PRATHEP Anchana, Thailand

Support via: 2005 training workshop (Thailand); 2006 ext call

Abstract (as taken from original proposal)

The Individual and Institutional Capacity building in taxonomy and collection management program would allow me to be trained in seaweed identification and setting up seaweed reference collection in Thailand. The marine benthic flora of Thailand remains poorly studied to date. Some European researchers explored the Thai west coast, Andaman Sea, in the 1950’s, but hardly any data exist on the Gulf of Thailand. Accessible and trustworthy reference collections of marine algae are virtually non-existent in the country, even though seaweeds form an import food source and are locally grown for agar and carrageenan extraction. Therefore, I would like to be trained and studied in three genera of seaweeds, which are rich in diversity and rather common in Thailand namely Caulerpa, Dictyota and Halimeda. Specimens will be collected from the Songkla area and studied at Ghent University. Furthermore, the setting up ‘PSU seaweed reference collection’ will greatly benefit from the knowledge on collection management present in the Research Group Phycology. We now have a small herbarium attached to the PSU Natural History Museum, which has been supported by the faculty and the university. I would then transfer my knowledge gaining from this training through the workshop, database and website under the ‘PSU seaweed reference collection’.

Training location: Ghent University