Contributions to the biodiversity of Vietnam – Results of VIETBIO inventory work and field training in Cuc Phuong National Park

VIETBIO [Innovative approaches to biodiversity discovery and characterisation in Vietnam] is a bilateral German-Vietnamese research and capacity building project focusing on the development and transfer of new methods and technology towards an integrated biodiversity discovery and monitoring system for Vietnam. Dedicated field training and testing of innovative methodologies were undertaken in Cuc Phuong National Park as part and with support of the project, which led to the new biodiversity data and records made available in this article collection. VIETBIO is a collaboration between the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin – Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science (MfN), the Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin (BGBM) and the Vietnam National Museum of Nature (VNMN), the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources (IEBR), the Southern Institute of Ecology (SIE), as well as the Institute of Tropical Biology (ITB); all Vietnamese institutions belong to the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST). The article collection "VIETBIO" (https://doi.org/10.3897/bdj.coll.63) reports original results of recent biodiversity recording and survey work undertaken in Cuc Phuong National Park, northern Vietnam, under the framework of the VIETBIO project. The collection consist of this “main” cover paper – characterising the study area, the general project approaches and activities, while also giving an extensive overview on previous studies from this area – followed by individual papers for higher taxa as studied during the project. The main purpose is to make primary biodiversity records openly available, including several new and interesting findings for this biodiversity-rich conservation area. All individual data papers with their respective primary records are expected to provide useful baselines for further taxonomic, phylogenetic, ecological and conservation-related studies on the respective taxa and, thus, will be maintained as separate datasets, including separate GUIDs also for further updating.

Terry L. Erwin and the race to document biodiversity (1940–2020)

Terry Erwin’s race to document arthropod diversity inspired taxonomists, systematists, ecologists, evolutionary biologists, and the conservation community at large, as his curatorial work of more than 50 years at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and prolific publication record attests. The biography compiles public records, publications, as well as personal memoirs to describe the context in which Erwin’s studies with carabid beetles evolved as formalization of concepts, such as biological diversity, megadiverse countries, biodiversity loss, and conservation biology, will become central for science in the upcoming years. Awareness to explore new frontiers such as the forest canopy and Erwin’s studies in tropical forests, his easy-going personality, and dedicated mentoring attracted colleagues, students, and the general public, making him one of the leaders of tropical biology in the world.

Assessment of the ecological quality status of sediment at the organic shrimp farming ponds in Ca Mau province by applying the abundance/biomass comparison (ABC) method on nematode communities

Nematode communities in the Tam Giang’s organic shrimp farming ponds, Nam Can district, Ca Mau province were investigated in three seasons (March - dry, July - transfer and November - rainy season). Results showed that the average abundance (inds/10 cm2) ranged from 221.67 ± 122.08 to 2539.33 ± 1403.33 in the dry season. The tranfers and rainy season also showed a high density, from 1020.00 ± 354.30 to 7254.67 ± 5454.39, 822.00 ± 1086.17 – 4608.33 ± 1302.02, respectively. Total dry biomass (µg/10 cm2) of nematode communities in Tam Giang’s organic shrimp farming ponds varied from 51.11 ± 28.64 to 450.87 ± 49.53 in the dry, from 412.93 ± 291.87 to 1607.25 ± 507.42 in the transfer and ranged 49.54 ± 39.36 to 1874.09 ± 3033.16 in the rainy season. The following results were also recorded that abundance/biomass comparison (ABC) method has been used successfully for detecting the ecological quality status of sediment (EcoQ) in Tam Giang’s organic shrimp farming ponds. The results indicated that unfavourable deflections (stress) in EcoQ of Tam Giang’s organic shrimp farming ponds throughout the dry - transfer - rainy season. More specifically, the EcoQ of Tam Giang’s organic shrimp farming ponds has been classified as lightly stressed in most seasons, excpet for the transfer season which has been recognized as the highest EcoQ depending on its ABC curves and W values. Although EcoQ in the Tam Giang’s organic shrimp farming ponds has always been clear, information on Received 05-01-2017, accepted 14-08- 2017, published 12- 9-2018 Author: Tran Thanh Thai, Nguyen Thi My Yen, Ngo Xuan Quang- Department of Environmental Management and Technology, Institute of Tropical Biology, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, Le Dieu Linh - Ton Duc Thang University - [email protected] the main cause effected biomass between natural stress or pollution stress remains uncertain.

Making Biology Tropical

Early efforts to create institutions for ecological research in the tropics were far more difficult to sustain financially than stations with agricultural goals. In the 1910s and 1920s, rival zoologists Thomas Barbour and William Beebe each drew on their wealth, corporate and political connections, and larger­than­life personalities to transform the landscape of basic tropical research. While differing in their spatial practices and relative emphases on taxonomy or ecology, both men argued that the study of life in the tropics was fundamental to a broad understanding of biology. Barbour argued that “tropical biology” was essential to solving the United States’ growing practical problems in tropical agriculture and medicine. Chapter 2 examines the stations they developed—Beebe in British Guiana, Barbour at Soledad, Cuba, and Barro Colorado Island (BCI) in the Panama Canal Zone—and how they leveraged U.S. economic interests in the tropics to further basic science.