Synopsis of the talk: Australia is one of the 17 megadiverse countries. Although there are potentially close to 1 million native species, it is estimated that less than 25% are known to science. The Federal Government through the Australian Biological Resources Study, has had a long-term funding program to promote taxonomic description and cataloguing of the fauna and flora. This has been complemented by a number of major marine surveying programs in both deep and shallow waters around the entire coastline, including the Great Barrier Reef. The results of all this effort is now being channeled into marine park development and management strategies, as well as the development of a wide variety of online resources that allow museum specimen records from around the country to be mapped against a wide variety of environmental variables. The Australian Government is also leading the way in marine reserves, and has recently announced a plan for a massive Coral Sea Marine Park.
Dr Peter Davie has been at the forefront of biodiversity research in Queensland and Australia for over 2 decades. As one of the world’s foremost experts on decapod crustaceans, he has published widely on these animals, recording numerous new species from all over the Indo-West Pacific. He has also participated in a number of major surveys in Australian waters, as well as Hong Kong, Christmas Island and Singapore. Editor and author of several major books and publications on Australian animals, he is perhaps most well known for two major volumes on crustaceans in the important Zoological Catalogue of Australia series published by CSIRO Australia. He worked on Singapore crustaceans on many occasions over the last 20 years and is very familiar with the local and regional fauna.
Wallace Lecture Series
The Wallace Lecture Series was a series of important lectures delivered in the 1960s by well-known biologists in the then University of Malaya. These lectures stimulated discussion and encouraged the exploration of new ideas in systematics, ecology and all aspects of natural heritage. It seemed especially appropriate and timely that this lecture series, named after one of the two discoverers of the modern theory of evolution, should be “resurrected” to further research interest and activity in Singapore’s rich biodiversity.
This is the inaugural talk of the Wallace Lecture Series, and is delivered by a Shell Visiting Research Scientist brought in by the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research of the National University of Singapore, in conjunction with the National Biodiversity Centre of the National Parks Board; and supported by Shell Singapore.
Date: Thursday, 19th July 2012
Time: 7.00 to 8.30 pm
Venue: Level 1, Function Hall, Botany Centre, Singapore Botanic Gardens map on the SBG website
Light refreshments will be served
The talk is free but preregistration is required. Please register at http://bit.ly/LezKwy by 17 Jul.
For more information, please contact Rachel Lim at LIM_LI-FENG@nparks.gov.sg
Organised by National Biodiversity Centre, National Parks Board and Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, National University of Singapore
