Digitisation / Cataloguing of non-textual objects: Development of new digitization standards for the large-scale assessment of leaf venation traits from herbarium collections using microradiographic imaging

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Herbaria with their large collections of recent and historical plant specimens document environmental changes over historical periods and are therefore increasingly used as environmental archives in research. According to recent studies, leaf venation has proven useful as a proxy for environmental conditions, with the architecture of the minor venation being especially important. However, traditional methods for the preparation of leaf venation rely on chemical treatment, which is destructive and time-consuming and therefore not suitable for the analysis of large series of leaf samples as required in functional ecological research. Thus, the aim of the project is to develop a standard for the digitization of leaf venation traits that permits a rapid, non-destructive, largely automated assessment of leaf venation traits from herbarium specimens. Microradiographic imaging has recently been shown to be a promising technique that will be used and optimized for the purpose of this study. The digitized data will be made available to the public via the online collection database SeSam (incl. GBIF-link). Moreover, the venation data will be linked to the TRY database, which is the world’s largest repository for functional plant traits.