Digitization TCN: Collaborative: The Microfungi Collections Consortium: A Networked Approach to Digitizing Small Fungi with Large Impacts on the Function and Health of Ecosystems

微真菌（微真菌）代表了分布在世界各地的多样化组合，包括面包霉菌、植物病原体、白粉病、锈病、黏菌和水霉菌。这些生物中有很大一部分是无害的，甚至是有益的，但有些会导致动物、植物和其他真菌的疾病和死亡，造成重大经济损失，并对人类和生态系统健康产生严重的负面影响。尽管它们很重要，但人们对它们的分布、多样性、生态或寄主关系知之甚少。该项目是一项涉及31个州38个机构的合作努力，旨在整合230万微真菌标本的生物多样性标本数据，并通过在线资源提供这些数据。巩固和增加这些数据的可及性对于告知和促进围绕这一鲜为人知但重要的生物群体的新的和创新的研究、教育和社区参与至关重要。本项目产生的标本数据将用于评估自然和人为引起的环境变化对微真菌分布的影响，并评估这些变化对生态系统功能和健康的影响。该项目通过提供图像、数字化标本标签数据和链接超过120万北美微真菌标本的相关辅助数据，填补了国家数字化工作的关键空白。此外，将更新命名法和分类学信息，以反映《国际命名规则》规定的最新做法。这些数据将为农业综合企业、教育工作者、森林管理者、政府机构、园艺学家、政策制定者、研究人员和公众做出明智决策提供基础。通过开发和实施关于微真菌经济重要性的高中生物学教学模块，将促进本项目更广泛的教育目标。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。

Microscopic fungi (microfungi) represent a diverse assemblage that is distributed worldwide and includes bread molds, plant pathogens, powdery mildews, rusts, slime molds, and water molds. A large percentage of these organisms are harmless or even beneficial, but some cause disease and death in animals, plants, and other fungi resulting in major economic loss and serious negative implications for human and ecosystem health. Despite their importance, little is known about their distribution, diversity, ecology, or host associations. This project is a collaborative effort involving 38 institutions in 31 states and aims to consolidate data from specimens housed in biodiversity collections for 2.3 million microfungi specimens and make these data available through online resources. The consolidation and increased accessibility of these data is critical to inform and promote new and innovative research, education and community engagement around this little-known but important group of organisms.Specimen data generated by this project will be used to assess natural and human-induced environmental changes on microfungi distributions, and evaluate the impact of these changes on the function and health of ecosystems. This project fills a critical gap in the national digitization effort by contributing images, digitizing specimen label data, and linking associated ancillary data for over 1.2 million North American specimens of microfungi. Additionally, nomenclature and taxonomic information will be updated to reflect the newest practices as dictated by the International Codes for Nomenclature. These data will provide a foundation for making informed decisions by agribusinesses, educators, forest managers, government agencies, horticulturalists, policy makers, researchers, and the general public. The broader education goals of this project will be facilitated through the development and implementation of a teaching module for high school biology on the economic importance of microfungi. 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).