NSF Org:	DBI Div Of Biological Infrastructure
Recipient:	ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY
Initial Amendment Date:	April 28, 2003
Latest Amendment Date:	June 4, 2007
Award Number:	0237418
Award Instrument:	Standard Grant
Program Manager:	William Carl Taylor DBI  Div Of Biological Infrastructure BIO  Direct For Biological Sciences
Start Date:	June 1, 2003
End Date:	May 31, 2008 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount:	$0.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date:	$470,291.00
Funds Obligated to Date:	FY 2003 = $470,291.00
History of Investigator:	Leslie Landrum (Principal Investigator) les.landrum@ASU.EDU Steven McLaughlin (Co-Principal Investigator) Tina Ayers (Co-Principal Investigator) Corinna Gries (Co-Principal Investigator) Peter McCartney (Former Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office:	Arizona State University 660 S MILL AVE STE 312 TEMPE AZ  US  85281-3670 (480)965-5479
Sponsor Congressional District:	09
Primary Place of Performance:	Arizona State University 660 S MILL AVE STE 312 TEMPE AZ  US  85281-3670
Primary Place of Performance Congressional District:	09
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI):	NTLHJXM55KZ6
Parent UEI:	HX59VKHQH1V7
NSF Program(s):	BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH COLLECTION
Primary Program Source:
Program Reference Code(s):	9169, EGCH
Program Element Code(s):	1197
Award Agency Code:	4900
Fund Agency Code:	4900
Assistance Listing Number(s):	47.074

ABSTRACT

Abstract

A grant has been awarded to Arizona State University (ASU) under the direction of Dr. Leslie Landrum and colleagues Dr. Peter McCartney (ASU), Dr. Steven McLaughlin of the University of Arizona (ARIZ), and Dr. Tina Ayers of Northern Arizona University (ASC) for the "Completion and Coordination of the Databases of Vascular Plants at ASU, ARIZ, and ASC." Each University has its own herbarium and together, these herbaria contain about 673,000 vascular plant specimens, of which about 297,000 collectively represent the most extensive collection of Arizona plants. Although of great scientific importance, these collections have not been easily accessible to the public or even the scientific community, as they are housed in three separate cities and cannot be consulted more than one per day. Students, teachers or scientists living in remote areas of the state may not be able to visit them at all. Recently, this problem has been partially solved by providing specimen data (e.g., scientific name, county and locality of collection, date of collection, elevation, collector and field number, and notes on associated species and habitat) for the 88,000 specimens (except for rare and endangered species) in three databases at a single Web site [http://ces.asu.edu/explora/main.html]. Many names are linked to photographs of living plants and/or herbarium specimens, so that one may "visit" the herbaria and even identify plants through the Web. This grant provides funds to complete the three databases and geo-reference all specimens that lack that information. Once all the specimens are geo-referenced, one will be able to efficiently make dot maps of distribution based on the information in all three databases and prepare checklists of plants for a particular area. The grant also provides for the imaging of at least one good herbarium specimen of each species that grows in Arizona; these will be viewable on the Web and may be used in association with checklists.
Data from about 191,000 specimens will be entered into the database and about 233,750 specimens will be geo-referenced, both tasks being done by student hourly workers, assisted and supervised by herbarium staff (MS and PhD level botanists). A graduate-student worker will refine and trouble-shoot Web tools for map and checklist production. About 3000 specimens will be scanned and added to the ASU image library by student and staff workers. The Center for Environmental Studies at ASU will maintain the Web sites where information from all three herbaria can be accessed.
Herbaria are important repositories of information, but in the past have been used only by a relatively small group of scientists and advanced students. Now, using modern technology, Arizona herbaria will become easily accessible to the general public. Students will be able to construct checklists of plants growing within a few miles of their homes and view images of these on the Web. Scientists will be able to construct dot-distribution maps of any species growing in Arizona based on information in the "living" (constantly up-dated) databases at ASU, ARIZ, and ASC. These maps can then be compared with maps of climate, elevation, and soil type to find correlations or even to predict where species may grow but have not been found so far. Because the botany of many parts of Arizona has not been thoroughly explored, these predictions will help to direct future research on the fourth-largest state flora in the U.S.

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