A PLANNING VISIT TO TAIWAN, JAPAN AND KOREA TO ESTABLISH COORDINATED INTERNATIONAL LONG-TERM OBSERVATION STATIONS FOR BIODIVERSITY OF LEPIDOPTERA

Oregon State University, Corvallis OR

Investigators

Abstract

OISE-0534409 Miller, Jeffrey (Oregon State University), A Planning Visit to Taiwan, Japan and Korea to Establish Coordinated International Long-Term Observation Stations for Biodiversity of Lepidotera ABSTRACT This project supports Dr. Jeffrey Miller of Oregon State University Department of Botany and U.S. collaborators Dr. Hang-Kwang Luh and Dr. Andrew Moldenke, both of the Oregon State University Department of Botany, along with two-three students to be identified nationally, in a three-part planning visit to Taiwan, Japan and Korea to develop a four-country research collaboration on biodiversity assessment focusing on Lepidoptera in temperate and sub-tropical/tropical forests. The group will travel to Taiwan in summer 2005, to Korea and Japan in Fall 2005, and to Taiwan in Fall 2006 to meet collaborators and examine field sites. The U.S. team, which conducts research at the H.J. Andrews Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site in Oregon, will meet with Dr. Yu-Feng Hsu of National Taiwan University and other researchers affiliated with Fushan Taiwan Ecological Research Network (TERN); Dr. Masashi Murakami of Tomokomai Research Forest and Dr. Shin Abe of Hokkaido Research Center, both in Hokkaido, Japan; and a site in Korea to be determined in consultation with Drs. Hoonbok Yi and Chang-Seok Lee of Seoul Women's University. The group will plan long-term ecological studies that will compare and extend existing databases on insect biodiversity and community composition. The research project will facilitate the integration of the disciplines of taxonomy, ecology and informatics into a system that encourages the documentation of biodiversity simultaneous with the elucidation of patterns of community dynamics and the assessment of environmental impacts. In the first two trips, the PI and his U.S. collaborators will meet with overseas collaborators and examine each site with the long-term project in mind. The final meeting in Taiwan, which researchers from Japan and Korea will also attend, will focus on finalizing the team of research personnel in each country, coordinating the research objectives to be addressed across all sites, and finalizing plans for the submission of grant proposals to funders in each country.