ID: 613 / 33

Category: Symposia

Track: Pending

Proposed Symposium Title: GLOBAL MYRTACEAE SYSTEMATICS: PURE AND APPLIED PERSPECTIVES FOR MANAGING AND CONSERVING THE EARTH'S PLANT DIVERSITY

Abstract: Myrtaceae is a large and pantropical family with ca. 6000 species distributed through Australasia and the Pacific, tropical and subtropical America, and with a small African representation. It is the third family in number of tree species on the planet. Myrtaceae is infamous for including four mega-diverse genera: Eucalyptus (ca. 800 spp.), Eugenia (ca. 1200 spp.), Myrcia (ca. 800 spp.) and Syzygium (ca. 1200 spp.). These taxonomically unmanageable genera contribute significant to the ‘Systematic Impediment’, reflected by the large number of unnamed specimens held in various regional herbaria. Eucalyptus is a dry fruited genus, primarily distributed in Australia with a small number of taxa, including endemics, in Indonesia, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea. The remaining large genera have fleshy fruits. Eugenia is the only genus of Myrtaceae with a native Pantropical distribution, although species diversity is highest in the Neotropics. Myrcia is an ecologically important genus in the Atlantic forests and cerrado savanna of eastern Brazil and is also diverse the Amazon and Caribbean. Syzygium is the largest tree genus in the world. Naturally occurring Syzygium species are restricted to the Old World, extending from the African continent through to the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, Australia and the Pacific islands, but the center of its species diversity lies in Malesia. This symposium will review recent progress in tackling Myrtaceae systematics at all levels, with a focus on large genera. Speakers will graduate through perspectives of pure systematics to more applied approaches such as those implementing new biodiversity informatic tools, use of Myrtaceae data, ‘big’ and otherwise for conservation initiatives. Presentations will also address ecological and evolutionary studies of Myrtaceae that provide understanding of past and potential future dynamics of the often fragile environments in which Myrtaceae occur.

Speaker 1: Speakers: Andrew Thornhill [University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia] Fiorella Mazine [Universidade Federal de São Carlos campus Sorocaba, São Paulo, Brazil] emails: andrew.thornhill@gmail.com fiorella@ufscar.br Tentative Talk Title: Large Myrtaceae genera in the 21st century

Speaker 2: Speakers: Thais Vasconcelos [University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA] Karinne Valdemarin [Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil] emails: kvaldemarin@gmail.com thais.nogales@gmail.com Tentative Talk Title: Functional traits to understand species response to a changing world

Speaker 3: Speaker: Eve Lucas [Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, UK] email: e.lucas@kew.org Tentative Talk Title: Myrtaceae Biodiversity Informatics (e-taxonomy)

Topics (Up to three): Systematics

Topic 2: Phylogenetics and Phylogenomics

Topic 3: Bioinformatics

Justification: This symposium will bring together researchers from different parts of the world, bringing recent advances in the systematics of Myrtaceae, an ecologically important family including four mega-diverse genera.