The “RUF” fungal biodiversity project in Ecuador
The grant was given to Thomas Læssøe by a Danish foreign aid organization (RUF) under the ministry of foreign affairs, in order to establish a baseline for fungal biodiversity studies in Ecuador.
As much literature as possible relating to fungal biodiversity of Ecuador has been unearthed and keyed into a literature database that is linked to taxon and specimen databases.
As many specimen records from previous collections, available in print, as herbararium labels or other form, have been entered into the specimen database.
Images obtained during the project, or others we have been able to use from previous projects, have been processed and have been linked to the databases, and can be searched for directly on this website.
The field work has been planned in order to cover as much variation across and along Ecuador as possible within the available time and financial constraints of the project. Very remote regions with poor infrastructure and field facilities have not been selected in the first instance in order to get quality records with well described and not least well dried specimens.
The Danish personnel on the project
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Thomas Læssøe Principal investigator and grant holder 1.June 2001-1.Sept. 2004 (Danish council for aid related science (“RUF”), ministry of foreign affairs). Holds a position as lecturer (ass. prof.) at the Department of Microbiology, Institute of Biology, Copenhagen University, Denmark. He specializes in fungal biodiversity
with a focus on tropical areas. Tropical field work has been carried
out in Brazil, Ecuador and Peru (Neotropics) and Malaysia (Sabah)
(SE Asian region).
Go to publications |
 Thomas Læessøe birding near the Yasuni camp |
| Jens H. Petersen Responsible for database construction
and other IT elements within the “RUF” project, including
the processing of all images. Holds a teaching position at the Biological
Institute, Aarhus University, Denmark a. Principal investigator
on MycoKey. Go to Department of Systematic Botany, Biological Institute, University of Aarhus Go to publications |
 Jens H. Petersen collecting near the Yasuni camp |
