Digitization TCN: Collaborative Research: Digitizing "endless forms": Facilitating Research on Imperiled Plants with Extreme Morphologies

数字化 TCN：合作研究：数字化“无尽形式”：促进对具有极端形态的濒危植物的研究

• 批准号: 1802102
• 负责人: Bruce Baldwin
• 金额: $ 9.78万
• 依托单位: University of California-Berkeley
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-08-15 至 2024-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1802102&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Digitization; TCN; Collaborative; Research; Digitizing

The "Endless Forms" Thematic Collections Network (TCN), composed of 17 collaborating U.S. herbaria from 11 states, will digitize approximately two million specimens belonging to some of the most interesting plant species on Earth. Iconic species such as the Giant Saguaro Cactus, the Venus Fly Trap, and the leafless Ghost Orchid of southern Florida are just a few of the hundreds of thousands of plants that have evolved astounding adaptations allowing them to grow in extreme terrestrial environments, including deserts, tropical rain forests, and nutrient poor bogs. Many of these plants can also be challenging to study in nature and face elevated conservation concerns in the face of rapid environmental change. By digitizing herbarium specimens of these groups, researchers will gain a better understanding of these adaptations and their evolution, and can design conservation and management strategies. The public's interest in these unusual plants affords an opportunity to engage k-12 students and teachers in discussions about biodiversity and preservation, plant adaptations, and mutualistic relationships. This project will also train undergraduate and graduate students in the areas of museum studies. Finally, the availability of two million digitized records for these charismatic plant groups will help protect them and enhance their enjoyment by hobbyists, citizen scientists, and other non-academic enthusiasts This "Endless Forms" project is the first TCN initiative to digitize the very significant holdings of non-North American specimens housed within North American herbaria. This project will provide access to digitized records of 15 plant families associated with adaptations to extreme terrestrial environments that can be used to test evolutionary and ecological hypotheses. This network will, for example, provide data that can be used to explore trait development and evolution, species delimitation, and geographic distribution modelling and that can inform national and regional floristic projects. This project will help provide critically needed information to overcome obstacles related to studying plant families which are very large, have cryptic diagnostic features, or occur in geographically challenging areas. This TCN will also help overcome an acute problem of access to specimens of CITES-listed taxa (species threatened with extinction) by easing data access and by holding a Plant Collecting Ethics Workshop that will bring together an array of stakeholders to make recommendations on best practices for handling sensitive data for rare species. The project will fill taxonomic and geographic gaps in U.S. institutional specimen digitization, will bring new institutions into the national digitization effort and will invest in the development of tools to stream-line the digitization process. This award is made as part of the National Resource for Digitization of Biological Collections through the Advancing Digitization of Biological Collections program and all data resulting from this award will be available through the national resource (iDigBio.org).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

由17个与11个州合作的美国草药合作组成的“无尽形式”主题收藏网络（TCN）将数字化大约200万个标本，这些标本属于地球上一些最有趣的植物物种。标志性的物种，例如巨型仙人掌，金星蝇陷阱和佛罗里达州南部的无叶幽灵兰花，只是成千上万的植物中有几个植物，这些植物不断发展令人震惊的适应，使它们在极端的地森环境中生长，包括沙漠，热带雨林，贫穷的贫民。这些植物中的许多也可能具有挑战性地在自然界研究，并且面对迅速的环境变化面临较高的保护问题。通过数字化这些群体的标志标本，研究人员将更好地了解这些适应性及其演变，并可以设计保护和管理策略。公众对这些不寻常的植物的兴趣提供了一个机会，可以让K-12学生和老师参与有关生物多样性和保存，植物适应和相互关系的讨论。该项目还将在博物馆研究领域培训本科生和研究生。最后，这些具有魅力的植物群体的200万个数字记录将有助于保护他们，并通过业余爱好者，公民科学家和其他非学术爱好者来增强他们的享受。这个“无尽的形式”项目是TCN的第一个TCN倡议，该计划是第一个数字化北美赫伯里亚室内非北美标本的非常重要的持有。该项目将提供与适应极端陆地环境相关的15个植物家庭的数字化记录，这些记录可用于测试进化和生态假设。例如，该网络将提供可用于探索特质发展和进化，物种划界以及地理分布建模的数据，并可以为国家和地区植物项目提供信息。该项目将有助于提供迫切需要的信息，以克服与研究非常大的植物家庭相关的障碍，具有隐秘的诊断特征，或在地理上具有挑战性的地区发生。该TCN还将帮助克服一个急性问题，即通过放松数据获取并举办收集伦理伦理研讨会的植物，将一系列利益相关者汇集到为稀有物种处理敏感数据的最佳实践的建议，从而通过放松数据访问来访问CITES上市的类群（受到灭绝的物种）的急剧问题。该项目将填补美国机构标本数字化的分类学和地理空白，将使新机构进入国家数字化工作，并将投资开发工具以播放数字化过程。该奖项是通过推进生物收集计划数字化数字化来数字化生物收集资源的一部分，该奖项产生的所有数据将通过国家资源（idigbio.org）获得。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过该基金会的知识优点和广泛的影响来通过评估来评估NSF的法定任务。