| NSF Org: |
DBI Division of Biological Infrastructure |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | July 31, 2019 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | July 31, 2019 |
| Award Number: | 1901926 |
| 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: | September 1, 2019 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2022 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $29,023.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $29,023.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
3227 CHEADLE HALL SANTA BARBARA CA US 93106-0001 (805)893-4188 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
Santa Barbara CA US 93106-2050 |
| 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
Arthropod parasites (specifically, insects and their relatives) are responsible for economically critical issues in human health, wildlife conservation, and livestock productivity. Because natural history collections are permanent repositories for past and present parasite specimens, these collections and their data can help address these significant societal challenges in human and animal health and safety. Natural history collections often contain specimens and ancillary materials that are completely unknown to the broader community, yet represent irreplaceable knowledge about organismal habitats, distributions, and parasite-host associations. Further, these collections yield information that can be used to model ecological processes and changes in species distributions, predict the future spread of human and animal disease, update taxonomy, and help identify under-represented parasite groups in urgent need of sampling and threatened parasite diversity in need of conservation. This project will provide digital records (i.e., specimen label data and images) of invaluable arthropod parasite collections to make research-ready baseline data accessible online, catalyzing new research and education initiatives. These newly digitized data will have immediate and long-lasting benefits for our understanding of organismal associations, biodiversity, and beyond.
The Terrestrial Parasite Tracker Thematic Collection Network (TPT-TCN) will digitize over one million arthropod specimens representing species that are significant parasites and disease vectors of vertebrates in the United States. This digitization effort will integrate millions of vertebrate host records with vector and disease monitoring data shared by state and federal agency collaborators, creating a novel foundation for integrative, long-term research. This project is a collaboration of taxonomists and curators from vertebrate and invertebrate collections, as well as epidemiologists, ecologists, data-scientists, and biodiversity informatics specialists. This reach is further extended by the 26 collaborating research collections and other initiatives. This project will empower ongoing citizen science and public awareness campaigns with the tools to understand distribution changes of arthropod vectors and associated diseases due to environmental change and global movement. Public education initiatives include partnering with natural history museums to educate the public about parasites via science-focused lectures, exhibits, summer youth programs, informal presentations, and developing new online educational resources for teachers in underserved communities. All specimen images generated by this project will be used for the development of a rapid identification tool for parasites which will be made accessible through the internet and smartphone apps and shared with iDigBio (idigbio.org). The TPT-TCN will also develop and implement undergraduate teaching modules focused on data held in natural history collections. These modules will be disseminated to academic institutions across the United States and made available online.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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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 Terrestrial Parasite Tracker project (Seltmann et al., 2020) was launched in 2019 with the aim of collecting and making available to the public data on arthropod parasites found in the United States. These parasites, such as ticks, mosquitos, and fleas, can transmit diseases to both humans and wildlife, making them a significant concern for public health and safety. Through this project, a dataset of over 700,000 biotic interactions was created, providing information on the evolution, distribution, and ecological interactions of disease vectors. This dataset is valuable for a range of individuals and organizations, including scientists, educators, land managers, and policymakers. It can be used to better understand the spread and potential impacts of these parasites, as well as to inform decisions related to disease prevention and management. The funding provided for this project allowed for the creation of this dataset, which can be used by researchers and others to further our understanding of arthropod parasites and the role they play in public health
To facilitate this work, the project utilized Global Biotic Interactions (GloBI), an online platform for indexing biological interaction data. GloBI developed methods for integrating data from multiple sources and made the data available through versioned datasets to encourage reuse. The versioning also allowed for closer tracking of project progress.
The network of interactions between deer ticks (Xiodes scapularis) indexed by Global Biotic Interactions (Poelen et al., 2014) and published in the Terrestrial Parasite Tracker dataset (Poelen et al., 2022) is one example of the importance of understanding the interaction networks of arthropod parasite hosts. Deer ticks transmit Lyme disease, which is a significant health concern in the US. By studying the relationships between deer ticks and their hosts, we can gain insight into the spread and potential impacts of diseases transmitted by these ticks and inform strategies for prevention and management.
In addition to collecting and organizing data, the project also conducted online and in-person workshops for natural history collection and data managers to promote open data and the accessibility of biotic interaction data. These workshops also facilitated communication between data providers and the project. The project also incorporated K-12 curricula about parasites into the coastal California Kids in Nature program, a place-based learning program serving over 700 students from underserved communities each year.
Overall, this project demonstrated a successful approach for integrating local biodiversity data into a global, linked view of existing records that is openly accessible to all.
References:
Poelen, Jorrit H., Seltmann, Katja C., Campbell, Mariel, Orlofske, Sarah A., Light, Jessica E., Tucker, Erika M., Demboski, John R, McElrath, Tommy, Grinter, Christopher C, Diaz-Bastin, Rachel, Bush, Sarah E, Delapena, Robin, Cook, Joseph, Gall, Lawrence F., Whiting, Michael F, Clark, Shawn M, Cameron, Stephen L, Replogle, Charla R, Rund, Samuel S.C., ? Bailey, Colin. (2022). Terrestrial Parasite Tracker indexed biotic interactions and review summary (0.7) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7194486
Poelen J, Simons J, Mungall C (2014) Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics 24 (Nov 2014): 148‑159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoinf.2014.08.005
Seltmann, Katja and Poelen, Jorrit and Sullivan, Kathryn and Zaspel, Jennifer (2020) Making Parasite-Host Associations Visible using Global Biotic Interactions. Biodiversity Information Science and Standards: v.4 https://doi.org/10.3897/biss.4.58985
Last Modified: 12/31/2022
Modified by: Katja Seltmann
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