The Appalachian Ohio Herbarium Database Network: Infrastructural Enhancements, Resource Building and Database Completion

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).This three-year award builds infrastructure for significant plant collections in Appalachian Ohio, completes databasing/imaging projects at four academic institutions and two Wayne National Forest districts, and establishes the online Appalachian Ohio Herbarium Database Network. The grant will outfit the new plant collections research space at Ohio University, provide specimen cabinets to Youngstown State University, and fund essential computer equipment and microscopes to the above-mentioned institutions, Marietta College and Muskingum College. It supports student personnel to database and image 254,000 algae, fungi, moss, fern, conifer and flowering plant specimens housed across the region. The institutional databases will be linked at http://www.herbarium.ohiou.edu/regional_database_network, making cumulative specimen data, images of pressed specimens and living plants, ecological data, literature references, and a dynamic GoogleMap mapping facility available to the public as an invaluable resource on Appalachian Ohio's rich plant life.This is Ohio's first regional biological collections network and is a model for a future statewide network. The project will train 23 undergraduate and five graduate students and collaboratively engage nine biologists across the region. Summer programs will expose 675 elementary school children in Ohio University's "Kids on Campus" program to local natural areas, the relevance of biological diversity, and hands-on research experience with Appalachian plants.