Using Herbarium Data to Document Plant Niches in the High Peaks and High Plains of the Southern Rockies - Past, Present, and Future

Digitization TCN: Using Herbarium Data to Document Plant Niches in the High Peaks and High Plains of the Southern Rockies - Past, Present, and Future (SoRo)

SoRo TCN
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Project Summary

The rugged and expansive terrain of the Southern Rocky Mountains (SoRo) yields the most crucial resource for human existence in western North America: Water. From upper reaches of the high peaks of Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, and surrounding states, the headwaters of numerous major rivers of the West originate and give rise to the highest outflow and freshwater runoff west of the Mississippi River: The Platte, Arkansas, Rio Grande, Colorado, and Green Rivers and portions of the Snake and Missouri Rivers. The cleanliness and reliability of these water resources are in large part attributable to the plant life that forms the basis for all SoRo ecosystems. Plant species from the high peaks and adjacent high plains of the SoRo derive from different geographic origins, evolutionary histories, and ecological affinities. They grow in varied habitats and represent one of the most narrowly adapted floras in the world. This unique and fragile flora is widely documented in natural history collections (i.e., herbaria), but specimens themselves and the scientific data that accompany them remain poorly 'visible' owing to a lack of data in digitized format. The SoRo Herbarium Consortium brings together 38 collaborating institutions (universities, botanical gardens, national parks, Native American Nations) to digitize more than 1.7 million botanical specimens from the study area. The overarching goal of this project is to make these data available to a broad community of users (scientists, educators, government officials, land managers, the general public) via openly accessible, free data portals.

The Southern Rocky Mountains (SoRo) support a diverse and highly adapted flora of species with varied ecologies, ranging from alpine to sagebrush plains to shortgrass prairies. The plant biota of the SoRo shares important evolutionary and geological histories with the adjacent plains and prairies, and together these ecosystems are among the most endangered landscapes in North America. Human demands on these systems are escalating, and risk factors such as fire, development, and environmental change are predicted to grow. Thus, building digital resources to document plant niches in the SoRo is met with a sense of urgency. The proposed work will address a major gap in accessible information among North American natural history collections by digitizing more than 1.7 million botanical collections from the SoRo. Specifically, 38 collaborative institutions (universities, botanical gardens, national parks, Native American Nations) will collaborate to generate these new resources and make them available via data portals, including iDigBio (www.idigbio.org). Additionally, new tools will be developed within the open source Symbiota platform that will allow users to quickly search and compile vetted, herbarium data records that can then be used for analysis in external software applications such as niche modeling packages, or to update source data repositories for subsequent in-house curation.

Current Research

Proposed research uses of data generated through the SoRo project include:

Documenting species occurrence using museum specimens. Using museum data to locate potentially under collected areas of the Southern Rockies. Species distribution modeling in the Southern Rocky Mountains.

Project Websites & Social Media

Researchers to create digital archive of Rocky Mountain plants CU Boulder Today Article [1]

UNM is opening virtual doors to its plant collections UNM Newsroom [2]

Project Leadership

Project sponsor: University of Colorado, Boulder (NSF Award #1702516)

Principal Investigator (PI): Erin Tripp
Erin Tripp (Curator) University of Colorado, Boulder
Dina Clark (Collections Manager), University of Colorado, Boulder
Ryan Allen (Project Manager), University of Colorado, Boulder

Project Collaborators

Map of Collaborating Institutions

Kristy Duran (Curator), Adam State University
Nico Franz (Assoc. Prof.), Arizona State Univ.
Ed Gilbert (Symbiota Software Developer), Arizona State Univ.
Mark Gabel (Curator), Black Hills State University
Timothy Whitfield (Collections Manager), Brown University
Steven Rolfsmeier (Curator), Chadron State College
Shane Heschel (Assoc. Prof. & Acting Curator), Colorado College
Stephen Stern (Curator), Colorado Mesa University
Jennifer Ackerfield (Curator), Colorado State University
Melissa Islam (Curator), Denver Botanic Garden
Ross McCauley (Curator), Fort Lewis College
Michaela Schmull, PI (Director of Collections), Harvard University (NSF Award #1702322)
Nora Talkington (Navajo Botanist), Navaho Herbarium
Melissa Tulig, PI (Information Manager), New York Botanical Gardens (NSF Award #1701575)
Tina Ayers (Curator), Northern Arizona University
C. F. Rick Williams (Acting Curator), Rocky Mountain Biological Station
Steve Perkins (Curator), San Juan College
Tim Lowrey, PI (Curator), University of New Mexico (NSF Award #1701464)
Phil Tonne (Collections Manager), University of New Mexico
Mitchell McGlaughlin (Curator), University Northern Colorado
Greg Brown, PI (Professor), University of Wyoming (NSF Award #1702345)
Ernie Nelson (Curator), University of Wyoming
Larry Schmidt (Librarian), University of Wyoming
Robin Bingham (Curator), Western State Colorado University
TBD United States National Museum
Patrick Sweeney (Curator), Yale University, Peabody Museum of Natural History