Digitization TCN Collaborative Research: North American Lichens and Bryophytes: Sensitive Indicators of Environmental Quality and Change

地衣和苔藓植物具有共同的生物学特性，使它们成为环境变化最敏感的指标。该项目的目标是提供高质量的数据，以解决物种分布如何随着时间和空间的重大环境事件而变化。具体而言，该项目将对北美地衣和苔藓植物标本馆中大约230万份生物标本的标签信息（收集的内容、时间、地点和人员）和图像进行数字化。这些藏品占加拿大、美国和墨西哥收集的所有标本的90%以上，并由60多个美国非政府机构持有。新的在线数字化技术将在http://symbiota.org/nalichens/和http://symbiota.org/bryophytes/上向公众提供，并将使感兴趣的公众成员参与其中，与专业人员一起了解生物多样性。通过促进专业人员和公众之间的合作，几乎所有北美苔藓植物和地衣的在线收集将大大加快对这些生物多样性的认识和评估。此外，从这些数字化数据中开发的模型将有助于未来大规模物种分布的制图预测和确定生物多样性热点作为主要的保护候选者。这些努力将有助于阐明变化迫在眉睫并可能产生重大影响的区域，并促进积极主动地减轻这种变化。该奖项是国家生物馆藏数字化资源的一部分，通过推进生物馆藏数字化计划，该奖项产生的所有数据将通过国家资源提供。

Lichens and bryophytes share biological traits that make them some of the most sensitive indicators of environmental change. The goal of this project is to provide high quality data to address how species distributions change as a result of major environmental events across time and space. Specifically, this project will digitize the label information (the what, when, where and by whom collected) and images for approximately 2.3 million biological specimens curated in North American lichen and bryophyte herbaria. These collections represent well over 90% of all specimens collected in Canada, the United States and Mexico and held by over 60 US non-governmental institutions. New, on-line digitization techniques will be made publically available at at http://symbiota.org/nalichens/ and http://symbiota.org/bryophytes/, and will allow interested members of the public to be involved and learn about biodiversity alongside the professionals.Availability of nearly the entire North American bryophyte and lichen collections on-line will greatly accelerate knowledge and evaluation of the biodiversity of these organisms by fostering collaborations between professionals and the general public. Additionally, models developed from these digitized data will aid future mapping projections of large scale species distributions and identification of biodiversity hotspots as prime candidates for protection. These endeavors will help to elucidate regions where changes are imminent and likely to have substantial impact, as well as to facilitate proactive initiatives to alleviate such changes. 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.