ARTS: A cyber-enabled global monograph of Viburnum (Adoxaceae, Dipsacales)

Viburnum属包含约170种木本植物，分布在北半球周围以及拉丁美洲和东南亚的温带和亚热带森林中。有70多种Viburnum植物用于园艺，其中许多具有重要的生态价值。在多年研究的基础上，并直接根据标本标本和新的收藏，该项目的目标是解决所有剩余的物种一级的分类问题，并用地理分布图和可在网上和实地部署的图文并茂的交互式识别检索表对整个种群作出全面的描述。所有数据都将通过互联网访问，并整合到全球生物多样性数据库中。该项目将对广泛存在的、在分类学上令人困惑的、在园艺上具有重要意义的植物谱系进行全球治疗。通过这样做，它将产生对科学界具有普遍价值的数据和信息学工具。这项工作将极大地提高Viburnum作为解决进化生物学、生态学和全球变化中基本问题的模型的价值。该项目将在利用进化关系知识制作物种级别的分类学专著方面具有变革性。它将为所有级别的学生提供现代、协作、网络使能的系统生物学的动手培训。

The genus Viburnum contains some 170 woody plant species in temperate and subtropical forests around the Northern Hemisphere and in Latin America and Southeast Asia. Over 70 Viburnum species are used in horticulture, and many are ecologically important. Building on years of prior research, and based directly upon herbarium specimens and new collections, the goal of this project is to resolve all remaining species-level taxonomic problems and to produce a comprehensive description of the entire group, with geographic range maps and richly-illustrated interactive identification keys that can be deployed on the web and in the field. All data will be internet-accessible and integrated into global biodiversity databases. This project will produce a global treatment of a widespread, taxonomically confusing, and horticulturally important plant lineage. In doing so, it will generate data and informatics tools of general value to the scientific community. This work will greatly increase the value of Viburnum as a model for addressing fundamental issues in evolutionary biology, ecology, and global change. The project will be transformative in modeling the use of knowledge of evolutionary relationships in producing a species-level taxonomic monograph. It will provide hands-on training in modern, collaborative, cyber-enabled systematic biology to students at all levels.