The University of Connecticut?s preserved plant collection is a valuable resource of scientific information, particularly for the Northeastern United States. Through this project, information on the more than 175,000 plant records will be made available to researchers, educators and students using an electronic database to provide written information and high-quality, digital images for each plant specimen, which then will be made available worldwide to anyone with internet access. By compiling historic and contemporary plant records, this project will allow for unprecedented studies of topics ranging from global climate change to urban plant geography.
Graduate and undergraduate students will work on the project, gaining experience in database management, specimen-handling procedures and other elements of plant biology research. The database will be linked to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, which is a worldwide data-sharing initiative designed to widely disseminate scientific knowledge. The easy access to specimen information will facilitate research by state agencies, conservation organizations and academic scientists who study such issues as endangered species, economically important species, and weedy, invasive species. The database also will be used to develop lesson plans for Connecticut?s K-12 science curriculum, providing hands-on experience in scientific research, particularly to underrepresented students in the state?s urban areas.
This project was implemented in order to maximize the usage, efficiency, and utility of the plant collections maintained by the University of Connecticut's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. This collection of more than 165,000 preserved specimens of higher plants serves as a repository of vital reference material used for teaching, plant identification, and a wealth of research projects involving rare and endangered species, weeds and invasive species, agricultural and other economically important species, as well as facilitating basic studies of plant structure, plant evolution and plant ecology. Several floristic studies, including the recently published Flora of New England, have relied heavily on the information provided by our collection. Such collections are much like libraries that contain thousands of books dealing with various subjects. If there were no catalogs for library books, it would be extremely difficult to locate appropriate volumes or to determine whether a particular book would be useful without physically visiting the library or requesting a loan. Similarly, a plant collection must be organized and indexed properly in order to maximize its utility. In order to effectively catalog and index our collection, as well as to disseminate the information contained in our plant collection most efficiently, we began to document each specimen by entering all associated information (e.g., when it was collected, where it was collected, who collected it, etc.) into an electronic database. We also captured a high resolution digital image of each specimen using sophisticated scanning equipment. By obtaining this information in a digital form, we are able to provide free access to any interested party via a website that is hosted and maintained by our Department. Because our plant collections contain specimens from across the world, this website offers free and universal access to a significant collection of plants for use by students, researchers and any interested general public. Funds provided for this project by NSF were used to purchase the computer equipment necessary for entering the data, digitally imaging (scanning) each specimen, and providing the data on-line. The latter also required a large storage capacity to accommodate the file sizes associated with digital images, as well as a reliable back-up system to insure that the data would never be lost due to any type of equipment failure. The majority of funds was used to hire students at the University of Connecticut, who did most of the data entry and image capture necessary. We trained more than 50 graduate and undergraduate students in the course of the project, teaching them how to process biological specimens and enter information into electronic databases. Because digital databases are used in many applications outside of the biological sciences, this training helped to prepare these students for future development of data-related projects with which they might become involved in the future. In addition to the information already present on each specimen, we added specific latitude and longitude coordinates that pinpointed the precise point of collection for each of the specimens whenever possible. Although one of the most time-consuming tasks associated with databasing, this extra effort (known as "georeferencing") enabled us to export our data to several other sites that take the georeferenced information and plot the locations onto maps. This flexibility allows users to make precise distribution maps of plant species based on specific records that exist in the collection. Such maps can be used to study topics such as the spread of an invasive species throughout an area, or the decline of a rare species through time as some examples. We also have developed teacher lesson plans that use our digital information to investigate topics such as global climate change, invasive species, and endangered plants. Our easily searchable database also provides a resource to historians with an interest in natural history, and to artists who often seek plant materials as studies for their work. In the course of our project we discovered two plant specimens that had been collected by the famous naturalist Henry David Thoreau. In one case, the information on the specimen perfectly matched an entry made by Thoreau in his diary, which provides an opportunity to study the very same plant that Thoreau himself studied. Our exciting find was featured in numerous newspaper articles and by various news services, which confirmed the high level of interest maintained by the public for natural history. Many other parts of our collection are important historically and provide an excellent resource for persons interested in various aspects botanical history.
