CSBR: Natural History: Expansion of the New York Botanical Garden Herbarium to Incorporate Newly Acquired Specimens and Improve Curation

该项目将允许纽约植物园(NYBG)的威廉和琳达·斯蒂尔植物标本馆扩建，以容纳额外的160,000个藻类、真菌和棕榈树标本。纽约植物园植物标本馆是一个国家系统学研究资源中心，包含大约730万个植物和真菌的参考标本。它是美国约650种草本植物中最大的一种。植物标本保存着研究人员用来重建过去景观并预测植被随时间变化的数据。标本还包含关于生物体的遗传组成、它们的繁殖模式、它们对不同类型栖息地的适应以及它们与其他生物体的关系的几乎无限的信息。迫切需要所有这些数据，以帮助解决四个关键的社会需求，即可持续粮食生产、生态系统恢复、生物燃料生产和改善人类健康。解决这些问题将需要整合尽可能广泛的生物多样性数据，以及来自地球和社会科学的信息。藻类、苔藓植物、真菌和棕榈树都是未被研究的类群，它们的生态和经济重要性得到了证实，但没有完全得到证实。约有12名大学生或应届毕业生被聘为实习生，他们将占该项目有偿劳动力的最大比例，为这些年轻人提供了连接大学与研究生或职业生涯的重要桥梁活动。此外，公众将被邀请参与这项计划，通过使用在线众包应用程序转录数字化标本的标签。这一活动的特别目标是寻求重新进入劳动力大军的以前被监禁的公民。在其120年的历史中，NYBG药物馆通过工作人员和合作者的收藏、交换和合并孤儿药草，稳步发展。这是世界上最常使用的草本植物之一。在过去的五年里，超过11.7万个标本被借出，参观者花了12616天使用这些藏品，NYBG植物标本馆的标本被至少1200份出版物引用。在搬进一座设计用于20年生长的新植物标本馆11年后，由于意外生长(藻类、苔藓和真菌)和货架不足(棕榈树)，分配给藻类、苔藓、真菌和棕榈树收藏的空间现在不足以适当储存这些资源。为了实现按照公认的最佳做法存放所有标本并向科学界提供标本和数据的目标，该项目将在标本馆楼一楼现有的压实机上用超高的标本柜取代34个开放式货架单元，从而增加2,798个标本馆储存空间。这一空间将足以容纳目前不能归档的标本，并允许未来五年的增长。作为将标本迁移到新空间的一部分，将改进标本管理，并对92 000件标本进行数字化。欲了解更多有关纽约广播公司及其推广计划的信息，请访问：http://www.nybg.org.。

This project will allow the expansion of The William and Lynda Steere Herbarium of the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) in order to accommodate an additional 160,000 specimens of algae, fungi and palms. The New York Botanical Garden Herbarium is a National Systematics Research Resource Center containing approximately 7.3 million reference specimens of plants and fungi. It is the largest of the approximately 650 herbaria in the U.S. Herbarium specimens hold data that researchers use to re-create past landscapes and predict how vegetation will change over time. Specimens also contain nearly limitless information about the genetic makeup of organisms, their reproductive patterns, their adaptations for different types of habitats, and their relationships to other organisms. All of these data are urgently needed to contribute to the solutions to four key societal needs, namely sustainable food production, ecosystem restoration, biofuel production and improvement in human health. Solutions to these problems will require integration of as wide a range of biodiversity data as possible, along with information from earth and social sciences. The algae, bryophytes, fungi and palms are all under-studied groups with demonstrated but incompletely documented ecological and economic importance. Approximately 12 college students or recent graduates, hired as interns, will make up the largest proportion of the paid work force for this project, providing an important bridge activity between college and graduate school or career for these young adults. Additionally, members of the public will be invited to participate in this project by transcribing the labels of digitized specimens using on-line crowd sourcing applications. Especially targeted for this activity are formerly incarcerated citizens who are seeking re-entry into the workforce. Throughout its 120 years of existence the NYBG Herbarium has grown steadily through collections made by staff members and collaborators, exchange, and incorporation of orphaned herbaria. This is one of the most frequently consulted herbaria in the world. During the past five years, more than 117,000 specimens have been sent on loan, visitors have spent 12,616 days using the collection, and NYBG Herbarium specimens have been cited in at least 1,200 publications. Eleven years after moving into a new herbarium building that was designed for 20 years of growth, the space allotted for collections of algae, bryophytes, fungi and palms is now insufficient for proper storage of these resources due to unexpected growth (algae, bryophytes and fungi) and inadequate shelving (palms). In order to accomplish the goal of housing all specimens according to accepted best practices and making the specimens and data derived from them available to the scientific community, this project will create an additional 2,798 cubbyholes of herbarium storage space by replacing 34 open shelving units with extra tall herbarium cabinets on existing compactors on the first floor of the herbarium building. This space will be sufficient to accommodate the specimens that cannot currently be filed and allow for five years of future growth. As part of the relocation of specimens into the new space, the curation of specimens will be improved and 92,000 specimens will be digitized. More information about NYBG and its outreach programs is available at: http://www.nybg.org.