| NSF Org: |
DBI Division of Biological Infrastructure |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | May 20, 2015 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | May 20, 2015 |
| Award Number: | 1502763 |
| 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, 2015 |
| End Date: | June 30, 2018 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $201,681.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $201,681.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1523 UNION RD RM 207 GAINESVILLE FL US 32611-1941 (352)392-3516 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
219 Grinter Hall Gainesville FL US 32611-5500 |
| 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): | |
| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.074 |
ABSTRACT
Microscopic fungi (microfungi) represent a diverse assemblage that is distributed worldwide and includes bread molds, plant pathogens, powdery mildews, rusts, slime molds, and water molds. A large percentage of these organisms are harmless or even beneficial, but some cause disease and death in animals, plants, and other fungi resulting in major economic loss and serious negative implications for human and ecosystem health. Despite their importance, little is known about their distribution, diversity, ecology, or host associations. This project is a collaborative effort involving 38 institutions in 31 states and aims to consolidate data from specimens housed in biodiversity collections for 2.3 million microfungi specimens and make these data available through online resources. The consolidation and increased accessibility of these data is critical to inform and promote new and innovative research, education and community engagement around this little-known but important group of organisms.
Specimen data generated by this project will be used to assess natural and human-induced environmental changes on microfungi distributions, and evaluate the impact of these changes on the function and health of ecosystems. This project fills a critical gap in the national digitization effort by contributing images, digitizing specimen label data, and linking associated ancillary data for over 1.2 million North American specimens of microfungi. Additionally, nomenclature and taxonomic information will be updated to reflect the newest practices as dictated by the International Codes for Nomenclature. These data will provide a foundation for making informed decisions by agribusinesses, educators, forest managers, government agencies, horticulturalists, policy makers, researchers, and the general public. The broader education goals of this project will be facilitated through the development and implementation of a teaching module for high school biology on the economic importance of microfungi. 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 (iDigBio.org).
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.
The Microfungi Collection Consortium (MaCC) is a digitization project funded by NSF’s Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collection. The goal of this project was to make available to the public information about scientific specimens of microfungi deposited in U.S. natural history collections. Microfungi include molds, mildews, yeasts, rusts and other microscopic plant pathogens. Microfungi grow in plants, soil, water, insects, and animals. Some microfungi cause harmful diseases of crops, forest trees, livestock and humans. Others are economically important sources of antibiotics or are used to turn milk into cheese.
The Fungal Herbarium at the University of Florida is a collection of the Florida Museum of Natural History and it is one of many institutions that participated in the project. Our goal was to capture data from approximately 40,000 preserved fungal specimens. Labels accompanying the specimens include the identity of the fungus, the host organism or locality where it was found, who collected it, and the date of collection. We digitally photographed the labels of all microfungi in our collection and uploaded them to the Mycoportal database. Project staff (including undergraduate students from the University of Florida and citizen science volunteers) transcribed the data from the digital images into the database. The data from the fungal collection are now available in a searchable format on the Mycoportal database along with the label images. By the end of the project we digitized more than 37,000 records. The information we made available through this project will continue to serve the scientific community and society at large for generations to come.
Last Modified: 08/20/2018
Modified by: Matthew E Smith
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