| NSF Org: |
DBI Division of Biological Infrastructure |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | June 30, 2011 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | June 30, 2011 |
| Award Number: | 1114856 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Reed Beaman
rsbeaman@nsf.gov (703)292-7163 DBI Division of Biological Infrastructure BIO Directorate for Biological Sciences |
| Start Date: | July 1, 2011 |
| End Date: | June 30, 2016 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $218,493.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $218,493.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
426 AUDITORIUM RD RM 2 EAST LANSING MI US 48824-2600 (517)355-5040 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
426 AUDITORIUM RD RM 2 EAST LANSING MI US 48824-2600 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Digitization |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.074 |
ABSTRACT
This project will create InvertNet, an on-line virtual museum comprising >50 million insect and related arthropod specimens housed at 22 Midwestern institutions, focusing on the research theme of effects of land use changes on the biota of the Great Lakes and upper Mississippi River drainage basins. These collections document 160 years of environmental change and are an invaluable and irreplaceable resource but, at present, are largely inaccessible to scientists and the general public. Most previous efforts to capture and disseminate invertebrate collection data have focused on label data alone. InvertNet will use advanced digitization and networking technologies to capture and display 2D and 3D images of specimens and labels, and incorporate them into a searchable database. These new techniques should reduce the cost of digitizing insect specimens substantially.
By allowing users to find and view detailed images of specimens of particular species and their associated data labels, InvertNet will provide universal access to collections previously restricted to researchers. It will include links to the popular BugGuide.net insect identification website and to other biodiversity data portals used by researchers, educators, and the general public. This will facilitate and support many aspects of biological research and education, including species discovery and identification, pest management, ecology and biogeography. InvertNet will serve as a model, applicable to other kinds of biological collections, for the use of efficient, computer-assisted procedures to increase the speed and accuracy of collection data capture. This award is made as part of the National Resource for Digitization of Biological Collections through the Advancing Digitization of Biological Collections program and all data resulting from this award will be available through the national resource.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Intellectual merit. Members of the A.J. Cook Arthropod Research Collection (Department of Entomology, Michigan State University) made significant contributions to the collaborative effort among 22 US institutions to produce digital images of millions of insect specimens using innovative imagining technology. These images and the label information (for example, locality, habitat) associated with each specimen provide the means for assessing changes in environmental conditions over time and space. This digital information is aggregated in the web database InvertNet 1.0 and accessible to the greater scientific community and the general public. Also this information is shared with other web-based data distribution centers such as Integrated Digitized Biocollections and Symbiota Collections of Arthropods Network (SCAN) increasing its accessibility to a wider audience. Specifically, the research team at the A.J. Cook Arthropod Research collection (1) produced images for over 96% of our slide and vial collection which includes over 5,000 slides, and 33,000 vials, (2) entered 4,959 composite images of slides and vials into the InvertNet 1.0 database, (3) imaged 880 drawers of beetle specimens (about 500,000 specimens) with an innovative robot camera, (4) parsed and entered 1,820 individual slide and vial images into the A.J. Cook Arthropod Collection SCAN database, and (5) georeferenced and databased the locality information for the 1,820 slides and vials. In total, they imaged over 550,000 specimens and deposited these data in multiple public databases.
Broader impacts. The involvement of the A.J. Cook Arthropod Collection in this multi-institutional collaborative effort, helped to innovate the capture of collection based information through the use of cutting-edge technology which increased the rate of specimen imaging. The accomplished curatorial and databasing advances have direct effects on the scientific community and the public: (1) The new digitally-assisted curatorial workflows have the potential to revolutionize management of arthropod collections throughout the nation. (2) The increased amount and accessibility of the specimen information will allow for detailed studies of environmental changes and understanding of the potential impacts of human activities. (3) The web accessible specimen images will increase public awareness of collections and help promote an understanding of biodiversity. Greater awareness of collections and biodiversity was promoted at the A.J. Cook Arthropod Collection, through extensive training of graduate and undergraduate students (10) in cutting-edge, digitally-assisted curatorial workflows, biodiversity informatics, and basic morphological taxonomy.
Last Modified: 07/30/2016
Modified by: Anthony Cognato
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