Biodiversity checklists for Bhutan

Abstract

The species checklists for Bhutan published in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) were originally collated for the publication ‘Biodiversity Statistics of Bhutan 2017, A Preliminary Baseline’ (BSB 2017). This document was published in 2019 and is the first comprehensive overview of Bhutan's species richness, recording more than 11,000 species across all five kingdoms. Collation of biodiversity checklists has been limited in Bhutan. Thus, this paper and its associated data provide an overview of all species from the kingdoms Plantae, Animalia, Fungi, Chromista and Eubacteria in the country that have been recorded in scientific publications. The checklists showcase 11,175 species from the kingdoms Plantae, Animalia, Fungi, Chromista and Eubacteria. Research conducted into identifying species from the kingdoms Protista and Archaebacteria revealed zero records. These checklists include at least 33 species new to science and 566 species new to Bhutan, discovered between 2009 and 2017. Unidentified species are not taken into account in this publication.

Citizen science helps in the study of fungal diversity in New Jersey

“…Given that much of the nutrient cycling associated with gross primary production as well as climate change (mediated through carbon dioxide consumption by plants) may be so strongly tied to fungi, understanding their diversity is critically important, making the bias against fungi a major gap in our understanding of taxa relevant to these cycles. Occasional surveys of fungal diversity based on fruiting bodies have been conducted for limited geographic scales 11 , however, more often fungi are included in larger biodiversity surveys but are disproportionally under described in resulting datasets 12 , 13 . While some large-scale studies of certain important fungal groups like mycorrhizae or parasitic species have been conducted 14 , 15 , broader evaluation of fungal biodiversity at larger spatial scales is still limited.…”

Current Status and Conservation Management of Farm Animal Genetic Resources in Bhutan

“…Earlier, the number of goats reared was restricted to four, but the rule has been amended. This was mainly because goats destroy tender plants [53,58]. Goat rearing is easy and is shown to provide nutrients and food security to the farmers.…”

“…Moreover, exotic breeds have been introduced since 1960s to enhance egg and meat production in the country; these are the Rhode Island Red, Australorp, and White leghorn breeds which have no success as they are not adopted by the farmers. Additionally, grandparents of Keystone Browns, Hyline Brown, and Hyline Silver brown layers are imported to provide chicks and pullets to farmers for egg production while Ross308 and Cobb500 are two broiler breeds imported for meat purposes [58]. The indigenous chickens have low production performance (Table 12) with the length of lays ranging from 12 to 25 days averaging over 57 eggs per year.…”

“…Farmers rear anywhere from 6 to 19 chickens in a flock per household; however, the population of native chickens is declining with increased predation, diseases, shortages of feed, and shortages of labor. The decline in population is also attributed to farmers opting for exotic chickens for better production [58]. Moreover, there is no systematic breeding in rural chickens with available roosters used for breeding for all hens in a stock which leads to inbreeding depression.…”

Nineteen new records of plant species including two new genera recorded from the Bhutan Himalayas

“…Around 136 species are threatened of which 64 species are endangered (National Biodiversity Centre, 2019). A total of 70.46% of the nation's land is protected and the elevation ranges from c. 100 meters above sea level (masl) to 7,570 masl at the peak of Gangkhar Phuensum (Gyeltshen and Prasad, 2022).…”