Digitization TCN: Collaborative Research: Enhancing Access to Taxonomic and Biogeographical Data to Stem the Tide of Extinction of the Highly Imperiled Pacific Island Land Snails

数字化 TCN：合作研究：加强对分类学和生物地理数据的获取，以阻止高度濒危的太平洋岛屿蜗牛的灭绝浪潮

• 批准号: 1902188
• 负责人: James Hanken
• 金额: $ 14.04万
• 依托单位: Harvard University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-08-01 至 2023-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1902188&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Digitization; TCN; Collaborative; Research; Enhancing

Biodiversity is declining globally and any effective actions to halt or slow extinctions requires precise knowledge of species identities and distributions. Natural history collections are critical to fully understanding historical and contemporary biodiversity patterns, yet most of the museum specimens and their associated data remain inaccessible without directly visiting the museum collection, and even then, only to a select few. Digitizing these data and making it more broadly available electronically will facilitate biodiversity conservation efforts. Land snails, with approximately 25,000 species globally, are a major component of terrestrial habitats and provide services crucial for maintaining intact and fully functional ecosystems. Unfortunately, land snails have the highest number of documented extinctions of any major animal group, with the greatest losses among Pacific islands. Conservation assessments and identification of the remaining fauna are hampered because a large portion of this fauna has not been comprehensively studied for more than 100 years. Increased understanding of threatened biodiversity should be a national priority, particularly given the current biodiversity crisis. One goal of this project is to develop a comprehensive data resource (the Pacific Island Land Snail Biodiversity Repository; PILSBRY) to provide information needed to identify and assess the distributions and conservation status of Pacific island land snails. Researchers from five of the largest natural history collections in the nation will be joining forces to build an educational program to train and engage the science community, students, and citizen scientists to aid them in the digitization, mobilization, and enhancement of 3.6 million Pacific island land snail specimen records. This project will increase capacity of experts to support tropical island biodiversity research and conservation and accelerate species discovery. Participants of this project, including the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, Academy of Natural Sciences at Drexel, Museum of Zoology at the University of Michigan, Harvard Museum of Natural History, Florida Museum of Natural History, and the Field Museum, will digitize and mobilize data for 3.6 million specimens of Pacific island land snails held in these collections. These data, enhanced through georeferencing and imaging of primary types, will be made available to the public and science community via a centralized online database and integrated into multiple public data repositories, including iDigBio (idigbio.org), which is supported by the NSF's ADBC program. High school and undergraduate students from underrepresented groups in STEM will receive training in data management, bioinformatics, taxonomy and museum curation and will contribute to formal (e.g. conference presentations and publications) and informal (e.g. exhibits, social media and blogs) educational activities to improve their science communication skills and connect research to the science community and public. Additionally, citizen scientists will be able to assist in enhancing specimen records by transcribing data from scanned ledgers, field notes, and other associated data through online portals. Eventually additional web-based tools and smart phone applications can be developed for conservation managers, researchers, citizen scientists and the public to access Pacific Island land snail specimen records to further research and conservation management of this highly endangered fauna.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.

生物多样性在全球范围内正在下降，任何有效的停止或缓慢灭绝的行动都需要精确了解物种身份和分布。 自然历史收藏对于完全理解历史和当代生物多样性模式至关重要，但是大多数博物馆标本及其相关数据仍然无法直接访问博物馆收藏，即使那时也只能选择少数几个。 对这些数据进行数字化并使其更广泛地以电子方式可用，这将促进生物多样性保护工作。 全球约有25,000种物种的土地蜗牛是陆地栖息地的主要组成部分，并为维持完整且功能齐全的生态系统提供了至关重要的服务。 不幸的是，土地蜗牛在任何主要动物群体中的灭绝记录灭绝数量最多，在太平洋岛屿中造成的损失最大。 剩余动物区系的保护评估和识别受到阻碍，因为该动物中的很大一部分已有100多年的全面研究。 对威胁性生物多样性的了解应该是国家优先事项，尤其是考虑到当前的生物多样性危机。 该项目的一个目标是开发全面的数据资源（太平洋岛蜗牛生物多样性存储库； Pilsbry），以提供所需的信息来识别和评估太平洋岛蜗牛的分布和保护状况。 来自全国五个最大自然历史收藏的研究人员将联合起来建立一个教育计划，以培训和吸引科学界，学生和公民科学家，以帮助他们进行数字化，动员和增强360万太平洋岛屿土地蜗牛标本的记录。 该项目将增加专家支持热带岛屿生物多样性研究和保护的能力，并加速物种发现。 该项目的参与者，包括伯尼斯·帕奥阿（Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum），德雷克塞尔（Drexel）的自然科学院，密歇根大学的动物学博物馆，哈佛大学自然历史博物馆，佛罗里达自然历史博物馆以及菲尔德博物馆（The Field Museum），将数字化和动员数据在Pacific Island Land Land senails中占360万个标本。 这些数据通过主要类型的地理发射和成像增强，将通过集中式的在线数据库提供给公共和科学界，并将其集成到包括IDIGBIO（idigbio.org）在内的多个公共数据存储库中，该数据库得到了NSF的ADBC计划的支持。 来自STEM中代表性不足的群体的高中和本科生将接受数据管理，生物信息学，分类学和博物馆的策展方面的培训，并将为正式（例如会议演讲和出版物）以及非正式（例如展览，社交媒体和博客）的正式教育活动做出贡献，以提高其科学沟通技巧，并与科学社区和公众联系。 此外，公民科学家将能够通过在线门户中转录扫描的分类帐，现场笔记和其他相关数据的数据来协助增强标本记录。 Eventually additional web-based tools and smart phone applications can be developed for conservation managers, researchers, citizen scientists and the public to access Pacific Island land snail specimen records to further research and conservation management of this highly endangered fauna.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.