Improving Collection Conservation and Enriching Availability in Three Caribbean Herbaria

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。加勒比群岛有非常丰富的植物群，被国际公认为生物多样性的热点。该地区的植物标本馆收藏有助于记录植物区系，为广泛的研究提供了巨大的资源。该地区所有活跃的植物标本室都位于大安的列斯群岛，波多黎各是其中四个植物标本室的所在地，大约有125,000种植物，它们之间很少重叠。波多黎各大学植物园拥有最重要的历史收藏品，它们的保护将通过更换旧橱柜和安装轨道系统来改善，以最大限度地提高占地面积，并允许未来的增长。植物园和联邦自然资源和环境部将执行岛上其他植物标本馆正在使用的植物数据库BRAHMS。最大的收藏在波多黎各大学Rico-Río Piedras，他们将扩大现有的数据库和标本扫描操作。所有四个馆藏都可以通过uprp门户网站（www.herbarium.uprr.pr）访问，该门户网站与每个机构以及BRAHMS和全球生物多样性信息设施网站相连。这些植物标本馆将成为加勒比地区第一批保存完好、完全数字化并可供国际社会查阅的主要就地收藏。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Islands of the Caribbean have a remarkably rich flora internationally recognized as a biodiversity hotspot. Herbarium collections of the region serve to document the flora providing a vast resource for a broad spectrum of studies. All active herbaria in the region occur in the Greater Antilles, and Puerto Rico is home to four of them housing approximately 125,000 accessions with very little overlap among them. The University of Puerto Rico Botanical Garden houses the most significant historical collections, and their conservation will be improved by replacing old cabinets and installing a track system to maximize floor space and allow for future growth. The Botanical Garden and the Commonwealth Department of Natural Resources and Environment will implement the botanical database, BRAHMS, which is in use by the other herbaria on the island. The largest collection is at the University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras and they will augment existing database and specimen scanning operations. All four collections will be accessible through the UPRRP portal (www.herbarium.uprr.pr) linking to each institution and BRAHMS and Global Biodiversity Information Facility sites. These herbaria will become the first major in situ collections of the Caribbean to be well conserved, fully digital and accessible to the global community.