Synopsis
Tropical Plant Collecting provides field biologists with information about carrying out fieldwork in tropical America, gathering botanical collections, managing specimens in herbaria, making information about plants available on the Internet, and raising money to fund both expeditions and the preparation of floras and monographs. The book is based on over 40 years of tropical plant collecting in Central and South America by the senior editor and his colleagues. Although traditional field and herbarium techniques are discussed, the book emphasizes how new techniques provided by digital photography, databases, and the Internet have revolutionized plant collecting and data presentation in systematic botany. The audience for this book is tropical biologists and students who, as part of their research, need to gather botanical specimens to document their scientific studies. The book is also useful for those taking neotropical field biology courses, and Chapter 3, which covers many of the dangers of traveling and working in neotropical forests, is recommended for anyone planning to visit remote areas of this region.
About the Author
Scott A. Mori. Dr. Scott A. Mori attended the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point where he obtained his B.S. degree in 1964 in Biology and Conservation, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he was awarded his Ph.D. in botany in 1974. He is now the Nathaniel Lord Britton Curator of Botany at The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG). Dr. Mori is a former Executive Director of Flora Neotropica, a former Director of the Institute of Systematic Botany at NYBG, and an adjunct professor at the City University of New York, the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation at Columbia University, and the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Dr. Mori has been awarded the David Fairchild Medal for Plant Exploration and the Asa Gray award by the American Society of Plant Taxonomists for life-time achievement based on his studies of the classification, ecology, and conservation of New World tropical plants.Amy Berkov. Dr. Amy Berkov attended the University of Colorado-Denver, where she obtained her B.F.A degree in 1977 in fine art, and the City University of New York-Lehman College, where she was awarded her Ph.D. in biology in 1999. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at the City College of New York (CCNY, CUNY), an Honorary Research Associate at NYBG, and an Associate in the Division of Invertebrate Zoology at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). Research in her lab focuses on the evolutionary and community ecology of neotropical wood-boring beetles, particularly those associated with the Brazil nut family.Carol A. Gracie. Carol A. Gracie has a B.S. in Plant Studies from the City University of New York, Lehman College. She is retired from NYBG, where she served as Senior Administrator of Children's Education and Director of Foreign Tours, among other positions. She subsequently worked with her husband, Scott Mori, on tropical research projects, including the preparation of a flora of central French Guiana. Ms. Gracie's current interests include the temperate flora of northeastern North America. She has co-authored a field guide to the wildflowers of that region (Wildflowers in the Field and Forest: A Field Guide to the Northeastern United States). Her current book, Spring Wildflowers of the Northeast: A Natural History, is in press.Edmund F Hecklau. Dr. Edmund F. Hecklau attended Wagner College, Staten Island, New York, where he obtained his B.S. degree in Biology in 1950, and NYU College of Medicine where he was awarded his M.D. degree in 1954. Following a residency at Buffalo Children's Hospital, he was in the private practice of General Pediatrics in Greenwich, CT from 1959 1986, and then served as Vice-President of Medical Services at the Greenwich (CT) Hospital from 1986 1991. In his 20 years in retirement, he has been able to refine his some 70-year interest in horticulture and botany, culminating in a volunteer position at NYBG under the mentorship of Dr. Scott Mori, with whom he has co-authored several published papers relating to the flora of Central French Guiana. As a self-described field botanist, from 2006 2010 he conducted educational sessions in field botany and plant name etymology for the naturalist staff of the Natural History Museum of the Adirondacks. He initiated and made available to visitors at that museum an educational herbarium of some 150+ species, designed for hands-on public education.AUTHORS' HOME: All Editors live in New York State
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
