in the Raja Ampat Islands (Report 22).
The Raja Ampat island group now attracted the attention of another U.S. organization, The Nature Conservancy (TNC). In 2002 a team from TNC carried out a several weeks’ survey with the aid of a 75-foot twin outboard-motored speedboat (the Pindito); of plants, 550 numbers were collected (Bogor in first instance). The 15-strong expedition (a third from media) was led by R. Salm (TNC); its zoologists were G. Allen (fish), D. Ivereigh (birds), A. Sumule and E. Turak, and botanists included J. P. Mogea and W. Takeuchi with support also from F. Liuw and D. Neville. Islands visited included Misool, Kofiau, Batanta, and Salawati along with the ultramafic Kawé—and, near to it, the partly ultramafic Waigeo. A first botanical report appeared in 2003 (Takeuchi in Sida 20: 1093–1116).
As a result of these surveys, the very high marine diversity of the Raja Ampat Islands—already partially known due to the Siboga and other earlier oceano-graphic work—now became effectively recognized, together with their distinctive geological history. At the same time, a much better idea was obtained of the plant and forest cover and its potential survival—more problematic in the drier islands. Yet the effects of long biological neglect were reflected in the number of new records (and even novelties)—some of relatively common taxa. As Takeuchi wrote, such were "indications of the undercollected status of the limestone, and show how poorly documented this flora still remains even after more than a century of... exploration" (and over two centuries if the partly unpublished collections of Labilliardière and perhaps other French explorers ever are fully accounted for). Parts of the rest of Papua are considered better known botanically (if a 1950 average for the Raja Ampat Islands of 25 collections/100 km2—with not much more at least until recent years—is deemed satisfactory); but some island groups, let alone individual islands, may still be undercollected.
These and other multidisciplinary undertakings—if now more focused (schwer-punktlich) than in the past, being shorter in duration and covering a smaller area—have once more become a main vehicle for natural history work in Papua. There have been relatively few long visits by single workers or small specialist teams, as was the case for van Royen and Sleumer in the years before 1962 or, more recently, for Widjaja, Mangen, and Milliken. Logistics, national sensibilities, and particularly security remain major current concerns. For decades all, or nearly all, of Papua has been a military zone, the armed forces active in parallel with civil administration. Moreover, those researchers in employment are under rather tighter constraints than in the past.
Eastern New Guinea
In the Territory of Papua and New Guinea (TPNG)—now under one administration at Port Moresby—a number of multidisciplinary efforts together amassed large amounts of material and covered a number of areas previously poorly known. These include the four Archbold Expeditions (nos. 4–7) of 1953–1964 and the CSIRO Land Research regional surveys of 1953–1970—the latter an extension of similar activities in northern Australia.
Archbold Expeditions
The Fourth Archbold New Guinea Expedition worked in eastern Papua between Collingwood Bay and Mt Dayman as well as on Goodenough Island—the last hardly before visited. Brass was leader and collected insects as well as plants. H. M. van Deusen (AMNH) was mammalogist and G. M. M. Tate (AMNH) was general collector; however, after six months Tate was evacuated, fatally ill (animals AMNH; plants Harvard).
The Fifth Archbold New Guinea Expedition was a continuation of the Fourth, but focused on an effective survey of many of the remaining Milne Bay islands. They continued in the D’Entrecasteaux group (Fergusson and Normanby islands) and worked also in the Trobriand Islands, Woodlark (where Montrouzier had preceded them over a century before), and the Louisiades (Misima, Tagula (or Sudest), and Rossel) and also visited Milne Bay on the mainland. Brass again was leader and collected plants and some insects, while R. F. Peterson was mammalo-gist (animals, AMNH; plants, Leiden).
The Sixth Archbold New Guinea Expedition focused on the northeastern mainland, taking advantage of the developing road network and other infrastructure to cover a fairly wide area. They worked in the present Morobe, Madang, Eastern Highlands, and Simbu provinces; localities visited included Mt Wilhelm, Mt Otto (Mt Sagueti), Mt Michael, Mt Elandora, around Okaba, Kassam Pass, and the Markham Valley as well as points from Lae to Mt Kaindi and Edie Creek. Again Brass was leader, with van Deusen as mammalogist. Other participants included J. Womersley, J. D. Collins, and T. C. Maa (the latter from the Bishop Museum), Maa remaining for a month during the Kassam Pass and Okaba sojourns making a collection of vertebrate ectoparasites (Bishop Museum; other vertebrates, AMNH; plants, USNM and Lae).
The Seventh Archbold New Guinea Expedition was led by van Deusen and focused on the Huon Peninsula. Participants included S. A. Grierson (as general zoologist and photographer), R. G. Zweifel (herpetology) and R. D. Hoogland (plants). Work was done in the Rawlinson Range, the Cromwell Mountains, and near Finschhafen, with Hoogland also reaching the Saruwaged Mts (animals, AMNH; plants, CANB).
Logistical and other support was generally in the hands of local residents under contract (e.g., Collins for the 1959 Archbold Expedition), and, as noted, local professional scientists and others sometimes accompanied these parties. Substantial general reports were published for the expeditions of 1953, 1956, and 1959, but preparation of that from 1964 lagged and was eventually abandoned. Zoological results continued to be published for the most part in the American Museum of Natural History Bulletin, and an "Archbold Office" remained there at least until the late twentieth century (under H. van Deusen and then K. Koopman). But botanical results (J. Arnold Arboretum) persisted only until 1953, by which time there had been a general turn by U.S. tropical botanists to the Americas. Overall, though, the Archbold reports have been, and are, the largest American contribution in the tradition set by other major undertakings, individually or collectively, including the reports of the Challenger, Siboga, and the first Leopold expedition as well as Nova Guinea and Beiträge zur Flora von Papuasien, all with treatments by specialists.
CSIRO Expeditions
While the Archbold expeditions remained renowned, other sponsors were not to be outdone. The markedly improving infrastructure of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea (TPNG), including its expanding road and air network, was an attraction.
Particularly worthy of note in the post–World War II decades was the work of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation of Australia (CSIRO)—hitherto without any presence in New Guinea—and in particular its Land Research Division. Following a tradition first espoused by Linnaeus with his royally sponsored expeditions in Sweden, followed by others of the kind in the nineteenth century, the CSIRO Regional Surveys of 1953–1970—like those in still poorly-known northern Australia—were interdisciplinary. Participants included R. D. Hoogland (through 1966; later with the Taxonomy Unit, Research School of Biological Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, before returning to Europe), P. Darbyshire, L. Craven, R. Pullen, R. Schodde, P. C. Heyligers, K. Paij-mans, A. Kanis, and J. C. Saunders. The teams were active in most of the modern provinces (save in the Bismarck Archipelago), and on all surveys collections of biota were made (CSIRO, Canberra).
Fourteen survey reports appeared between 1964 and 1976, with three further syntheses on particular aspects including vegetation (1975) and some books (1976–1983). All the reports and synthesis featured illustrations, diagrams of land systems, and maps. A key aim was assessment for potential agricultural development; there was no similar mandate for conservation. But because there were no related botanical and zoological series, biotic results are by now widely scattered (though partially synthesized for some groups).
Noona Dan and Alpha Helix Expeditions
Two multidisciplinary ocean expeditions visited in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea (TPNG) in the 1960s, the first being the Danish Noona Dan (1962). This had as its general focus the western Pacific. After calls in Palawan and the Sula Archipelago they headed for the Bismarck Archipelago and were there for
