Improving Collection Conservation and Enriching Availability in Three Caribbean Herbaria

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(公法111-5)资助的。加勒比海群岛有非常丰富的植物，被国际公认为生物多样性热点。该地区的植物标本收藏用于记录植物区系，为广泛的研究提供了大量的资源。该区域所有活跃的草本植物都出现在大安的列斯群岛，波多黎各是其中四个草本植物的家园，其中大约有125,000个草本植物，它们之间几乎没有重叠。波多黎各大学植物园收藏了最重要的历史收藏品，通过更换旧橱柜和安装轨道系统来改善它们的保护，以最大限度地增加地板空间，并允许未来的增长。植物园和英联邦自然资源和环境部将实施植物学数据库Brahms，该岛上的其他草本植物正在使用该数据库。最大的收藏品在波多黎各-里奥皮德拉斯大学，它们将扩大现有的数据库和标本扫描业务。所有四个收藏品都将通过UPRRP门户网站(www.herbarium.uprr.pr)链接到每个机构以及布拉姆斯和全球生物多样性信息基金的网站进行访问。这些草药将成为加勒比地区第一批保存完好、完全数字化并可供国际社会使用的主要原址收藏品。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Islands of the Caribbean have a remarkably rich flora internationally recognized as a biodiversity hotspot. Herbarium collections of the region serve to document the flora providing a vast resource for a broad spectrum of studies. All active herbaria in the region occur in the Greater Antilles, and Puerto Rico is home to four of them housing approximately 125,000 accessions with very little overlap among them. The University of Puerto Rico Botanical Garden houses the most significant historical collections, and their conservation will be improved by replacing old cabinets and installing a track system to maximize floor space and allow for future growth. The Botanical Garden and the Commonwealth Department of Natural Resources and Environment will implement the botanical database, BRAHMS, which is in use by the other herbaria on the island. The largest collection is at the University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras and they will augment existing database and specimen scanning operations. All four collections will be accessible through the UPRRP portal (www.herbarium.uprr.pr) linking to each institution and BRAHMS and Global Biodiversity Information Facility sites. These herbaria will become the first major in situ collections of the Caribbean to be well conserved, fully digital and accessible to the global community.