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.

A synoptic review of Gomphomastacinae (Orthoptera: Eumastacoidea) from the Qinghai-Tibet plateau with a description of new species

With unique climate, topography, and vegetation, the Qinghai-Tibet plateau is a special biogeographic region with richness of endemic species. However, the taxonomy and distribution of many insect groups on this plateau are still poorly known. Here, we synthesized a species checklist of subfamily Gomphomastacinae (Orthoptera: Acridoidea: Eumastacidae) for this region, while describing a new species: Myrmeleomastax wideis Qiu, sp. nov.. Images of the new species and the distribution map of all the known species are provided. Type specimens for the new species are deposited in the Zoological and Botanical Museum, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an, China (SNNU).

“Plants and human. Endless cognition.” The concept of development of the Botanical Museum of the Fund Greenhouse of N. V. Tsitsin Main Botanical Garden RAS

Botanical museum of Fund greenhouse in Tsitsin Main Botanical Garden of Russian Science Academy wasfounded in 1953. The exposition represents botanical objects of tropical and subtropical plants, which were collected inexpeditions to different regions of the World and in the Fund Greenhouse. At the present time museum collection includesabout 500 plant taxa and more than 2000 storage units, significant part of which were brought in Russia for the first timeby Fund Greenhouse staff members. The Botanical museum concept of development is proposed with the aim to increasethe attraction of museum exposition and to create unique social educational center, which will show richness and diversityof the world of plants and increase ecological and botanical knowledge level in wide audience of the museum visitors.When the project of museum renovation will be realized our experience can be shared with other Russian botanicalinstitutions.

Between Metropole and Province: circulating botany in British museums, 1870–1940

Exchange of duplicate specimens was an important element of the relationship between metropolitan and regional museums in the period 1870–1940. Evidence of transfers of botanical museum objects such as economic botany specimens is explored for the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and six museums outside the capital: Cambridge University Botanical Museum, National Museum Wales, Glasgow Museums, Liverpool World Museum, Manchester Museum and Warrington Museum. Botany became an important element in these museums soon after their foundation, sometimes relying heavily on Kew material as in the case of Glasgow and Warrington, and usually with a strong element of economic botany (except in the case of Cambridge). Patterns of exchange depended on personal connections and rarely took the form of symmetrical relationships. Botanical displays declined in importance at various points between the 1920s and 1960s, and today only Warrington Museum has a botanical gallery open to the public. However, botanical objects are finding new roles in displays on subjects such as local history, history of collections, natural history and migration.

Conservation-Restoration of a Botanical Museum Fluid Collection: Practice and Research

The collection of the Botanical Museum of the University of Zürich is an academic collection assembled from 1891 to the end of the 20th century (1992 for the last inventoried item). Preserved plants come from all over the world (40 countries) and include all categories of existing Plantae (algae, lichens, fungi, higher plants, bacteriae). The fluid collection, largely neglected since 1976, shows significant degradation. The main problem is loss of preservative fluid due to leakage of the jars and aging of the seals. Another issue is the discoloration of the specimen fluids. These issues led to a research project titled FLUIDIS, which aimed to explore different preservative solutions and their impact on the discoloration of plant specimens. Conservation-restoration work was carried out on the jars of the “Professor Ernst Collection.” Topping up of was necessary for the entire collection. Restoration was performed after opening the containers and identifying the fluid. The specimens were consolidated, repaired, and mounted when necessary, then gradually put back into alcoholic solutions and finally sealed. An overall intervention protocol was established for the treatment of the entire botanical fluid collection. Its application, however, requires a careful study of each specimen.

A database of high-resolution MS/MS spectra for lichen metabolites

While analytical techniques in natural products research massively shifted to liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, lichen chemistry remains reliant on limited analytical methods, Thin Layer Chromatography being the gold standard. To meet the modern standards of metabolomics within lichenochemistry, we announce the publication of an open access MS/MS library with 250 metabolites, coined LDB for Lichen DataBase, providing a comprehensive coverage of lichen chemodiversity. These were donated by the Berlin Garden and Botanical Museum from the collection of Siegfried Huneck to be analyzed by LC-MS/MS. Spectra at individual collision energies were submitted to MetaboLights (https://www.ebi.ac.uk/metabolights/MTBLS999) while merged spectra were uploaded to the GNPS platform (CCMSLIB00004751209 to CCMSLIB00004751517). Technical validation was achieved by dereplicating three lichen extracts using a Molecular Networking approach, revealing the detection of eleven unique molecules that would have been missed without LDB implementation to the GNPS. From a chemist’s viewpoint, this database should help streamlining the isolation of formerly unreported metabolites. From a taxonomist perspective, the LDB offers a versatile tool for the chemical profiling of newly reported species.

The revision of lichens, lichenicolous and non-lichenized fungi from the Vodlozersky National Park (Republic of Karelia, Russia) in the Herbarium of the Botanical Museum, University of Helsinki

This is a report of a revision of 565 herbarium specimens of lichens, lichenicolous or non-lichenized fungi and additional locality records of common species produced from a visit of the Russian-Finnish expedition to Vodlozersky National Park right after its foundation in 1991. The analyzed collection and field records represent the earliest information about the lichen flora of the territory of the park. In total, 177 species are listed including 173 lichens, 3 non-lichenized and 1 lichenicolous fungi. Xylographa rubescens is new to the Republic of Karelia. Twenty two species are reported for the first time for biogeographic province Karelia transonegensis; 47 species for the Karelian part of Vodlozersky National Park; and 17 species for the whole territory of the park.