Miguel Ángel Soto Arenas

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Miguel Ángel Soto Arenas (born July 12, 1963 in Torreón ; † August 27, 2009 ibid) was a Mexican botanist . Its botanical author abbreviation is " Soto Arenas ".

Life

Miguel Ángel Soto Arenas was born on July 12, 1963 in Torreón, northern Mexico. There he attended elementary and secondary school, for the high school degree he moved to the Universidad Autónoma del Noreste in Saltillo .

From 1982 to 1987, he studied biology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City . He was already employed as a lecturer during his master’s degree , which he continued later. He concentrated his studies on the orchids of Mexico and Central America, and in particular on issues relating to the ecology and species protection of these plants. In 1994 he began his doctoral thesis on the evolution of the vanilla genus .

Soto Arenas traveled a lot and was considered one of the best connoisseurs of Mexican orchids. He collected more than 11,000 herbarium specimens, including around 150 type specimens of newly described species. He himself published a good 160 new species, subspecies or new taxonomic combinations. Soto Arenas was instrumental in building up the collection of the Asociación Mexicana de Orquideología , initiated by Eric Hágsater , both herbarium and living collection. For the IUCN he worked in the "Orchid Specialist Group" on problems of species protection in orchids.

On the night of August 27-28, 2009, Miguel Ángel Soto Arenas was murdered in his home in Torreón.

Fonts

Soto Arenas published his first publications while he was still a student. A first thesis, a field study on Bonampak's orchids , was canceled due to the eruption of the El Chichón volcano . In the second attempt he wrote his thesis, together with Gerardo Salazar , on the genus Lepanthes . Both works have been published:

  • MA Soto Arenas (1986): Orquídeas de Bonampak, Chiapas . In: Orquídea (Méx.) Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 113-132. ( online, pdf 76 MB )
  • GA Salazar Chávez, MA Soto Arenas (1996): El género Lepanthes en México . Asociación Mexicana de Orquideología, AC México DF 231 S. ( online, pdf 80 MB )

As a result, numerous publications appeared on orchids, with a focus on the Laeliinae and the genus vanilla. Together with Federico Halbinger , he wrote a book about the genus Laelia in 1997 . He contributed to the series “ Genera Orchidacearum ” in 2003 with contributions to Vanilla and in 2005 to the Subtribe Laeliinae, Ponerinae and Chysinae . Also in 2005 the popular book "Las Orquídeas de México" appeared, in addition several volumes of the scientifically oriented "Orquídeas de México" appeared in the series "Icones Orchidacearum":

  • F. Halbinger, MA Soto Arenas: (1997): Laelias of Mexico . Herbario AMO. México DF 160 S. ( online, pdf 45 MB )
  • MA Soto Arenas (2003): Vanilla . Pp. 321-334. In: AM Pridgeon, PJ Cribb, MW Chase, FN Rasmussen (eds.): Genera Orchidacearum . Vol. 3. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
  • E. Hágsater, MA Soto Arenas (2005): Epidendrum . Pp. 236-251. In: AM Pridgeon, PJ Cribb, MW Chase, FN Rasmussen (eds.): Genera Orchidacearum . Vol. 4. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

A final focus of study was the genus vanilla. Two important works could still appear posthumously, one on the vanilla species of Central America, written together with Robert L. Dressler , and a revision of the entire genus, together with Phillip Cribb :

  • MA Soto Arenas, Robert L. Dressler (2010): A revision of the Mexican and Central American species of Vanilla Plumier ex Miller with a characterization of their ITS region of the nuclear ribosomal DNA . In: Lankesteriana . Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 285-354. ( online, pdf )
  • MA Soto Arenas, Phillip Cribb (2010): A new infrageneric classification and synopsis of the genus Vanilla Plum. ex Mill. (Orchidaceae: Vanillinae) . In: Lankesteriana . Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 355-398. ( online, pdf )

supporting documents

  • Eduardo A. Pérez García, Eric Hágsater (2010): Miguel Ángel Soto Arenas (1963-2009) . In: Acta Botanica Mexicana . 90: 1-6. online, pdf
  • Eric Hágsater (2010): In Memoriam: Miguel Ángel Soto Arenas (1963-2009) . In: Lankesteriana . 9 (3): 273-275. online, pdf
  • Miguel Ángel Soto Arenas: Publications and main Conferences, 1983-2009 . In: Lankesteriana . 9 (3): 276-280. online, pdf

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Soto Arenas, Miguel Ángel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Mexican botanist
DATE OF BIRTH July 12, 1963
PLACE OF BIRTH Torreón
DATE OF DEATH August 27, 2009
Place of death Torreón