Digitization TCN: Collaborative Research: Bringing Asia to digital life: mobilizing underrepresented Asian herbarium collections in the US to propel biodiversity discovery

数字化 TCN：合作研究：将亚洲带入数字生活：动员美国代表性不足的亚洲植物标本馆藏品，推动生物多样性发现

• 批准号: 2101773
• 负责人: Jordan Teisher
• 金额: $ 64.21万
• 依托单位: Missouri Botanical Garden
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-09-15 至 2025-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2101773&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Digitization; TCN; Collaborative; Research; Bringing

Asia is the largest continent on Earth, and includes the world’s tallest mountains, lowest landscapes, and habitats ranging from arctic tundra to tropical rainforests and mangroves to deserts. The plants of this region are incredibly diverse in their identities and functions. More than one-third of the world’s 350,000 plant species grow in Asia and include tiny alpine cushion plants, medicinal herbs, ancient crops, and some of the planet’s tallest rainforest trees. But documentation of this diversity remains inaccessible and research about it is difficult because most herbarium specimens of Asian plants have not been digitized. The All Asia Thematic Collections Network (TCN) will mobilize online 15 million specimens of Asian plants currently housed in the US and around the world. The project will especially focus on digitizing specimens from the unique and critically endangered biodiversity hotspots of Southeast Asia and the Himalaya-Hengduan region. These mobilized digital data will accelerate research to conserve endangered plant species and understand the interacting effects of evolution and global environmental change on plant species diversity. The project will apply state-of-the-art informatics tools and high-throughput digitization methods to efficiently and affordably digitize an unprecedented number of herbarium collections. This effort will connect and build long-lasting relationships among 25 large and small consortium institutions in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. The focal areas from which specimens will be digitized encompass five biodiversity hotspots that include ~20% of the world’s vascular plant flora and historically spanned 3 million km² of primary vegetation that now covers less than 300,000 km². Fundamental biodiversity data for these biodiversity hotspots are lacking, along with the necessary baselines required to characterize species’ identity, range, and responses to ongoing climatic change. The overall goals of the All Asia TCN are to rapidly digitize herbarium specimens of Asian plants to advance biodiversity discovery and provide critical baseline assessments essential for establishing floristic change in the Anthropocene. The project will accomplish this by (1) digitizing 3 million Asian vascular plant specimens from U.S. herbaria; (2) developing and applying novel informatics tools and high-throughput digitization methods to massively scale herbarium digitization; (3) aggregating and mobilizing the digitized records from the project with those by international partners in China, France, the Netherlands, and Russia to establish a single online All Asia portal of ca. 15 million specimens; and (4) enhancing opportunities for early career learners in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics by stimulating synergies between biodiversity and computer scientists who will use design thinking principles to create real-world informatics solutions to biodiversity challenges. To stimulate curiosity in plant diversity and botanical exploration among the general public, the consortium members will host several Asia-themed Notes from Nature virtual expeditions to facilitate additional specimen digitization by citizen-scientists. Digitized specimen data mobilized through this project will be shared and made available through iDigBio.org.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.

亚洲是地球上最大的大陆，包括世界上最高的山脉、最低的地貌和从北极苔原到热带雨林、红树林到沙漠的各种栖息地。这一地区的植物在身份和功能上都有令人难以置信的多样性。世界上35万种植物中，超过三分之一生长在亚洲，包括微小的高山垫状植物、草药、古老的农作物，以及一些地球上最高的雨林树木。但是，关于这种多样性的文件仍然无法获取，有关它的研究也很困难，因为大多数亚洲植物的标本标本馆还没有数字化。全亚洲主题收藏网络(TCN)将在网上动员目前存放在美国和世界各地的1500万份亚洲植物标本。该项目将特别侧重于将东南亚和喜马拉雅-横端地区独特的、极度濒危的生物多样性热点地区的标本数字化。这些移动的数字数据将加快保护濒危植物物种的研究，并了解进化和全球环境变化对植物物种多样性的相互影响。该项目将应用最先进的信息学工具和高通量数字化方法，以高效和负担得起的方式将数量空前的标本馆藏数字化。这一努力将在美国、欧洲和亚洲的25家大大小小的财团机构之间建立并建立长期的关系。标本数字化的重点区域包括五个生物多样性热点，其中约占世界维管植物区系的20%，历史上横跨300万平方公里的初级植被，现在覆盖不到30万平方公里。缺乏这些生物多样性热点的基本生物多样性数据，以及描述物种身份、范围和对持续气候变化的反应所需的必要基线。All Asia TCN的总体目标是迅速将亚洲植物标本数字化，以促进生物多样性的发现，并提供对确定人类世植物区系变化至关重要的关键基线评估。该项目将通过以下方式实现这一目标：(1)数字化来自美国植物标本库的300万个亚洲维管植物标本；(2)开发和应用新的信息学工具和高通量数字化方法，以大规模实现标本馆的数字化；(3)将该项目的数字化记录与中国、法国、荷兰和俄罗斯的国际合作伙伴的记录进行汇总和动员，以建立一个约有1500万个标本的全亚洲在线门户网站；以及(4)通过促进生物多样性与计算机科学家之间的协同作用，增加科学、技术、工程和数学方面的早期职业学习者的机会，他们将使用设计思维原则来创建现实世界中的信息学解决方案，以应对生物多样性挑战。为了激发公众对植物多样性和植物学探索的好奇心，该联盟成员将主办几个以亚洲为主题的来自自然的笔记虚拟探险活动，以促进公民科学家更多的标本数字化。通过该项目动员的数字化标本数据将通过iDigBio.org共享和提供。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。