Dr. Thomas Duncan, a botanist at the University of California, Berkeley, has helped to establish an Association of California Herbaria, a network of 145 repositories in which representatives of California's plants are curated for research. Dr. Duncan now plans to implement a regionally-connected database of the plant specimens contained in these herbaria. The flora of California includes 25-30% of the plant species in the U.S., and an unusually high percentage of rare and endemic species. California herbaria currently contain 7 million specimens, half of which were collected in the state. The University of California, Berkeley, would serve as the Technical Coordinating Center for the effort, and Dr. Duncan has enlisted the active involvement of the University's Information Systems and Technology (IST) Department. During the next two years, a prototype database will be established at Berkeley's University and Jepson Herbaria through data entry of approximately 80,000 specimen records. This pioneering effort will establish the first truly regional resources for managing biodiversity data. It will provide a model for multi-institution collaborations, and will generate software with wide applicability. The creation of this shared database will facilitate rational planning for future collecting, research, and curation, and will support conservation efforts.
