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

美国东南部植物资源丰富，阿巴拉契亚山脉和沿海平原都是全球生物多样性最高的地区。在过去的四个世纪里，从这个地区收集了数百万份植物标本，这些标本和它们包含的信息目前保存在该地区大学的博物馆或草药库中。科学家们认真研究这些标本；然而，如果没有管道将信息从标本电子转移到可访问的数据池，很难在广泛的地理和分类规模上检索信息。SERNEC或东南区域专门知识和收集网络，是一个大型的植物学专家和收集的区域网络，通过NSF赞助的研究协调网络(RCN)项目，发展了生物多样性信息学方面的关键技能。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提供300多万个标本的数据，并让公民科学家和学生协助转录和对这一大型数据集进行地理参考。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、公民科学家和学生的互动将提供协同作用，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开发一个包含300多万个标本的图像和数据库，这些标本来自北美植物区系最多样化的地区之一的100多种草本植物，也是全球植物多样性的热点。这将为研究植被对气候变化的反应、人类发展和引进物种的快速迁徙提供宝贵的数据来源。该地区1亿年来一直是生物多样性的热点，该项目应鼓励研究随着时间推移的变化，以开发更好的预测模型作为生物多样性变化的地区。通过与Symbiota、自然笔记、Geolocate、Adler天文馆、iPLANT/TACC和Specify合作，该项目将开发出最好地整合各种数据访问努力的方法。该奖项是通过推进生物收藏数字化计划的生物收藏数字化国家资源的一部分，该奖项产生的所有数据将通过国家资源(iDigBio.org)获得。

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).