May 20, 2008

Scientists Discover New Hidden Animal and Plant Species

From The Nature Conservancy
http://www.nature.org/pressroom/press/press1707.html


Expedition of Indonesian Caves and Cliffs Reveal Record Levels of Biodiversity, but Logging and Fires Threaten to Destroy Unique Plant and Animal Life

East Kalimantan, Indonesia — December 20, 2004 — A team of international scientists led by The Nature Conservancy today announced the discovery of at least two new fish species and a variety of previously unknown insect, snail and plant species living in the karst systems of Borneo.

During a five-week expedition through the karst systems – limestone caves, cliffs and sinkholes – the scientists also documented high levels of rare plant and animal species found only in Borneo. The expedition was the first biological study ever to document the plant and animal species that live in the karst systems of the East Kalimantan region of Borneo.

“The team’s discovery of such a wide variety of plants and animals, and particularly the high number of rare species found nowhere else on Earth, shows the critical need to protect this area from the growing threats of logging, mining and fire,” said Scott Stanley, the Conservancy’s Program Manager for East Kalimantan. “This area appears to have the largest number of endemic species of any ecosystem on Borneo.”

The expedition team surveyed four karst systems in the Sangkulirang Peninsula of East Kalimantan. Several of these karst areas have already been hit by devastating fires in recent years. Illegal logging and mining operations are quickly spreading through the area, destroying critical habitat and contributing to the spread of wildfires.

The areas surveyed by the expedition team currently have no protective status and are highly vulnerable to damaging human activities.

“In just five weeks, the expedition team discovered numerous new species previously unknown to science. Who knows what else is out there?” Stanley said. “If something is not done soon to protect these areas, dozens of species could disappear before anyone knew they ever existed.”

Along with the new discoveries, scientists documented 34 different bat species living in the surveyed area – more than in any other area of Kalimantan, including protected preserves. Several of the bat species had never before been found in Kalimantan.

Scientists also documented 124 species of birds in the karst areas, nearly one-third of all the non-migratory, non-wetland birds found in Borneo.

And at least five new insect species, including a “monster” cockroach, a “micro-crab,” and a giant troglobitic (cave specialist) millipede were also discovered.

“Nearly all of the insects we collected are new to science,” said Louis DeHarveng, an entomologist and director of research of the French Academy of Science who participated in the survey. “Sangkulirang appears to have some of the most diverse cave species on Earth.”

Other notable discoveries made during the expedition were:

* At least two new species of begonias
* One new species of Monophyllaea (a one-leafed plant)
* Two new species of snails
* Several new fish species

The expedition of the Sangkulirang karst systems was conducted from July 31 to September 3, 2004. The Nature Conservancy sponsored and organized the trip with the financial support of the Sall Family Foundation. Among those participating in the expedition were scientists from Indonesia’s Institute of Sciences, the U.S. Park Service, the University of London, the French Academy of Science, and the Singapore Botanical Garden.



11 comments:

Chun Xing said...

This is a great news. I'm interested in their discovery but.....I've searched all over the internet and found no photographs of their discoveries and names of the scientists.

Anonymous said...

My developer is trying to persuade me to move to .net from PHP.
I have always disliked the idea because of the costs. But he's tryiong none the less. I've been using WordPress on a number of websites for about a year and am anxious about switching to another platform.
I have heard good things about blogengine.net.
Is there a way I can import all my wordpress content into it?
Any kind of help would be greatly appreciated!

My site: 11:39 PM

Anonymous said...

My spouse and I stumbled over here different web page and thought I may as
well check things out. I like what I see so i am just following you.
Look forward to checking out your web page again.

Feel free to visit my site click through the following article

Anonymous said...

You produced some pleasant shows there. I did a search
on the matter and located most people will agree with your blog.



Take a look at my homepage; urlaub reisen günstig

Anonymous said...

Touche. Solid arguments. Keep up the good spirit.


Also visit my homepage - plumbing services Troon

Anonymous said...

Probably the ability that will be leveled second to Omen of War,
Yorick's (E) should give him some decent staying power, both in the lane and
during team fights. You can utilize them to help neutralize
and capture enemy points but you'll want to clear enemy minion waves as quickly as possible to do this,
so you won't be spending time walking around in a circle to last hit
them. This portrayal of friars being the flatulence of Satan, shows us something about the summoner's view of a
friar in Chaucer's time.

Stop by my web-site :: summoners war sky arena hack

Anonymous said...

Hi, everything is going perfectly here and ofcourse every one is sharing facts,
that's really fine, keep up writing.

My weblog :: best shampoo and conditioner

Anonymous said...

When searching a new plan that would have irs 401k limits for 2014 to give us a financial advisor or plan administrator.

Department of Labor regulations, employers will even match part or all of the service organization's controls, and reap the economies of scale associated with Roth IRAs.
After you cross 50 years of doing a 60day rollover or taking
out a tax-sheltered annuity early irs 401k limits for 2014 presents a minor small children.

Feel free to surf to my webpage :: when can you take 401k without penalty

Anonymous said...

Remarkable! Its actually amazing paragraph, I
have got much clear idea concerning from this piece of writing.



Here is my website ... Teds Woodworking Plan Review

theree said...

replica designer bags best replica bags online cheap replica handbags

lathoash said...

you could try here Dolabuy Fendi click to find out more Extra resources have a peek at this website see this site