Collaborative Research: CSBR: Natural History Collections: Georeferencing U.S. Fish Collections: a community-based model to georeferencing natural history collections

一个奖项是使用与以前的NSF支持相关的计算技术来协作进行地理空间参考，也就是。地理配准(即确定纬度和经度坐标)目前在Fishnet2鱼类采集数据库(http://www.fishnet2.net/).)网络中得到极大增强和即将扩展的估计的200万个未经地理配准的鱼类物种出现记录这些记录将使用位于杜兰大学(http://www.museum.tulane.edu/geolocate/).)的地理定位软件平台的社区地理配准系统进行地理配准每个坐标确定将包括一种描述不确定性的新多边形法，它将与目前广泛使用的更传统的基于点半径的不确定性进行比较，以在未来的地理参考项目中提供最佳做法。作为当地高中生和杜兰本科生参与的教育和推广活动，还将在杜兰大学地理参考工作的子集上进行群众外包试验。自然历史收集数据的地理参考是动员生物多样性数据过程中的关键一步，这一过程从收集记录数字化开始，通过数据库和联网继续，最终使研究人员能够远程访问自然历史博物馆的大量标本和数据资源。获得地理参考标本出现数据使研究人员能够解决濒危物种保护、环境恢复和应对全球气候变化等领域的重要科学和社会问题。该项目提供的地理参考地点记录资源除了对鱼类采集界有用外，还将用于几个目的。它可用于其他生物群体的地理参考数据，特别是水生生物，这些生物很可能是在许多相同的接入点(例如，在桥口附近的河流中)或与许多鱼类标本同时采样的。该项目将编撰所有地理参考地点的地名录，供其他藏品数字化项目，包括推进生物藏品数字化(ADBC)方案的项目使用。通过该项目创建的地理参照收集地点资源还将服务于鱼类收集和更广泛的自然历史收集社区，作为清理分类数据的资源，这要归功于它所支持的数据的地图可视化。绘制标本产生地图使分类学专家更容易发现标本标识和分布中的错误，从而产生更准确的分类和地理数据。该项目的教育和宣传活动将专门针对新奥尔良地区学校中代表性不足的少数群体，以努力增加少数群体对自然历史收集研究的参与。

An award is made to use computing technology developed in connection with previous NSF support to collaboratively geospatially reference, a.k.a. georeference, (i.e., determine latitude and longitude coordinates for) the estimated two million ungeoreferenced fish species occurrence records currently in the now greatly enhanced and soon to be expanded Fishnet2 network of fish collection databases (http://www.fishnet2.net/). The records will be georeferenced using the Community Georeferencing System of the GEOLocate software platform based at Tulane University (http://www.museum.tulane.edu/geolocate/). Each coordinate determination will include a new polygon method for describing uncertainty, which will be compared to the more traditional point-radius-based uncertainties currently in wide use to inform best practices in future georeferencing projects. Experiments in crowd sourcing will also be performed on subset of the georeferenced work at Tulane as an education and outreach activity involving local high school students and Tulane undergraduates. Georeferencing natural history collection data is a critical step in a process of mobilizing biodiversity data that starts with digitizing collection records, continues through databasing and networking, and ultimately gives researchers remote access to the vast specimen and data resources of natural history museums. Having access to georeferenced specimen occurrence data allows researchers to address important scientific and societal questions in areas such as endangered species conservation, environmental restoration, and preparing for global climate change. The resource of georeferenced locality records provided by this project will serve several purposes, beyond its usefulness to the fish collection community. It can be used for georeferencing data for other groups of organisms, especially aquatic organisms, which were likely sampled at many of the same access points (e.g., in rivers near bridge crossings) or at the same time as many of the fish specimens. This project will reult in a compiled gazetteer of all georeferenced localities that is available to other collection digitization projects, including projects in the Advancing Digitization of Biological Collections (ADBC) program. The resource of georeferenced collection localities created through this project will also serve the fish collection and broader natural history collection community as a resource for cleaning taxonomic data, thanks to the map visualization of data it supports. Mapping specimen occurrences makes it easier for taxonomic experts to detect errors in specimen identity and distribution, resulting in more accurate taxonomic and geographic data. The education and outreach activities of this project will specifically target underrepresented minorities from New Orleans area schools in an effort to increase minority participation in natural history collection based research.