Digitization PEN: Connecting Rust Belt dynamics to the Mid-Atlantic Megalopolis Project utilizing the Carnegie Museum herbarium

城市化是生态系统转型的一种极端形式，它带来的变化重新定义了我们对自然的概念。然而，对我们日益城市化的世界的科学理解受到记录这些生态变化的历史数据的限制。该项目与卡内基自然历史博物馆（CM）和中大西洋大都市（MAM）项目合作，该项目是一个专题收藏网络（TCN），涉及从纽约市到华盛顿特区的城市走廊的11个机构，旨在将中大西洋各州的植物标本馆标本数字化。宾夕法尼亚州西部被广泛认为是一个城市化地区，从一个工业重镇（也是19世纪和20世纪污染最严重的大都市区之一）转变为一个新兴的可持续发展和技术创新中心。这一伙伴关系将填补“铁锈地带”的数据空白，包括宾夕法尼亚州的城市地区，这些地区在过去两个世纪里经历了显著的环境和生态变化。CM标本将增加近19万份植物标本，使MAM项目的标本总数增加25%以上。除了使这些有价值的标本更容易通过公共数据库访问外，有针对性的活动还将直接将数字化数据与科学家和公众联系起来，为入侵物种管理、城市自然教育和博物馆展览等正在进行的项目做出贡献。总的来说，这些活动将提高科学和公众对城市环境的理解，突出在当前全球变化时代这种日益普遍的生物群落的可持续性和未来。该项目将一个未被代表但重要的大西洋中部城市地区与MAM项目联系起来。每个CM标本的数字化将产生一个高分辨率的图像和地理参考点，使生物地理，植物区系和表型通过空间和时间分析。数据捕获、高效工作流开发和数据传播将遵循最佳实践，利用MAM项目和iDigBio的现有项目基础设施。非本地物种的数据将提供给PA iMapInvasives项目，以跟踪该地区有害入侵植物的引进和传播。此外，该项目将把标本图像整合到博物馆展品中，建设一个新的展览，突出基于标本的研究，数字化的重要性，以及城市植物的生态和经济价值。与博物馆教育工作者合作，标本图像将用于开发免费的在线科学活动工具包，供当地学校教师在城市环境中探索自然。每周都会有博客介绍当地有趣的标本，重点关注匹兹堡的城市植物。与MAM合作伙伴合作，将为匹兹堡地区的当地植物俱乐部和公民科学家举办研讨会，以协助数字化，特别是加入已建立的项目，重点关注美国东部开花时间的变化和大西洋中部虚拟植物群的发展。总的来说，该项目将提供可供研究的数据，以便更好地了解人类在多种生物、地理和时间尺度上介导的变化，以及对城市地区未来生态的预测。该奖项产生的所有数据将通过国家资源（iDigBio.org）提供。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，认为值得支持。

Urbanization represents an extreme form of ecosystem transformation, leading to changes that redefine our conception of nature. However, scientific understanding of our increasingly urban world is limited by the availability of historical data documenting these ecological changes. This project partners the Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CM) with the Mid-Atlantic Megalopolis (MAM) Project, a Thematic Collections Network (TCN) involving 11 institutions in the urban corridor from New York City to Washington, D.C., to digitize herbarium specimens from the Mid-Atlantic states. Western Pennsylvania is widely recognized as an urbanized area that was transformed from an industrial powerhouse (and one of the most polluted metropolitan areas in the 19th and 20th centuries) to an emerging center for sustainability and technological innovation. This partnership will fill a "Rust Belt" data gap by including urban areas in Pennsylvania that have undergone remarkable environmental and ecological change over the past two centuries. CM specimens will enhance the MAM Project by adding nearly 190,000 herbarium specimens, increasing the total number of MAM specimens by more than 25%. In addition to making these valuable specimens more accessible through public databases, targeted activities will directly connect digitized data to scientists and the public, contributing to ongoing programs in invasive species management, education of nature in the city, and museum exhibition. Taken together, these activities will improve scientific and public understanding of urban environments, highlighting sustainability and the future of this increasingly common biome in the current era of global change.This project connects an unrepresented, but important, Mid-Atlantic urban region to the MAM Project. Digitization of each CM specimen will result in a high-resolution image and georeferenced point, enabling biogeographic, floristic, and phenotypic analyses through space and time. Data capture, efficient workflow development, and data dissemination will follow best practices, utilizing the existing project infrastructure of the MAM project and iDigBio. Data on non-native species will be made available to PA iMapInvasives program to track the introduction and spread of harmful invasive plants in the region. Further, this project will integrate specimen images into museum exhibits, with the construction of a new exhibit highlighting specimen-based research, the importance of digitization, and the ecological and economic value of plants in cities. In collaboration with museum educators, specimen images will be used in the development of an online toolkit of free science activities for local school teachers that explore nature in urban settings. Weekly blogs will feature specimens of local interest, focusing on the urban plants of Pittsburgh. Collaborating with MAM partners, workshops will be held for local botanical clubs and citizen scientists in the Pittsburgh region to the assist in digitization, specifically joining the efforts of established projects focused on shifts in flowering times across the Eastern US and the development of a virtual flora of the Mid-Atlantic. Collectively, the project will provide research-ready data to enable a better understanding of human-mediated changes at multiple biological, geographic, and temporal scales, as well as predictions for the future ecology of urban areas. All data resulting from this award will be available through the national resource (iDigBio.org).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.