Welcome to the Andes Biodiversity Consortium web site

Who we are

The Andes Biodiversity Consortium (ABC) is a multidisciplinary team of researchers who have agreed to begin long-term integrative studies of biodiversity, climate, land-use change relating to conservation in the tropical Andes.  Specialists now involved include climate modelers,taxonomists, community ecologists, paleoecologists, ecosystem ecologists, biotic distribution modelers, GIS and remote sensing experts, and conservation planners.  We are currently seeking social scientists to join the group, as well those from the humanities interested in the interplay between science, culture and conservation.

What we do

The ABC aims to share infrastructure and data among research groups, build capacity among South American institutions, provide answers needed by policy makers to mitigate effects of global change, and educate the public.

The ABC has identified a set of near term priorities to leading to research products at three spatial scales: (1) Southern Amazon basin and adjacent Andes:  Develop climate change scenarios, including models for the influence of Amazonian climate on the Andes.

(2) Eastern flank of the Andes in southern Peru and Bolivia (the Vilcabamba-Amboro corridor):  Generate a regional Geographical Information System (GIS) based largely on remotely-sensed data, including (a) deforestation history, (b) vegetation classification, (c) accurate digital elevation models critical for conservation planning, and (d) models of species distributions for priority taxa.

(3) Inca Slope transect:  Understand local (fine-scale) ecosystem processes and vegetational distributions by (a) installing a plot-based vegetation transect along the steep elevation gradient bordering Manu National Park in southeastern Peru, a region we term the Inca Slope; (b) monitoring and describing ecosystem processes, (c) installing instrumentation to monitor local weather and soil conditions in the plots; (d) developing a fine-scale climate model; and (e) integrating modern and paleoecological data to understand historic climate change using lake sediment cores for historical pollen and isotope records.

To manage data and communication, the ABC will develop this web site that will serve as an information and education portal.  We have purchased our own domain (www.andesbiodiversity.org) that will be used once these pages have more content.

Sponsoring institutions

Our members are professors and science staff at numerous academic and research institutions.  Major initial sponsors include the Missouri Botanical Garden and Conservation International.  The National Science Foundation has awarded the consortium a modest development grant from their Biocomplexity program.
Coexploration is providing web services.

How to join

If you are a scientist or educator that would like to participate and help
us achieve our mission please contact one of the managing investigators:
Jason Bradford jcbradford@ucdavis.edu
Lee Hannah  l.Hannah@conservation.org

Member services

The link below will take ABC participants to our web services center.  This system can be customized and will grow with our needs.

Login.