Digitization TCN: Collaborative Research: The Key to the Cabinets: Building and Sustaining a Research Database for a Global Biodiversity Hotspot

美国东南部的植物资源丰富，在阿巴拉契亚山脉和沿海平原地区拥有高度的全球生物多样性。在过去的四个世纪里，从这个地区收集了数百万的植物标本，这些标本和它们所包含的信息目前存放在该地区的博物馆、植物标本室或大学里。科学家们专注地研究这些标本；然而，如果没有将信息以电子方式从标本转移到可访问的数据池的管道，很难在广泛的地理和分类尺度上检索信息。SERNEC，即东南地区专业知识和收藏网络，是一个由植物专家和收藏组成的大型区域网络，通过美国国家科学基金会资助的研究协调网络（RCN）项目，开发了生物多样性信息学的关键技能。目前的项目将允许SERNEC小组使用最新的摄影和信息捕获工具为超过300万个标本提供数据，并让公民科学家和学生协助转录和地理参考这个庞大的数据集。通过这个项目产生的研究可以帮助区域规划者、土地管理者和社区在我们不断变化的环境中管理他们的自然资源。科学家、公民科学家和学生之间的互动将提供一个协同作用，以建立一个无与伦比的规模和范围的研究工具。该项目的最终目标是在北美植物多样性最丰富的地区和全球植物多样性热点地区之一的100多个植物标本馆开发一套超过300万份标本的图像和数据库。这将为研究植被对气候变化、人类发展和引进物种快速迁移的响应提供有价值的数据来源。1亿年以来，该地区一直是生物多样性的热点地区，该项目应鼓励对生物多样性随时间变化的研究，以开发更好的预测模型。通过与Symbiota、Notes from Nature、GEOLocate、Adler Planetarium、iPlant/TACC和Specify合作，该项目将找到最好的方法来整合各种数据可访问性。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（iDigBio.org）提供。

The southeastern USA is botanically rich, with areas of high global biodiversity in both the Appalachians and the coastal plain. Millions of plant specimens have been collected from this region over the past four centuries, and these specimens and the information they contain currently reside in museums, or herbaria, at universities across the area. Scientists study these specimens intently; however, it is difficult to retrieve information at broad geographic and taxonomic scales without pipelines to move the information electronically from the specimen to an accessible pool of data. SERNEC, or the SouthEast Regional Network of Expertise and Collections, is a large regional network of botanical experts and collections that has, through an NSF-sponsored research coordination network (RCN) project, developed critical skills in biodiversity informatics. The current project will allow the SERNEC group to make data available for over 3 million specimens using the latest photography and information capture tools and to engage citizen scientists and students to assist in transcribing and georeferencing this large dataset. The research generated through this project can help regional planners, land managers and communities to manage their natural resources in our ever-changing environment. The interaction of scientists, citizen scientists, and students will provide a synergy to build a research tool of an unparalleled scale and scope. The ultimate goal of this project is to develop an imaged and databased set of over 3 million specimens from over 100 herbaria in one of the most floristically diverse regions in North America and a global hotspot of plant diversity. This will represent a valuable data source for research on the response of vegetation to climate change, human development, and rapid migrations of introduced species. This region has been a biodiversity hotspot for 100 million years and this project should encourage research on changes over time to develop better predictive models as areas of biodiversity change. By partnering with Symbiota, Notes from Nature, GEOLocate, Adler Planetarium, iPlant/TACC, and Specify, the project will develop ways to best integrate various efforts for data accessibility. 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 (iDigBio.org).