Digitization PEN: Contribution of Digital Data from Ground-dwelling Orthopteroid Orders at American Museum of Natural History to the Symbiota Collections of Arthropods Network

我们的地球是一个动态的，不断变化的星球，从微观病毒和细菌到百吨级鲸鱼，各种物种相互作用。地球上几乎所有的生命都是由于复杂的相互作用而存在的，这些相互作用通过授粉、分解、营养循环等产生或允许产生食物、药物、住所、纤维、燃料。生态系统的变化对这些相互作用和产品的级联后果可以通过研究物种分布和多样性以及地理范围内物种内部和之间的物理变化来理解，与环境因素有关。自然历史收藏品保存着这些信息，是数百万年前昨天发生的事情的记录。这些研究收集可以揭示过去事件的假定原因，从而预测生态系统可能采取的未来方向，并为潜在的不稳定结果做好准备。然而，这些收藏品中的细节，有些可以追溯到150年或更早，通常记录在绑在翅膀上的一张小纸条上，塞在骨头的凹槽中，或者在收集的昆虫下面用大头针刺穿。为了解开过去的秘密以造福未来，分类学、地点、时间和相关的环境条件收集信息必须转录成数字形式以供分析。节肢动物网络专题收集网络（SCAN TCN）的共生生物群收集了从美国西南部和墨西哥收集的16个美国机构的地面昆虫标本。作为现有网络（PEN）的合作伙伴，美国自然历史博物馆无脊椎动物学部（IZ）将提供来自53，800个地面栖息的蟑螂（'Blattaria'），earwig（Dermaptera），蟋蟀和蚱蜢（直翅目）标本的数据，这些标本代表了大约100，000个物种。310个物种在AMNH收集。自动图像裁剪和光学字符识别等工具以及志愿公民科学家的帮助是这项工作不可或缺的一部分，对于不超过一厘米的旧手写标签来说，这是一个缓慢而繁琐的过程。 其结果将是对物种多样性、当前和过去生态系统的代表性以及自然和人类活动的影响有更全面和更有力的了解。将对地点进行地理参考，以便在空间和时间上绘制标本，改进物种分布，并改进分布、生态和多样性变化的模型。高分辨率图像的范例男性，女性，替代变形，和AMNH的目标物种的全型将有助于物种识别和比较。更多的earwig cerci（后钳）和扩大蝗虫后翅的图像将可用于数据可视化项目。数据和图像将通过AMNH的门户网站以及GIBF.org，iDigBio.org和SCAN与更大的科学界和公众共享。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

Our Earth is a dynamic, ever-changing planet of interacting species ranging from microscopic viruses and bacteria to hundred-ton whales. Just about all life on Earth exists due to intricate interactions that produce or allow for the production of food, medicine, shelter, fiber, fuel through pollination, decomposition, nutrient cycling and more. The cascading consequences of ecosystem shifts on these interactions and products can be understood by examining species distribution and diversity, as well as physical variation within and among species across a geographic range, in relation to environmental factors. Natural history collections hold such information and are a record of what happened yesterday to millions of years ago. These research collections can reveal putative reasons for past events, from which predictions about the future direction ecosystems may take and preparations for potentially volatile outcomes can be made. However, the details in these collections, some dating back 150 years or more, are often recorded on a minute slip of paper tied to a wing, tucked in the grooves of a bone or pierced with a pin underneath a collected insect. To unlock the secrets of the past for the benefit of the future, taxonomic, locality, time, and associated environmental condition collection information must be transcribed into digital form to be available for analysis. The Symbiota Collection of Arthropods Network Thematic Collection Network (SCAN TCN) has digitized specimens of select ground-dwelling insects collected from the southwestern U.S. and Mexico from 16 U.S. institutions. As a Partner to the Existing Network (PEN), the Division of Invertebrate Zoology (IZ) of the American Museum of Natural History will contribute data from 53,800 ground-dwelling roach (‘Blattaria’), earwig (Dermaptera), cricket and grasshopper (Orthoptera) specimens representing ca. 310 species in the AMNH collection. Tools such as automated image cropping and optical character recognition and help of volunteer citizen scientists are integral to this effort, an often slow and tedious process for old, handwritten labels no larger than a centimeter. The result will be a more complete and robust understanding of species diversity and representation of current and past ecosystems and the impact of natural and anthropogenic activities. Localities will be georeferenced so specimens can be mapped in space and time, species distributions can be refined and models of distributional, ecological and diversity changes can be improved. High resolution images of exemplar males, females, alternative morphs, and AMNH holotypes for target species will aid in species identification and comparison. Additional images of earwig cerci (hind pincers) and expanded grasshopper hindwings will be available for data visualization projects. Data and images will be shared with the greater scientific community and public through AMNH’s portal, as well as with GIBF.org, iDigBio.org and SCAN.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.