Completion and Coordination of Databases of Arizona Vascular Plants at ASU, ARIZ, and ASC.

美国亚利桑那州立大学（ASU）在Leslie Landrum博士及其同事Peter McCartney博士（ASU）、亚利桑那大学（ARIZ）的Steven McLaughlin博士和北亚利桑那大学（ASC）的Tina Ayers博士的指导下获得了一项资助，用于“ASU、ARIZ和ASC维管植物数据库的完成和协调”。每所大学都有自己的植物标本室，这些植物标本室总共包含约673,000种维管植物标本，其中约297,000种是亚利桑那州最广泛的植物标本。虽然具有重要的科学意义，但这些藏品对公众甚至科学界来说都不容易获得，因为它们位于三个不同的城市，每天只能查阅一次。居住在该州偏远地区的学生、教师或科学家可能根本无法访问它们。最近，通过在一个网站[http://ces.asu.edu/explora/main.html]]上提供三个数据库中88,000个标本（稀有和濒危物种除外）的标本数据（例如，学名、采集县和地点、采集日期、海拔、收集者和野外编号以及有关物种和栖息地的注释），这个问题得到了部分解决。许多名字都与活植物和/或植物标本室标本的照片相关联，因此人们可以“参观”植物标本室，甚至通过网络识别植物。这笔拨款用于完成三个数据库，并对所有缺乏这些信息的标本进行地理参考。一旦所有的标本都是地理参考，人们将能够根据所有三个数据库中的信息有效地制作分布的点图，并为特定地区准备植物清单。该拨款还为亚利桑那州生长的每个物种提供至少一个良好的植物标本的成像；这些将在网络上可见，并可能与清单一起使用。大约191,000个标本的数据将被输入数据库，大约233,750个标本将被地理参考，这两项任务都由学生小时工完成，由植物标本室工作人员（硕士和博士级别的植物学家）协助和监督。一名研究生工作者将为地图和检查表的生产改进和排除网络工具的故障。大约3000个标本将被学生和工作人员扫描并添加到亚利桑那州立大学图像库中。亚利桑那州立大学的环境研究中心将维护网站，在那里可以访问所有三个植物标本馆的信息。植物标本室是重要的信息库，但在过去，只有一小部分科学家和高级学生使用。现在，利用现代技术，亚利桑那州的植物标本馆将很容易地向公众开放。学生们将能够在他们家周围几英里的范围内建立植物清单，并在网上查看这些植物的图片。科学家们将能够根据亚利桑那州立大学、亚利桑那州立大学和亚利桑那州立大学的“活体”（不断更新的）数据库中的信息，构建在亚利桑那州生长的任何物种的点分布图。然后，这些地图可以与气候、海拔和土壤类型的地图进行比较，以找到相关性，甚至预测到目前为止尚未发现的物种可能生长的地方。由于亚利桑那州许多地方的植物学尚未被彻底探索，这些预测将有助于指导未来对美国第四大州植物区系的研究

AbstractA grant has been awarded to Arizona State University (ASU) under the direction of Dr. Leslie Landrum and colleagues Dr. Peter McCartney (ASU), Dr. Steven McLaughlin of the University of Arizona (ARIZ), and Dr. Tina Ayers of Northern Arizona University (ASC) for the "Completion and Coordination of the Databases of Vascular Plants at ASU, ARIZ, and ASC." Each University has its own herbarium and together, these herbaria contain about 673,000 vascular plant specimens, of which about 297,000 collectively represent the most extensive collection of Arizona plants. Although of great scientific importance, these collections have not been easily accessible to the public or even the scientific community, as they are housed in three separate cities and cannot be consulted more than one per day. Students, teachers or scientists living in remote areas of the state may not be able to visit them at all. Recently, this problem has been partially solved by providing specimen data (e.g., scientific name, county and locality of collection, date of collection, elevation, collector and field number, and notes on associated species and habitat) for the 88,000 specimens (except for rare and endangered species) in three databases at a single Web site [http://ces.asu.edu/explora/main.html]. Many names are linked to photographs of living plants and/or herbarium specimens, so that one may "visit" the herbaria and even identify plants through the Web. This grant provides funds to complete the three databases and geo-reference all specimens that lack that information. Once all the specimens are geo-referenced, one will be able to efficiently make dot maps of distribution based on the information in all three databases and prepare checklists of plants for a particular area. The grant also provides for the imaging of at least one good herbarium specimen of each species that grows in Arizona; these will be viewable on the Web and may be used in association with checklists.Data from about 191,000 specimens will be entered into the database and about 233,750 specimens will be geo-referenced, both tasks being done by student hourly workers, assisted and supervised by herbarium staff (MS and PhD level botanists). A graduate-student worker will refine and trouble-shoot Web tools for map and checklist production. About 3000 specimens will be scanned and added to the ASU image library by student and staff workers. The Center for Environmental Studies at ASU will maintain the Web sites where information from all three herbaria can be accessed.Herbaria are important repositories of information, but in the past have been used only by a relatively small group of scientists and advanced students. Now, using modern technology, Arizona herbaria will become easily accessible to the general public. Students will be able to construct checklists of plants growing within a few miles of their homes and view images of these on the Web. Scientists will be able to construct dot-distribution maps of any species growing in Arizona based on information in the "living" (constantly up-dated) databases at ASU, ARIZ, and ASC. These maps can then be compared with maps of climate, elevation, and soil type to find correlations or even to predict where species may grow but have not been found so far. Because the botany of many parts of Arizona has not been thoroughly explored, these predictions will help to direct future research on the fourth-largest state flora in the U.S.