Georeferencing Mesoamerican Vascular Plant Specimens at the Missouri Botanical Garden

在詹姆斯·所罗门博士的指导下，密苏里州植物园获得了一笔赠款，用于部分支持一个项目，该项目对来自中美洲[特别是墨西哥、伯利兹、危地马拉、哥斯达黎加和巴拿马]的大约571,255个维管植物标本记录进行地理参考，代表了大约52,000个独特的采集地点，这些标本是基于密苏里植物园(MO)标本馆的标本。这些数据将通过植物园的网站w3TROPICOS(http://www.tropicos.org)，)以及全球生物多样性信息机构、红色世界信息和生物多样性网站、2000年发现生命和物种的网站提供。除了通过网络提供对个别地理参考标本记录的查询外，该项目还将制作一个具有绘图能力的基于网络的、可搜索的中美洲植物采集地点地名录、一个用于显示个人采集者路线的查询表，以及一个用于确定主要采集地点的工具，包括确定采集密度。分类学工作的目标是识别、命名和描述世界上的有机体；提供工具来识别它们；描绘它们发生的地方；并分析它们的关系。尽可能准确地记录物种出现的地方是这个项目立即有用的成果。将有可能根据数据库中所列任何物种的地理参考标本数据生成详细的、有凭证的分布图。因为数据是有凭证的，所以可以验证信息，因为可以识别和确认地图上每个点的确切来源。对植物物种分布的详细了解对于生物研究、生物多样性保护、科学的土地使用管理以及生物多样性问题对美国国内外社会的影响都是基本的。为这些标本记录建立数据库和分配地理坐标是加强这些收藏的实用性的重要步骤。没有地理坐标，标本记录的大部分价值仍然无法用于地理信息系统的应用。地理参考标本数据不仅对分类学研究有用，而且对其他科学学科和实践活动也很有用，如保护、生物资源管理和物种可持续利用。该项目产生的信息可用于回答与监测本土、受威胁和濒危物种有关的各种紧急问题，并记录对我国农业系统具有重大现实或潜在影响的外来杂草的引入和传播。随着人类继续在世界各地转移种质并制定保护、管理和调节世界生物多样性的政策，对这些生物体进行预测性建模正变得越来越重要。与此同时，这些同样的数据对于标本及其数据来源的中美洲国家的生物多样性管理者来说尤其重要。

A grant has been awarded to the Missouri Botanical Garden under the direction of Dr. James Solomon for partial support of a project to georeference an estimated 571,255 databased vascular plant specimen records from Mesoamerica [specifically Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Panama], representing an estimated 52,000 unique collecting sites that are based on the specimens in the herbarium at the Missouri Botanical Garden (MO). These data will be made available on the Internet through the Garden's web site, w3TROPICOS (http://www.tropicos.org), and through the web sites of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), the Red Mundial de Informacion Sobre Biodiversidad (REMIB), Discover Life and Species 2000. In addition to providing access to the individual georeferenced specimen records over the web, this project will produce a web-based, searchable gazetteer, with mapping capabilities, of Mesoamerican botanical collecting sites, a query form for displaying itineraries for individual collectors, and a tool for the identification of major collecting sites, including the determination of collecting densities. The goals of taxonomic work are to recognize, name, and characterize the world's organisms; provide tools to identify them; delineate where they occur; and analyze their relationships. Documenting as precisely as possible where species occur is the immediate useful product of this project. It will be possible to generate detailed, vouchered, distributional maps from the georeferenced specimen data for any species included in the database. Because the data is vouchered, the information may be verified since the exact source for each point on a map can be identified and confirmed. A detailed knowledge of the distribution of plant species is fundamental to biological research, biodiversity conservation, scientific land-use management and the impact that biodiversity issues have on society, both within and outside the US. Databasing and assigning geographical coordinates to these specimen records are essential steps in enhancing the usefulness of these collections. Without geographical coordinates, much of the value of the specimen record remains unusable for GIS applications.Georeferenced specimen data are useful not only for taxonomic research but also for other scientific disciplines and practical endeavors such as conservation, biological resource management, and sustainable species utilization. The information produced by this project can be used to answer a wide variety of urgent questions related to the monitoring of native, threatened, and endangered species and documenting the introduction and spread of alien weeds that have significant real or potential impacts on our nation's agricultural system. Using predictive modeling on these kinds of organisms is becoming increasingly critical as man continues to move germplasm around the world and formulates policies to conserve, manage and regulate the world's biological diversity. At the same time these same data are of particular importance for biodiversity managers in the Mesoamerican countries where the specimens and their data originated.