The IBISCA Team: Towards a Census of Tropical Rainforest Life

1. The IBISCA Team: Towards a Census of Tropical Rainforest Life A scientific endeavour to survey the inhabitants of the richest habitat on Earth, the tropical rainforest, and to understand their ecosystem function and value Relations with institutions and partnership: Olivier Pascal, Pro-Natura International, France ol.pascal@freesurf.fr Scientific programme: Yves Basset, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama bassety@si.edu Technical information and research projects: Bruno Corbara, Université Blaise Pascal, France Bruno.Corbara@srvpsy.univbpclermont.fr Data management: Maurice Leponce, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences Maurice.Leponce@naturalsciences.be Specimen collection management: Héctor Barrios, Universidad de Panamá, Panama hbarrios@ancon.upac.pa Media relations: Roger Kitching, Griffith University, Australia R.kitchin@mailbox.gu.edu.au http://www.naturalsciences.be/cb/ants/projects/ibisca_main.htm

2. Who is IBISCA? • A team of ca 100 experts in tropical biodiversity • Supported by 40+ academic institutions in 18 countries • and 10+ biodiversity networks • Collective expertise: 1500+ scientific publications, • 1500+ new species discovered, 300+ students • supervised, 500 years spent researching tropical • biodiversity Aims of IBISCA-CTRL Implement a ‘Census of Tropical Rainforest Life’ (CTRL) modeled after the IBISCA-Panama project • The challenge • Tropical rainforests are the most diverse ecosystems • Rainforest canopies support most of unknown biodiversity • Biodiversity losses continue or are accelerating • Most of biodiversity is lost before it can be collected and studied • Why is this crisis important? • Loss of biodiversity = loss of ecosystem functions/processes • Meaning: impoverishment of human life standards • Very little is known about: • the relation between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning • the impacts of human disturbance on biodiversity • Why arthropods are important? • 80% of biodiversity are artrhropods • Arthropods are movers and shakers of the world, together with humans • Arthropods are key regulators of ecosystem processes • What is being done about it? • Effort to database known species • Description of unknown species in museum collections lags behind it • Field collecting of yet unknown species the lags far behind it • Some tropical inventories/studies, but of limited taxonomic scope The rainforest canopy regulates our global climate and shelter a fantastic amount of new molecules and organisms. However its exploration is currently far less funded than the exploration of space (planet Mars)

3. A new approach • In 2003, IBISCA initiated a revolutionary project in Panama: • Integrative project, less an inventory per se • Consider horizontal, vertical and seasonal components of biodiversity • New industry standards: ecologists, taxonomists, students, parataxonomists • Unprecedented scale of collaboration • Wide range of arthropods groups considered • Generates datasets and understanding at a level of completeness and • rigor that we have not seen before • How to do a Census of Tropical Rainforest Life? • Dissemination of IBISCA-Panama results and media coverage • 9 scientific workshops involving academic researchers and • international biodiversity networks • 8 pilot studies to develop tools and protocols • Initiate CTRL, focusing on arthropods and vascular plants • at key locations in the tropics How much it will cost? 9.4/7.5 mio $/€in total 4.5/3.7 mio $/€already secured • Applications • Better understanding of key forest processes, such as • pollination, herbivory, seed dispersal and decomposition • Standard protocols and tools to establish baseline data and • quantify the impact of human perturbation • Key solutions to achieve quickly a global inventory • Increased knowledge of the biotic and genetic diversity • of the richest habitat on Earth • Other key outputs • Arthropod collections ready to be analyzed for • genetic content • Description of new species • Capacity building (students, parataxonomists) • Media coverage, sponsoring, web sites, • publications, etc. • Key solutions to achieve quickly a global inventory

4. 1 2 3 4 1. Methods of canopy access. From top left, clockwise: canopy crane (view of the gondola), canopy bubble, canopy fogging, Ikos (tree platform), single rope techniques and canopy raft. All of these methods were used in the IBISCA project in Panama. 2. Operating standards in the IBISCA project. From top left, clockwise: concentration of biodiversity experts, here surveying insect pollinators in the canopy, at a single location to answer key questions; use of a wide range of collecting techniques, here a flight interception trap, and sufficient taxonomic, spatial and seasonal replicates; pre-sorting of the material into focal taxa involving both students, parataxonomists, ecologists and taxonomists; species identification; databasing using individual modules; and early dissemination of results, such as the vertical stratification of different taxa as collected with sticky traps. 3. Mean number of arthropods collected per sticky trap at different heights in the San Lorenzo forest during IBISCA. These preliminary results are based on one of the 14 sampling programmes used in IBISCA. 4. View of the canopy of the San Lorenzo forest, home of the IBISCA project.