Format: ORAL

Zo A. Goodwin1, Pal Gonzles2, Tiina Srkinen1

1 Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland 2 Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Perú

Understanding what biodiversity is and where it occurs is crucial if we are to successfully tackle the biodiversity crisis and the climate emergency. Seasonally dry tropical forests contain a high proportion of endemic species yet are particularly vulnerable to conversion to agriculture because they occur on nutrient rich soils. The dry forests of the inter-Andean valleys have been isolated from other dry forests for millions of years and have a level of endemism comparable of that of oceanic islands. We recently surveyed the under-collected Maran dry forest with the aim of producing the first comprehensive botanical inventory for the area. The process of working with our specimens has highlighted three issues: 1/ The Maran dry forest contains many species still undescribed by science; 2/ Many tropical families and genera lack taxonomic experts; 3/ Previous floristic analyses of dry forests based on plot data maybe wildly underestimating alpha species diversity in this biome.