| 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: | 1115189 |
| 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: | $264,476.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $264,476.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1608 4TH ST STE 201 BERKELEY CA US 94710-1749 (510)643-3891 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
1608 4TH ST STE 201 BERKELEY CA US 94710-1749 |
| 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 Reference Code(s): |
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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
Lichens and bryophytes share biological traits that make them some of the most sensitive indicators of environmental change. The goal of this project is to provide high quality data to address how species distributions change as a result of major environmental events across time and space. Specifically, this project will digitize the label information (the what, when, where and by whom collected) and images for approximately 2.3 million biological specimens curated in North American lichen and bryophyte herbaria. These collections represent well over 90% of all specimens collected in Canada, the United States and Mexico and held by over 60 US non-governmental institutions. New, on-line digitization techniques will be made publically available at at http://symbiota.org/nalichens/ and http://symbiota.org/bryophytes/, and will allow interested members of the public to be involved and learn about biodiversity alongside the professionals.
Availability of nearly the entire North American bryophyte and lichen collections on-line will greatly accelerate knowledge and evaluation of the biodiversity of these organisms by fostering collaborations between professionals and the general public. Additionally, models developed from these digitized data will aid future mapping projections of large scale species distributions and identification of biodiversity hotspots as prime candidates for protection. These endeavors will help to elucidate regions where changes are imminent and likely to have substantial impact, as well as to facilitate proactive initiatives to alleviate such changes. 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.
Lichens and bryophytes are phylogenetically unrelated organisms that nonetheless share many important ecological traits due to their simple water relationships. Water goes directly in and out of their cells, since they have no roots, internal conduction mechanisms, or water-proof covering such as present in the larger and more familiar vascular plants (e.g., ferns, conifers, and flowering plants). Lichens and bryophytes share an unusual physiology that allows tolerance of desiccation. In addition, nutrient uptake happens directly through their cell walls. Because of these characteristics, lichens and bryophytes live in an unusually intimate association with their environment, and are among the most sensitive indicators of environmental change, including pollution levels. They are dominant organisms in arctic, alpine, and desert habitats, which are the vanguard of climate change.
The goal of the overall collaboration (http://lbcc1.acis.ufl.edu) was to mobilize the data from millions of herbarium specimens housed in US herbaria, and involved over 60 collections digitizing their North American specimens. Images of labels were processed to populate a database and have been made centrally available online through the two consortia web sites: http://lichenportal.org/portal/index.php and http://bryophyteportal.org/portal/index.php.
The University of California, Berkeley (UCB) portion of the collaboration completed digitizing of over 200,000 specimens (151,367 bryophytes and 55,730 lichens). This contributed high quality data that, in conjunction with data from the full collaboration, can address how species distributions change with regards to major environmental events across time and space, both historically and into the future via informed scenario building and modeling. It will also allow the identification of biodiversity hotspots and needs for conservation. Availability of the entire bryophyte and lichen collections online will greatly accelerate taxonomic revisions and will thus contribute substantially to cataloging organismic diversity of our planet.
Uses of these data for outreach at UCB include public workshops on bryophytes and lichens as part of our Jepson Weekend Workshop series and field trips done in conjunction with the new Bryophyte Chapter of the California Native Plant Society (of which PI Mishler was one of the founders). In addition, the specimen data have been included in the California Moss eFlora, a continuing effort to describe moss diversity in the state (http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/CA_moss_eflora/).
Last Modified: 10/24/2016
Modified by: Brent Mishler
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