Chilean Arthropod Biodiversity

Abstract
The state of our planet's biodiversity is critical. Chile is a high priority for study. Endemic taxa of Chile developed from ancient Gondwanian elements, resulting in a native fauna unlike anywhere else on Earth. Faunal inventories must be done before we lose our chance to understand the historical factors that shaped the Chilean biota and are interconnected with the origins of life on Earth. The focus of this project is on the coastal Valdivian forests of Chile, an area known to have many endemic plants and animals. This region remained unglaciated during the most recent glacial advance and so has a remarkable number of precinctive and presumed ancient lineages. Understanding their distribution and diversity is fundamental to building the context of biotic change in the southern continents. Additionally, it is widely recognized that this region is under-protected and rapidly succumbing anthropic activities, namely fragmentation and land conversion. Coleoptera, which exemplify biodiversity, are a logical and effectual as focal taxa. This project will result in specimens from many arthropod groups that will be used by numerous researcher for systematic, biogeographic and conservation studies.