CSBR: Natural History Collections: Upgrading and Digitizing OTS Biological Field Station Herbaria

热带研究组织（OTS）将使用为拉斯克鲁塞斯生物站（http://www.ots.ac.cr/herbarium）开发的格式，为其在哥斯达黎加的三个地区的植物标本室创建一个统一的、基于网络的数字植物标本室数据库。OTS还将升级植物标本室设备，并帮助处理和数字化目前在三个生物站积压的8000多个标本。OTS植物标本馆总共收藏了13000多个标本；然而，许多存储基础设施和设备已经过时，只有一小部分标本被数字化。这些植物标本馆所代表的地理区域涵盖了哥斯达黎加的多样性范围和主要栖息地。该项目将为热带生物学领域带来重大利益，因为它提高了目前在OTS现场站及其影响领域的研究能力，并为与美国科学家在研究和保护方面的国际合作创造了机会。数字植物标本馆将成为美国和哥斯达黎加研究人员和学生的重要信息资源，并将作为教学工具和创新学生项目的发展发挥重要作用，因为每年有100多个美国课程使用OTS站点。由于所有标本的高分辨率扫描将像在网上一样提供，因此任何有互联网服务的地方都可以访问这些资源，从而使更广泛的科学界可以获得这些信息。

The Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS) will create a unified, web-based, digital herbarium database for its three regional herbaria in Costa Rica, using the format developed for the Las Cruces Biological Station (http://www.ots.ac.cr/herbarium). OTS will also upgrade herbarium equipment and help process and digitize the more than 8,000 specimens that are currently backlogged at the three biological stations. OTS herbaria collectively house more than 13,000 specimens; however, much of the storage infrastructure and equipment is obsolete, and only a fraction of specimens have been digitized. The geographic areas represented by these herbaria encompass the range of diversity and principal habitats in Costa Rica. The project will provide significant benefits to the field of tropical biology by enhancing current research capabilities at OTS field stations and their areas of influence, and by creating opportunities for international collaborations with US scientists in research and conservation. The digital herbarium will be a critical information resource for US- and Costa Rican-based researchers and students, and will play an important role as a teaching tool and in the development of innovative student projects, given that more than 100 US courses use OTS stations annually. As high-resolution scans of all specimens will be available as on the web, the resource will be accessible anywhere there is internet service, making this information available to the broader scientific community.