Mobilizing New England Vascular Plant Specimen Data

Digitization TCN: Mobilizing New England Vascular Plant Specimen Data to Track Environmental Change (NEVP)

New England Vascular Plants TCN
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Project Summary

Herbarium specimens provide a source of historical information useful to the study of global environmental change. The goal of this project is to provide data to support studies of the nature and consequences of environmental change in the New England region over the last three centuries. This project will digitally capture specimen data and images from about 1.3 million vascular plant specimens from herbaria across New England, enhancing the data with georeferencing, habitat, and phonological information. The digitization process will integrate with existing community efforts and will develop novel high-throughput digitization technologies to increase efficiency and decrease costs. All resulting data and images will be freely available on-line.

The data from this project will be of immediate use to scientists who study climate and land-use change, and will provide a better understanding of how global changes will impact the distribution of native and introduced plant species. This project will benefit research in taxonomy, ecology, morphology, biogeography, and evolutionary history by making available data on an entire regional flora in an electronic format. The methodologies developed will provide a model for other regions around the nation. In addition the project will utilize citizen scientists, school groups, and students providing training, research, and educational opportunities. . This award is made as part of the National Resource for Digitization of Biological Collections through the Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections program and all data resulting from this award will be available through the national resource (iDigBio.org).

Current Research

Understanding the effects of rising temperature on the phenology (flowering and leafing-out stage) for New England taxa.

Impact on landscape of human activity through deforestation, agriculture, and the development of human infrastructure on New England habitat.

Intersection of climate change and land use and effects on biotic systems in New England, such as sensitivity of habitats, changes in species abundance and phenology.

Documentation and conservation of biological diversity, including assessing the distribution of rare and endangered species, changes in species abundance over time, arrival and expansion of non-native and invasive species.

Project Websites & Social Media

NEVP Website http://nevp.org
Consortium of Northeastern Herbaria http://portal.neherbaria.org/portal

Project Leadership

Project Sponsor: Yale University (NSF Award 1209149)

Principal Investigators (PIs): Patrick Sweeney (PI), Michael Donoghue (Co-PI)

Project Collaborators

Map of Collaborating Institutions

Bartlett Arboretum
Berkshire Museum
Boston University (NSF Award 1208989)
Brown University (NSF Award 1208972)
Central Connecticut State University
Chicago Botanic Garden, Project Budburst (no data)
Connecticut College
Harvard University (NSF Award 1208835)
Harvard University, Farlow Herbarium
Harvard University, Harvard Forest
Keene State College
North Carolina State University (no data)
University of Arizona National Phenology Network (no data)
University of Massachusetts - Amherst (NSF Award 1208975)
University of New Hampshire (NSF Award 1208829)
University of Oklahoma (no data)
University of Vermont (NSF Award 1208973)
Western Connecticut State University
Westfield State University
Yale University, Peabody Museum

PENs:
New York Botanical Garden (NSF Award 1502452) Project wiki page
University of Maine (NSF Award 1503583) Project wiki page

Protocols & Workflows

Digitization resources

Professional Presentations

iDigBio Summit V, 2015