Collaborative Research: Ranges: Building Capacity to Extend Mammal Specimens from Western North America

合作研究：范围：建设能力以扩展北美西部的哺乳动物标本

• 批准号: 2228386
• 负责人: Jessica Light
• 金额: $ 6.1万
• 依托单位: Texas A&M AgriLife Research
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-05-01 至 2027-04-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2228386&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Ranges; Building; Capacity

The specimens contained in natural history collections contribute to scientific progress and social wellbeing. Their unique value comes from the high-quality information they contain and the documentation indicating how they were collected. Of particular value are trait measurements that document how species interact with each other and how they vary though time, for example, when responding to environmental changes. Unfortunately, traits for museum specimens are often only available in non-digital and non-standard formats. This limits the ability of researchers to find and use them to their full potential. This award will establish the Ranges Digitization Network (“Ranges”). The goal of the network is to digitize traits from over one million mammal specimens in 19 U.S. natural history museums. The network will produce datasets that are in standard format and easy to find in online biodiversity platforms, such as iDigBio. This will allow researchers to build better baselines for biodiversity and improve predictions of how mammals respond to changing environments. Ranges will also spark collaboration among the museum community and data scientists, creating solutions usable broadly. The network will employ a diverse human workforce in digitization and research tasks, and it will engage the public through citizen science activities and museum exhibits. This will address a major remaining digitization challenge for U.S. museums, to expand utility of specimens and use them to create new scientific knowledge. Digitization of U.S. natural history museums over the past two decades has improved data sharing and research capacity in the life sciences. Among the most important data associated with museum specimens are the morphological and reproductive traits of individuals. These traits are informative about ecology, evolution, and responses of organisms to environmental change. Unfortunately, traits from specimens remain incompletely digitized across museums and hard to locate on the internet. This inhibits their discovery and use at a time of pressing global change. Ranges will digitize and publish traits from approximately 1.2 million non-marine mammal specimens from western North America. The project focuses on this region due to its complex topography and climate, and because it is a center of mammalian biodiversity. The specific goals of the network are to extend existing software tools, develop new standards for mammal trait data, and coordinate digitization across museum partners. New, digital trait data on biodiversity data platforms such as iDigBio will transform data accessibility and foster new evolutionary, ecological, and biomedical research. Ranges will also collaborate with the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) to ensure compatibility with trait data collected throughout the lifetime of that network. Using the above approaches, Ranges will lay a foundation for building an extended specimen network for mammals.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.

自然历史收藏中包含的标本为科学进步和社会福祉做出了贡献。它们的独特价值来自于它们所包含的高质量信息和表明它们是如何收集的文档。特别有价值的是特征测量，它记录了物种之间如何相互作用，以及它们如何随着时间的推移而变化，例如，当对环境变化做出反应时。不幸的是，博物馆标本的特征通常只能以非数字和非标准格式提供。这限制了研究人员发现和充分利用它们的能力。该奖项将建立Ranges数字化网络(“Ranges”)。该网络的目标是将美国19个自然历史博物馆的100多万个哺乳动物标本的特征数字化。该网络将产生标准格式的数据集，这些数据集很容易在iDigBio等在线生物多样性平台上找到。这将使研究人员能够为生物多样性建立更好的基线，并改进对哺乳动物如何应对不断变化的环境的预测。Range还将引发博物馆社区和数据科学家之间的合作，创造出可广泛使用的解决方案。该网络将在数字化和研究任务中雇用不同的人类劳动力，并将通过公民科学活动和博物馆展品吸引公众。这将解决美国博物馆面临的一个主要的数字化挑战，即扩大标本的实用性，并利用它们创造新的科学知识。在过去的二十年里，美国自然历史博物馆的数字化提高了生命科学领域的数据共享和研究能力。与博物馆标本相关的最重要的数据之一是个体的形态和生殖特征。这些特征提供了有关生态、进化和有机体对环境变化的反应的信息。不幸的是，各个博物馆的标本特征仍然没有完全数字化，很难在互联网上找到。在全球变化迫在眉睫之际，这阻碍了它们的发现和使用。Range将数字化并发布来自北美西部的大约120万个非海洋哺乳动物标本的特征。该项目将重点放在这一地区，因为其复杂的地形和气候，以及因为它是哺乳动物生物多样性的中心。该网络的具体目标是扩展现有的软件工具，为哺乳动物特征数据开发新的标准，并协调博物馆合作伙伴的数字化。IDigBio等生物多样性数据平台上的新的数字特征数据将改变数据可访问性，并促进新的进化、生态和生物医学研究。Range还将与国家生态观测网络(NEON)合作，确保与该网络整个生命周期内收集的特征数据兼容。使用上述方法，Ranges将为建立一个扩展的哺乳动物标本网络奠定基础。这一奖项反映了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。