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Field Work, Floras, Monographs, and other Resources for Plant Systematics

Field Work, Floras, Monographs, and other Resources for Plant Systematics. Spring 2011. Systematics. Science of organismal diversity Discovery, description and interpretation of biological diversity Discovery and description of the evolutionary tree of life (phylogeny)

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Field Work, Floras, Monographs, and other Resources for Plant Systematics

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  1. Field Work, Floras, Monographs, and other Resources for Plant Systematics Spring 2011

  2. Systematics • Science of organismal diversity • Discovery, description and interpretation of biological diversity • Discovery and description of the evolutionary tree of life (phylogeny) • Synthesis of information in the form of predictive classification systems • Production of identification tools (e.g., keys, floras and faunas, monographs, databases, etc.)

  3. What systematists do(when they are not doingphylogenetics) • Field work • Specimens/herbaria • Databases, keys • Floras, monographs, websites

  4. Important steps in doing field work • Figure out where the plants grow (herbarium specimens, databases) • Make contacts in those countries • Solicit appropriate collecting and export permits • Find the funds to do the field work! • Get the proper equipment (either take it with you or get it when you arrive)

  5. Important steps cont’d. • Arrange for transportation (and lodging if visiting a field station) • Collect the specimens (take any necessary measurements in the field; take photos) • Process the specimens (drying, sorting into duplicates) • Make and distribute the labels (including georeferencing) • Arrange for shipping of your duplicates to your institution

  6. Buds and leaves preserved In alcohol for anatomical study Leaves in silica gel for DNA extraction

  7. Appendix Two, Figures 1 and 2

  8. Ada Hayden Herbarium Iowa State University http://www.public.iastate.edu/~herbarium/index.html

  9. USDA PLANTS Database http://plants.usda.gov/

  10. Chusquea latifolia (Colombia) Chusquea serpens (Costa Rica)

  11. Collections of Chusquea serpens from Costa Rica

  12. Map of C. latifolia

  13. strict consensus of 3,425 trees rpl16 intron sequence data (gaps removed, 978 characters) and binary indel data (20 characters)

  14. Hillcane (Arundinaria appalachiana)

  15. Writing Keys • Parallel information for all taxa is needed; a table of taxa by characters is a good way to start • Dichotomous keys (still the most widely available) require mutually exclusive choices • Characters need to be precisely defined and use measurements instead of general terms like “small” and “large”

  16. Writing Keys cont’d. • Use characters that are as easily available/observable as possible • Couplets start with a noun followed by adjectives • Leads should be strictly parallel and use positive contrasting conditions • Keys do not need to track phylogeny, they simply need todiscriminate among the taxa

  17. Appendix Two, Figure 3

  18. Grasses of Iowa http://www.eeob.iastate.edu/research/iowagrasses/

  19. Ada Hayden Herbarium Iowa State University http://www.public.iastate.edu/~herbarium/index.html

  20. Flora of North America http://www.fna.org/

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