Herbaria, collections of pressed and dried plant specimens, provide windows into the past. They tell us what kinds of plants were present, where those plants were, and when the plants were there. With this information we can track changes over time, such as the return of wildflowers and forest trees to previously farmed land, and the introduction and spread of invasive plant species. Herbarium specimens are also records of past seasonal events such as when wildflowers bloomed, and when trees leafed out in the spring and dropped their leaves in fall. The information stored in herbaria can help us understand past environmental changes, and also to predict and prepare for future change. This project will allow six members of the Hudson Valley Environmental Monitoring and Management Alliance (EMMA) to digitize their collections. Making the images and label information available online to anyone in the world will immeasurably increase the research and societal value of the EMMA herbaria. The images and information will help the Alliance address urgent threats to ecosystem health in the Hudson Valley, including climate change, invasive species, habitat loss and fragmentation, and deer overabundance. The EMMA herbarium information will also contribute to numerous other projects with scopes beyond the Hudson Valley.
The EMMA herbaria participating in this project are the Louis Calder Center of Fordham University, the Highstead Arboretum, the E.N. Huyck Preserve, the Mohonk Preserve, Pace University, and Vassar College. Together, they will partner with the existing New England Vascular Plant Network (NEVP). Approximately 22,250 specimens will be digitized, of which around 13,550 are from New York State. This project will provide training opportunities for undergraduate students at Pace and Vassar, who will digitize specimens from those herbaria onsite. A travelling team will carry out most of the digitization work at the other four herbaria. This will increase the NEVP’s New York specimens by 27%. Images and data will be made available through the Consortium of Northeastern Herbaria portal and through iDigBio.org. Along with the herbarium data, site-specific weather and phenology data will be available to researchers through the Forest Ecosystems Monitoring Cooperative platform and the EMMA website. Phenology data will also be available through the USA-National Phenology Network.
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.
