 This project
will lead to a better description, record, and understanding of the
poorly known floras and faunas of the Kuril Islands, but beyond these
advantages, the work described here will provide the basis for future
research in systematics, biogeography, and ecology, as well as the means
to manage and protect Kuril biotas in the future. Specific plans or
directions for future research based on the new collections and
inventories fall into a number of categories: alpha and higher-level
systematics, comparisons of inter-island populations, comparisons of
insular and mainland taxa, trans-Pacific biogeography, ecology, and
conservation.
Among most of the
invertebrate taxa collected (insects, spiders, and terrestrial and
freshwater mollusks) there will be new species requiring description.
For some of us (entomologists, arachnologists, and malacologists), long-term
attention will be necessarily focused on this alpha-level work. Studies
of population structure, intraspecific variation, and higher-level
revisionary work will naturally follow. Botanists will use the plant
collections and database for revisionary work on poorly known and
taxonomically complex genera (e.g., Ranunculus, Sasa, Oxytropis,
Cirsium, Minuartia, Taraxacum, Poa, and Scutellaria, to name
only a few).
Perhaps the most
valuable vertebrate materials to be collected during this survey will be
the ethanol-fixed tissue samples. One of the most significant aspects of
our future research will be the use of this material in analyses of genetic
differentiation, molecular systematics, and molecular evidence of the
history of colonization of the Kuril Archipelago. If sequencing reveals
sufficient inter-island differentiation among resident species (plants,
relatively immobile invertebrates, and narrowly ranging vertebrates,
including highly resident birds), it may be possible to develop
interpopulation phylogenies that are well enough refined to yield
biogeographic hypotheses of colonization of the islands. Currently
nothing is known about the origin of any Kuril Island species. The
extent to which the islands were colonized from Kamchatka, from the
Russian mainland, from Japan, or from some combination of these sources
is unknown.
On a broader scale,
among the most puzzling problems of global biogeography are the many
trans-Pacific distributions displayed by closely related taxa,
particularly among plant, insect, and especially arachnid genera (see
Nelson and Platnick, 1981: 534-543). Some authors (e.g., Nur and
Ben-Avraham, 1981) have attributed these trans-Pacific links to pure
vicariance, via the breakup and dispersal of a lost "Pacifica" continent;
others (e.g., Coyle, 1971: 395-396) have assumed dispersal across an
Eocene or Miocene Bering land bridge. Collections from the Kurils would
add significantly to our knowledge of trans-Pacific relatives of taxa of
Western North America whose range of latitude corresponds closely to that
of the Kuril Archipelago. It is conceivable that relict species, now
extinct on neighboring mainland areas, may have survived on the islands.
Data resulting from the work described here may make possible new and
decisive tests of conflicting biogeographic hypotheses. Considering the
multidisciplinary nature of the project, perhaps a new synthesis of
trans-Pacific biogeography may emerge.
In addition to
systematic and biogeographic questions, the herpetologists are
particularly interested in the use of reptiles and amphibians (which seem
to be more directly affected by environmental stress than other
vertebrates) as environmental indicators of habitat change, both at the level
of global change as well as for detection of local habitat
deterioration. Central to the use of these animals as environmental
indicators is a reliable and early baseline against which subsequent
changes can be confidently compared. Therefore one central purpose of
this study would be to establish baseline data on amphibians and reptiles
to identify sites that can be used for long-term monitoring of
environmental stress.
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