Ecology of Indonesian Papua Part One. Andrew J. Marshall
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Archipelago, it involved scientists from universities and museums in several countries, especially the United States and Australia. Research included studies on physiology and ecology, notably in vertebrates (C. Sibley, R. Zweifel), on bioluminescence in fireflies, etc. (J. P. Buck, J. E. Lloyd), as well as on marine life and fungi. Australian collaborators included J. Calaby, H. Cogger, and R. Schodde (USNM, AMNH, Yale, CSIRO, AM, etc.). (Sibley would later contribute significantly to a recasting of bird phylogeny, partly utilizing evidence from genomic sequences.)
Other Multidisciplinary Undertakings, Including Biological Stations
Multidisciplinary efforts over the last four decades of the twentieth century in eastern New Guinea and the Bismarcks have usually had quite limited, more in-depth geographical objectives, or have been ethnobiological. Almost all are nonofficial, some longer-term (e.g. the Wildlife Conservation Society (New York) at Crater Mountain and elsewhere, or the PABITRA initiative of ICSU’s "Diversitas" program) and some ad-hoc (including at least one Conservation International RAP survey as well as work in the Hunstein Range partly sponsored by the National Geographic Society in the United States). Also, a number of local stations have been established. Apart from the stations of the government at Lae, Bulolo, Kanudi, and elsewhere, independently-sponsored stations (including those related to educational institutions) have been established at Wau (from 1961 as the Bishop Museum Field Station, becoming in 1971 the Wau Ecology Institute, or WEI); in Madang Province including the Christensen Research Institute (1980s–1990s), the Leopold III Research Station at Laing Island (1970s onwards, with numerous contributions to its credit and collections in Belgium, PNG, and elsewhere), and the Parataxonomy Center (1990s onwards); Motupore Station in Central Province (for UPNG; 1971 onwards); Ivimka Station by the Lakekamu River in Gulf Province; and Crater Mountain in the Eastern Highlands (1990s onwards). More "informal" sites also exist, usually in association with local communities. Space, however, forbids a detailed account of their activities. (For people and activities at Wau in the 1970s, see Frodin and Gressitt (1982), in the References section, below).
FLORA OF WESTERN NEW GUINEA AND
ASSOCIATED ISLANDS (SINCE 1945)
Nieuw Guinea, Residency of Netherlands East Indies (1945–1949);
Netherlands New Guinea (1949–1962); UNTEA (1962–1963)
Botanical activity in western New Guinea after 1945 became largely a state undertaking, not unnaturally focusing on the woody flora and other plants of economic interest. Nevertheless, some expeditions, primarily those from the Rijksherbarium (now Leiden branch, National Herbarium of the Netherlands), had a more general remit. In this they were well supported by two successive professors of systematic botany, H. J. Lam (who himself had been in New Guinea with the Kremer expedition in 1920) and, after him, C. G. G. J. van Steenis (with a strong interest in the whole flora of Malesia, but notably that of the mountains).
The years prior to establishment of Netherlands New Guinea as a separate polity saw only relatively limited activity. In 1948 A. J. G. H. Kostermans with Weygers continued the forest reconnaissance work in Bomberai and the Vogelkop peninsulas begun before World War II, visiting areas bordering the east coast of the Vogel-kop but also collecting in the Namtui Mts (particularly for Cryptocarya massoy,a spice tree then still poorly understood but now known to be in patchy stands around mainland New Guinea) and for 12 days around Anggi Lakes. With the separation of Papua from Indonesia, autochthonous internal services came into being, including the Forestry Service (Boswezen) and Agriculture Service (Land-bouw). An agricultural station was initially developed at Kota Nica near Lake Sentani, nearby areas having been the site of a transmigration scheme. The research sections (including forestry) were, however, in a few years moved from there (and Hollandia) to Amban near Manokwari. There, over the period 1953–1962, a research station was developed. Resident botanists in the Forestry Service (Boswezen) included Ch. Versteegh (an associate of Brass during the Third Archbold Expedition in 1938–1939), C. Kalkman, and later W. Vink; they were assisted by Peter and Gerrit Iwanggin, Cris Koster, and F. A. W. Schram. In charge of surveys was Forester J. F. U. Zieck.
From a start in 1953, a relatively good representation of the lowland tree flora was collected in the BW-series (Boswezen Nieuw Guinea) during forest assessment surveys; but for reasons of economic accessibility not that much from above 1,000 m was obtained. Associated material including wood samples was also gathered. In the last two years of Dutch rule, however, the forest botanists broadened their collecting, a wide variety of plants being obtained before cessation of activities (Manokwari, Leiden, Bogor, Kew, and elsewhere) with numbers reaching just short of 16,000. Only some have so far found their way into contributions and revisions; however, the replicates at MAN have since been at least partially included in a database.
In the Vogelkop Peninsula, the Forestry Service (Boswezen) surveys paid particular attention to the Warsamson Valley (east of Sorong), Sausapor (north coast), the Kebar Valley (Araucaria cunninghamii and Agathis labilliardieri being present), the Arfak Plain and its deltas (west of Manokwari), Oransbari, Momu, and Ransiki (all on the east coast, and earlier visited by Kostermans and Weygers), Tisi and Muturi near Bintuni (at the head of the eponymous gulf), the Ayamaru Lakes (in the center towards Ayawasi), and Beriat (near Teminabuan)—this last with sandstone outcrops and white-sand lands (the latter with a higher-than-usual percentage of Myrtaceae and Dipterocarpaceae). In 1954 Zieck and Versteegh reached the Anggi Lakes, partly to examine stands of Agathis from which (as at Dalman; see above) copal was being extracted and traded. In the Raja Ampat Islands, Kaloal (on Salawati Island) was also surveyed, but otherwise those islands remained botanically neglected. Coverage elsewhere was relatively limited.
The first outside botanist was P. van Royen from Leiden with the first Rijksherbarium expedition (1954–1955). Partly with Versteegh (and, for a short time in October 1954, Lam) he explored many areas of the Vogelkop Peninsula as well as Batanta Island in the Raja Ampats; in the south he collected around Merauke and from there to the Fly River; he then visited the Cyclops Mts in the north. In 1955 he worked in Waigeo, obtaining materials for a valuable baseline report (1960). He also visited eastern New Guinea, partly to make formal contacts with the Division of Botany (see below). In 1955 and later Gressitt (see next section) collected a few plants (Bishop). In 1957 C. O. Grassl, on a sugar cane germplasm expedition, collected grasses in lowlands and at Anggi and Wissel (now Paniai) Lakes (Leiden). In 1959 Kalkman participated in the Star Mountains expedition (see section on Integrated Expeditions, above), but made somewhat fewer collections than might have been expected. In 1961 P. van Royen with H. O. Sleumer, comprising the second Rijksherbarium expedition, did valuable work in the Vogelkop Peninsula, visiting the Kebar Valley, Tamrau Mts, the Nettoti Range, and the northern Arfak Mts, and also climbed into the Cyclops Range (Leiden). Some results from the two Rijksherbarium expeditions appeared in Nova Guinea, but no full account of the plants resulted.
Not much collecting was done in the main ranges during the remaining years of Dutch rule. In 1958 Bergman collected plants in the Swart Valley, including the curious Papilionopsis stylidioides Steenis—revealed in 1977 as an artifact: an inflorescence of a legume, Desmodium (now Hylodesmum) repandum inserted into a sterile tuft of a monocot, Burmannia disticha. A few plants were obtained on the 1961 New Zealand expedition to the Carstensz (now Jaya) Mountains by D. E. Cooper and Philip Temple, and then in 1962 by Temple and Heinrich Harrer (Auckland). This latter party was the first to reach the summit of the Pyramid, now known to be the highest point in New Guinea and thus the goal of expeditions for more than fifty years. Major collections from this area were, however, not made until after 1970, and then facilitated by improved access consequent to reconnaissance and establishment of the copper mines at Ertsberg and Grasberg by Freeport Sulfur (now Freeport McMoRan).
Irian Jaya, Later Papua (since 1963)
Following the advent of Indonesian administration and in connection with the founding of Cenderawasih University, an agriculture and forestry college was set up in 1964 at Amban near Manokwari, close to the already-mentioned experiment station. This opened up more opportunities for local education in applied biology and related fields. In due course the forest herbarium was transferred to the Manokwari campus of Cenderawasih University, with which it remains associated. However, the forest herbarium suffered from relative neglect until the last decade or so. From the 1990s, however, there have been substantial additions as well as rehabilitation,