Dr Peter Moonlight
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Dr Peter Moonlight, South American Biodiversity Researcher
I am a Postdoctoral Scientist in the Tropical Biodiversity Section and specialise in the use of taxonomic data in answering large scale, macro-ecological questions. As a taxonomist, my main specialism is the Andean members of the megadiverse, understory herb genus Begonia (Begoniaceae) and I continues to describe new species and to work on infra-generic classification within this important group.
For the past 100 years, herbarium taxonomy such as this has produced vast quantities of data on species’ distributions. As a part of a NERC Newton funded grant, I am using these data from the Caatinga Seasonally Dry Tropical Forest biome of the northeast of Brazil to produce species distribution models of plant species. These models will be used to determine whether ecoregions exist within the Caatinga, and to examine the climate resilience of this neglected and threatened biome.
Contact: p.moonlight@rbge.org.uk
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Collecting Begonia urubambensis
Further Information
Peter W. Moonlight, Ardi, W.H., Padilla, L.A., Chung, K.-F., Fuller, D., Girmansyah, D., Hollands, R., Jara-Muñoz, A., Kiew, R., Leong, W.C., Liu, Y., Mahardika, A., Marasinghe, L.D.K., O’Connor, M., Peng, C.-I., Pérez, Á.J., Phutthai, T., Pullan, M., Rajbhandary, S., Reynel, C., Rubite, R.R., Julia, S., Scherberich, D., Shui, Y.-M., Tebbitt, M.C., Thomas, D.C., Wilson, H.P., Zaini, N.H., Hughes, M., (2018). Dividing and conquering the fastest growing genus: Towards a natural sectional classification of the mega-diverse genus Begonia (Begoniaceae). Taxon 67, 267–323.
Domingos Cardosoa, Tiina Särkinen, Sara Alexander, André M. Amorim, Volker Bittrich, Marcela Celis, Douglas C. Daly, Pedro Fiaschi, Vicki A. Funk, Leandro L. Giacomin, Renato Goldenberg, Gustavo Heiden, João Iganci, Carol L. Kelloff, Sandra Knapp, Haroldo Cavalcante de Lima, Anderson F. P. Machado ,Rubens Manoel dos Santos, Renato Mello-Silva, Fabián A. Michelangeli, John Mitchell, Peter W. Moonlight, Pedro Luís Rodrigues de Moraes, Scott A. Mori, Teonildes Sacramento Nunes, Terry D. Pennington, José Rubens Pirani, Ghillean T. Prance, Luciano Paganucci de Queiroz, Alessandro Rapini, Ricarda Riina, Carlos Alberto Vargas Rincon, Nádia Roque, Gustavo Shimizu, Marcos Sobral, João Renato Stehmann,Warren D. Stevens, Charlotte M. Taylor, Marcelo Trovó, Cássio van den Berg, Henk van der Werff,Pedro Lage Viana, Charles E. Zartman & Rafaela Campostrini Forzza (2017) Amazon plant revealed by a taxonomically verified species list. PNAS. 1706756114: 1-6.
Peter W. Moonlight & Adolfo Jara-Muñoz (2017) A revision and recircumscription of Begonia section Pilderia including one new species. Phytotaxa. 307(1): 1-22.
Mark C. Tebbit, Mark Hughes, Álvaro Pérez & Peter W. Moonlight (2017) Taxonomy of the Begonia tiliifolia group, including descriptions of two new species. Edinburgh Journal of Botany. 74(2): 199-215.
Peter W. Moonlight, Mark Hughes & Mark C. Tebbitt (2017) Taxonomy of Begonia albomaculata and description of two new species endemic to Peru. Edinburgh Journal of Botany. 74(2): 179-198.
Peter W. Moonlight, Carlos Reynel & Mark C. Tebbitt (2017) Begonia elachista Moonlight & Tebbitt sp. nov., an enigmatic new species and a new section of Begonia (Begoniaceae) from Peru. European Journal of Taxonomy. 281: 1-13.
Peter W. Moonlight & Mark C. Tebbitt (2016) Two new Peruvian species of Begonia (Begoniaceae) and an amended description of Begonia thyrsoidea. Edinburgh Journal of Botany. 74(2): 111-122.
R. Toby Pennigton, Mark Hughes & Peter W. Moonlight (2015) The origins of rainforest hyperdiversity. Trends in Plant Science. 20(11): 693-695.
Peter W. Moonlight, James E. Richardson, Mark C. Tebbitt, Daniel C. Thomas, Ruth Hollands, Ching-I Peng & Mark Hughes (2015) Continental-scale diversification patterns in a megadiverse genus: the biogeography of Neotropical Begonia. Journal of Biogeography. 42(6): 1137-1149.
The Systematics Association (2017-)
Every Scottish plant is matched by 70 species unnamed, unnoticed and undiscovered: The Scotsman 21 April 2017
Royal Botanic Garden nurtures smallest Begonia: BBC News, 17 February 2017
Discovering the World’s Smallest Begonia: The Begonian, September/October 2017
Subject editor (Cucurbitales): Phytotaxa (2017-)
Discover more
- Dr Mark Watson
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