Digitization TCN: Collaborative Research: Mobilizing Millions of Marine Mollusks of the Eastern Seaboard

美国东部海岸(ESB，美国专属经济区)从大西洋上的加拿大边境沿东海岸近6,000公里延伸，环绕佛罗里达半岛，沿墨西哥湾一直延伸到德克萨斯海岸的南端，包括美国18个州。ESB地区人口稠密，预计到2021年，47%的美国人口将居住在海岸线附近的县。栖息地丧失、污染、过度捕捞和气候变化威胁着整个ESB沿线具有重要商业和生态意义的海洋物种。该项目将提供3000多种软体动物的发生数据和地图坐标，这些软体动物在ESB沿线找到它们的栖息地，包括贻贝、蛤、贝壳、蜗牛和鱿鱼。这些具有生态和商业重要性的物种(超过450万个个体标本)的数据将通过公共在线数据门户网站提供。虽然许多种类的软体动物的地理范围是众所周知的，但它们在它们所占据的海底栖息地内的分布范围却是未知的。将地图坐标添加到自然历史收藏中活体收集的软体动物的出现记录将提供有关分布的详细知识。由于自然历史收藏有从19世纪中期到现在收集的标本，这些发生记录可以帮助跟踪随时间的分布变化，并导致更好的渔业和养护管理。北美各地的自然历史收藏中已记录了1亿个软体动物标本，与其他无脊椎动物分类群相比，这些收藏的广度、深度和生长格外知名。软体动物是采样最好的动物之一，有些物种在自然历史收藏中有2000多条数字记录，这使得它们非常适合于跟踪动物群随时间和空间变化的环境和生物地理研究。然而，已经数字化的软体动物地块缺少基本数据，如收集日期(30%的记录)和可靠的地理参考(85%的记录)。该项目将使用Geolocate中的一个协作地理参考项目，为所有覆盖的样本地段生成可靠的地理坐标数据。Geolocate将增加水深数据、海底栖息地和海洋保护区的层。将水深测量纳入地理定位以确定位置的范围也将为陆地物种的复杂海拔数据提供这一能力。重要的性状数据也将被纳入其中。第一次，软体动物出现的数据将区分活的和死的收集的标本，并为每个记录添加一个定义的特征词汇。由于软体动物贝壳的长期存在，活体/死亡收集的区别对于所有利用软体动物进行生物变化的研究都是至关重要的。在可能的情况下，将改进收集日期的信息，以提高检测生物变化的分辨率。这些数据将通过公共数据存储库共享，包括iDigBio、GBIF、OBIS和InvertEBase Symbiota门户网站。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Eastern Seaboard of the United States (ESB, U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone) stretches from the Canadian border on the Atlantic along nearly 6,000 km of eastern coastline, around the Floridian Peninsula, and along the Gulf of Mexico to the south end of the Texan coast, including 18 U.S. states. The ESB region is densely populated, with 47% of the U.S. population expected to inhabit the counties adjacent to the shoreline by 2021. Habitat loss, pollution, overfishing, and climate change threaten commercially and ecologically important marine species all along the ESB. This project will make occurrence data with map coordinates available for over 3,000 species of mollusks that find their habitat along the ESB, including mussels, clams, conchs, snails, and squid. Data from these ecologically and commercially important species (over 4.5 million individual specimens) will be made available through public online data portals. While the geographic ranges for many species of mollusks are well-known, the extent of their distribution within the seafloor habitats they occupy is unknown. Adding map coordinates to occurrence records for live-collected mollusks in natural history collections will provide detailed knowledge of distributions. Because natural history collections have specimens collected from the mid-1800s to present, these occurrence records can help track distributional changes over time and lead to better fisheries and conservation management. One hundred million mollusk specimens have been documented in natural history collections across North America, and the breadth, depth, and growth of these collections is exceptionally well-known compared to other invertebrate taxa. Mollusks are among the best sampled group of animals, with some species having over 2,000 digital records available in natural history collections making them extremely well-suited for environmental and biogeographical studies that track faunal change over time and space. However, already-digitized mollusk lots are missing essential data such as collecting date (30% of records) and reliable georeferences (85% of records). This project will generate reliable geo-coordinate data for all covered specimen lots using a collaborative georeferencing project in GeoLocate. GeoLocate will add layers for bathymetric data, benthic habitat, and marine conservation areas. Incorporating bathymetry into GeoLocate to determine the extent of locations will also provide that capability for complex elevational data for terrestrial species. Important trait data will also be incorporated. For the first time, molluscan occurrence data will distinguish between live- and dead-collected specimens, with a defined vocabulary for traits added to each record. Due to the long persistence of molluscan shells, the live/dead- collected distinction is crucial for all studies of biotic change using mollusks. Information on collecting dates will be refined where possible to increase resolution for detecting biotic changes. The data will be shared through public data repositories, including iDigBio, GBIF, OBIS, and the InvertEBase Symbiota portal.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.