries. This project focuses on Tafea Province, the five southernmost islands of Vanuatu. In March, 2015, Tafea Province was the site of a catastrophic category-5 super-cyclone. Just prior to that, eight forest transects were established to characterize vegetation growth and change over time. These study sites were severely impacted by the storm, and monitoring efforts will provide an important opportunity to understand how Pacific-Island forests recover from this type of event. Along with its rich biological diversity, Vanuatu is also the most linguistically rich country in the world, with 112 languages for a total population of only 253,000; nine of these languages are found only in Tafea Province. As globalization and economic development are proceeding in Vanuatu, local languages are being replaced by English, French, and Bislama (a local Creole), and thus there is a critical need to document local languages and the botanical knowledge that is encapsulated therein. Undergraduate students will be trained in the analysis of linguistic data, and graduate students will participate in all aspects of the research and receive valuable training in tropical botany and mycology.
The researchers will complete the first comprehensive survey of angiosperms, gymnosperms, ferns, lycophytes, bryophytes, endophytic and macro-fungi, and lichens ever undertaken in Tafea Province. Surveys will be conducted using two approaches: 1) establishment of permanent monitoring transects and plots, which will allow for both vegetation analysis and dense floristic and fungal sampling, and provide an opportunity for long-term monitoring in the face of global climate change, and 2) a general collecting approach will be used across larger areas. From these data, an annotated checklist (both hard copy and online) will be assembled using the database of newly collected and historical specimens. The checklist will allow for tests of phytogeographic relationships among Vanuatu and its closest neighbors (New Caledonia and Fiji), allowing the researchers to address questions relating to levels of endemism, species distributions, and evolution of the regional flora. Because most land in Vanuatu is held under customary ownership, and local people are the stewards of their environments, the loss of biocultural knowledge is a serious threat to their ability to manage biodiversity resources sustainably. To support local environmental education efforts, the project will combine the expertise of the team's linguists and botanists to work with indigenous speakers of eight Tafean languages to document names of plants and fungi, providing a tangible linkage between biodiversity, traditional culture, and conservation. Project linguists will produce printed and digital dictionaries of indigenous plant and fungal names and will use web-based videography and 'story maps', which spatially link names and traditional uses of organisms onto the landscape, helping viewers visualize the connections between biodiversity, knowledge, and place, providing a complement to the botanical databases.
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Outcomes—Collaborative Research: Plant, Fungal and Linguistic Diversity of Tafea Province, Vanuatu
The Republic of Vanuatu is a South-Pacific archipelago of more than 80 islands, situated between New Caledonia, Fiji, and the Solomon Islands, all of which are globally recognized biodiversity hotspots. Vanuatu's biota is considered an important component of the region's status as a global center of biodiversity, and the "Vanuatu rain forest" vegetation type is recognized as an endangered terrestrial eco-region. The project completed a botanical, mycological, and associated linguistic and ethnobotanical survey of Tafea, the southernmost province of Vanuatu.
The project carried out 13 field expeditions to the islands of Tanna, Aneityum, Futuna, and Aniwa collecting 4,132 individual plant specimens (each one including leaf tissue samples for DNA studies), and mostly in duplicate sets of six (for a total of over 21,000 herbarium specimens). These materials have helped to fill in a significant gap in our knowledge of plant biodiversity for this region, and specimens and DNA samples have been distributed for study by local and international specialists. Of the individual plant specimens, ~50% have associated linguistic and cultural use data. At the conclusion of this project, the Vanuatu National Herbarium (PVNH) now contains specimens from 98% of all vascular plant families, 91% of all genera, and 81% of all species known to be found in Vanuatu.
The project produced a Flora of Vanuatu website (https://pvnh.net/) with data for the 17,000 specimens at PVNH. The website also hosts an interactive version of the new checklist of Vanuatu's vascular flora, with distributional data (endemic, native, introduced), trait data (habit), conservation assessments, and other associated information.
The project also produced a documentary film "Plants mo Pipol blong Vanuatu, Preserving Vanuatu's Rich Heritage of Plant Diversity and Knowledge", filmed by an Indigenous filmmaker (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3ii4qihIww) and numerous popular-press articles and blogs.
The project also developed "Talking Dictionaries" for six Tafean languages (Aneityum, Futuna-Aniwa, Nafe, Naka, Netwar, and Newai) that record vernacular names with pronunciations by native speakers for plants and other biodiversity-related objects, along with photographs and cultural information on each entry (https://talkingdictionary.swarthmore.edu/vanuatu.php). This resource contains more than 20,000 items, including language names, audio files, and photographs. All linguistic data has been deposited with local communites, and remains their intellectual property.
A major focus of this project has been to build local capacity in the Vanuatu National Herbarium as well as train a team of next-generation Indigenous and U.S. botanists and mycologists. The project upgraded facilities at PVNH by providing new herbarium cabinets, herbarium supplies, a printer for producing specimen labels, and (through co-funding from other sources) new computer equipment, and a new specimen processing room. People trained by this project included two Indigenous students who received degrees at the University of the South Pacific, five local student interns who received training in field studies, herbarium work, and conservation research, and eight U.S. students, three receiving graduate degrees as part of the project, two recent U.S. graduates supported by an NSF supplement and co-funding, and three undergraduate interns. In addition to seven peer-reviewed scientific articles, an eighth major publication has been the preparation of a 700-page manuscript, "The Useful Plants of Tafea Province" with ~800 color photographs, expected to be published in the first half of 2024. As part of the effort to advance local and national conservation priorities and regional resilience goals in the face of global climate change, the project established forest transects at 14 sites, including biennial re-surveys at eight sites damaged by super-Cyclone Pam, which are providing important information about responses of tropical forests to catastrophic weather events that are becoming more frequent and severe across Oceania. The project's close partnership with the Vanuatu Department of Forests has facilitated national recognition of the efforts to initiate community-controlled conservation areas.
The project has taken a trans-disciplinary approach to understand and conserve the plant and fungal diversity of Tafea Province, as well as recording local vernacular names and cultural uses for many of these species. Through an impactful program of teaching, training and, community presentations, the project has also strengthened cultural memory, which is leading to a greater appreciation of the value of native habitats to livelihoods, resilience, and sustainable development in this fragile archipelago.
This outcomes report was written by PI Michael J. Balick, with contributions from co-PI K. David Harrison and co-PI Gregory Plunkett and other team members.
Last Modified: 12/30/2023
Modified by: K D Harrison
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