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1 | Last name | First name | Institution | Role | Title | Abstract | Co-authors | |||||||||||||||||||
2 | Shirey | Vaughn | Georgetown University | Grad Student | Natural language processing for the semi-automated extraction of habitat trait information from butterfly field guides | Textual descriptions of habitats and environments are found in a variety of contexts from specimen data labels to field guides and published manuscripts. Unfortunately, many of these descriptions are diverse and require painstaking extraction to coalesce information into workable datasets. Here we present a suite of basic tools in natural language processing (NLP) to target habitat information from butterfly field guides. We profile the initial results of NLP model testing for this extraction workflow. In addition, we also propose extensions to this workflow for the atomization of habitat information into operable data types for downstream analysis. These additions include the development of a butterfly habitat knowledge model to work with diverse habitat descriptions and their underlying qualities. | Leslie Ries, Georgetown University | |||||||||||||||||||
3 | Groom | Quentin | Meise Botanic Garden | Researcher | Increasing understanding of alien species through citizen science | The COST Action Alien-CSI is a research networks funded by the COST programme (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). It brings together experts from Europe and across the world to work collaboratively to compile and harmonise information about alien species within Europe and to improve data flow and knowledge on alien species through effective and high quality societal engagement, focusing on citizen science. It has five working groups working on different aspects of the issue, including data management, new methods, visualization, analysis and cross-cutting issues. | Helen Roy, Centre for Ecology & Hydrology | |||||||||||||||||||
4 | Wallace | Rebekah | University of Georgia | Program Coordinator | Life Cycle of EDDMapS Occurrence Data | Most of the data submitted and contributed to EDDMapS is occurrence data; species that are observed in the field and data collected, often without a voucher specimen. Data collected in this manner flows through a decision tree that is partially automated through programming and partially directed on a case-by-case basis by local experts. Records come primarily from four pipelines: website forms, smartphone applications, API, and bulk data. From there, records are verified by local experts who evaluate all the information provided by the reporter, the verifiers are able to solicit more information, images, etc. as needed. If the verifier reviews the species identification and other information as correct and elects to release the record, it is made available to the public. Once it is publicly available, it appears on various maps, becomes available for download, and flows to API partners. From there, data and maps are reused by a variety of individuals and programs for modeling, research, decision making, outreach/education, and more. | Charles Bargeron, University of Georgia; Joseph LaForest, University of Georgia; Bilal Bush, University of Georgia | |||||||||||||||||||
5 | Flannery | Maura | St. John's Univerity | Faculty, retired | Extending the ESN to History | The Extended Specimen Network (ESN) is a powerful idea growing out of digital frameworks in several areas of biology—systematics, genetics, ecology. However, it is not just in science that the power of digital systems is being exploited. The humanities, too, are creating online repositories for many types of archival material, some of which have relevance to plans for the ESN. Biodiversity specimen collections were created at least from the 16th century onward. While the accompanying data is often scant by today’s standards, in many cases it can be linked to published materials, some already available through the Biodiversity Heritage Library, and to archival sources that are also being digitized. It would be negligent to omit such assets from the ESN because they often contain important information on phenology and habitat as well as on medicinal, agricultural, and cultural practices. This poster will present representative cases from the 16th to the 19th centuries where linked resources are already accessible. One of the aims of the ESN is to broaden use of biodiversity collections. Here is a means to open doors to the humanities community and provide the opportunity to explore how we can benefit from each other’s work. | ||||||||||||||||||||
6 | Hammock | Jen | Smithsonian | staff | Specimen search facets via taxon->attribute inference | This is an update of data coverage of open access attribute data and available services to support discovery of specimen records via taxon level attribute search. Significant coverage is available for plant growth habit (200k species), metazoan skeletal composition (230k spp.) and motility (250k spp.) Fair coverage is available for ecological relationships, body size metrics and trophic guild (>100k spp. each). Other attributes tend to cluster in particular taxonomic groups (life history traits for Mammals, etc.) Data are available by API, and export files can be constructed for significant use cases. | Katja Schulz, Smithsonian | |||||||||||||||||||
7 | Reeb | Rachel | University of Pittsburgh | Grad Student | Native Plants Exhibit a Historic Phenological Response to Changing Temperature | Plant phenological response to climate varies across species. Using a combination of digitized herbarium records and historic climate data, we explored how plant phenology has been influenced by historic temperature variation from 1900- 2014 and assessed the differential effect of climate on phenological change between native and non-native species. Specifically, we worked with a subset of 11 plant species from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s herbarium, which were comprised of native and non-native forbs common to old fields in Pennsylvania. We used linear mixed-effect models to compare how mean monthly temperatures in the 3 months prior to a specimen’s collection date correlated with fruiting or flowering date. Between 1900 and 2014, mean annual spring temperatures (February – May) ranged from 4.4C to 10.1C. We found that increases in temperature were significantly correlated with an advancement in fruiting and flowering date for native forb species but not nonnative forbs. On average, the nonnative species included in this study flowered 39.85 days earlier and fruited 42.71 days earlier in the growing season than native species. These findings suggest that native and nonnative species will have differential responses to future climate warming, which may be related to the early phenology of nonnative species. | Sara Kuebbing, University of Pittsburgh; Mason Heberling, Carnegie Museum of Natural History; Isabel Acevedo, University of Pittsburgh | |||||||||||||||||||
8 | Struwe | Lena | Rutgers University | Faculty | The life after digitization: examples from the lichen and bryophyte collections at Chrysler Herbarium (Rutgers University, New Jersey) | Digitization grants are funded with the expectation that digitization will lead to broader use of the collections and their data in research. We highlight how such efforts can be especially important for smaller, more localized, underfunded, and understudied collections like our own. The nearly 10,000 lichen and bryophyte collections at Rutgers University’s Chrysler Herbarium were digitized as part of the recent TCN project and efforts at NYBG. The digitization project was accomplished by a team at mixed career stages and knowledge levels; this has facilitated invaluable transfers of knowledge and curatorial skills to a new generation of botanists. The undergraduate student working part-time on curation has coordinated improving our collection quickly and permanently. We have drastically reduced the backlog and unidentified collections, run workshops for students, and added images online of new and missed specimens. Issues we continue to face include loss of information through only photographing envelope labels, the donation or discovery of historical collections without proper collection data, and the realization that taxonomic names often require reconfirmation of taxon identity through tedious work. Students, faculty and a visiting scholar are now collaborating to produce a county lichen flora and air pollution project (enhanced by digitized collection data). | Rob Helsel, Rutgers University; Natalie Howe, Rutgers University; Megan King*, Rutgers University; Lena Struwe, Rutgers University; Dennis Waters, Rutgers University | |||||||||||||||||||
9 | Struwe | Lena | Rutgers University | Faculty | The broadest impacts: The inadvertent and unexpected building of life skills from biodiversity collection digitization in Rutgers’ undergraduate Herbarium Army | The workforce at Rutgers’ Chrysler Herbarium is dominated by undergraduate students working for credit or pay with curation and digitization. Since 2016 we have provided 80 college students with experience-based learning in an active scientific collection environment, and they have worked over 7,000 hours in the herbarium to fulfill specific learning goals related to biology. The broader impact on these students and their future careers, as highlighted in end-of-semester reports, turns out to be deeper and more diverse than initially expected. Interns learn to work in efficient teams, ask questions and discuss open-ended and unexpected problems (since no specimens are alike), setting and accomplishing goals, and cultivate punctuality, time management, and dependability. Interns also practice attention to detail, discover connections in human diversity among students, attain a sense of value of data and time, and build self-confidence that leads to the courage to start conversations and speak in public about scientific topics. Many students mention the positive and calming mental health effects from working in the herbarium, especially associated with mounting and repairing specimens. More specific skills developed include reading handwritten script and an improved sense of geography, global cultures and local history, especially through old newspapers in the backlog. | Megan King, Rutgers University; Janel Borden*, Rutgers University; Alex Crouch, Rutgers University; Mia Furci, Rutgers University; Rob Helsel, Rutgers University; Devika Jaikumar, Rutgers University; Eva Popp, Rutgers University; Kenda Svoboda, Rutgers University; Eva Tillett, Rutgers University; Lena Struwe, Rutgers University. | |||||||||||||||||||
10 | Struwe | Lena | Rutgers University | Faculty | Fostering engagement and discovery using digital data: examples from iNaturalist and other observation platforms and herbarium specimen data | An unprecedented era of digital biodiversity data is upon us – currently iNaturalist has >18 million observations, iDigBio aggregates >118 million specimen records, and eBird has over 100 million bird sightings. Still, declining taxonomic expertise constrains our ability to understand and steward biodiversity, and species blindness and the extinction of experience pervades. Paradoxically, scientists and the public alike are globally connected like ever before through newly developed online tools, cell phone service and cameras, and free websites, data storage, and apps. Diverse audiences of all ages, perspectives, and backgrounds are using digital tools for reporting, investigating, and learning about biodiversity. We have developed modules and activities for a broad spectrum of users, from researchers to beginner explorers, leveraging the power of iNaturalist, Symbiota, and iDigBio. Here, we compare and evaluate these platforms as tools for biodiversity discovery and documentation, highlighting their enormous potential to further research in systematics, evolution, ecology and beyond. Case studies are given on how the digital data resources can be integrated and serve multiple purposes, including constructing campus floras that encourage place-based discovery and combining digital observation-based occurrences with physical herbarium specimens to expand their research value. Embracing new digital methods will transform biodiversity science and appreciation. | Lena Struwe*, Rutgers University; Myla Aronson, Rutgers University; Thierry Besancon, Rutgers University; Mason Heberling, Carnegie Museum of Natural History; Natalie Howe, Rutgers University; Megan King, Rutgers University. | |||||||||||||||||||
11 | Pearson | Katelin | Cal Poly University, San Luis Obispo | Staff | Capturing flowering time data from herbarium specimens: The California Phenology TCN | The timing of flowering is important to science, society, and biodiversity, and herbarium specimens—dried, pressed plants collected across the globe and preserved in herbaria—can provide rich data on how flowering times vary across time and space and with changes in climate. The California Phenology Thematic Collections Network (CAP TCN) is an NSF-funded project that aims to image nearly one millions herbarium specimens and capture flowering (i.e., phenological) data from these images. The CAP TCN is composed of 22 herbaria at California institutions including universities, botanic gardens, natural history museums, and research stations, and all are working together to achieve this ambitious goal. This poster will describe the current and future activities of the CAP TCN including specimen imaging, development of a new data portal and phenological data standards, and education and outreach opportunities associated with the project. This project will generate data that will increase our understanding of flowering time shifts—a critical need for agriculturalists, conservation biologists, plant taxonomists, land managers, and wildlife biologists. | Jenn Yost, Cal Poly University San Luis Obispo | |||||||||||||||||||
12 | Title | Pascal | Environmental Resilience Institute | post-doc | speciesRaster: a platform in R for integrating species ranges, morphology and phylogeny. | Spatial patterns in species richness across regional and continental scales raise questions as to the diversification and biogeographic history that have shaped these broad-scale communities. By examining richness patterns in conjunction with phylogenetic and phenotypic information, we can begin to test hypotheses that pertain to the interplay between species richness, morphological/functional similarity, and phylogenetic relatedness. We have developed an R package to facilitate the joint handling of spatial, phenotypic and phylogenetic data, with a particular focus on incorporating high dimensional geometric morphometric datasets. Such a data platform makes it possible to map taxonomic, phylogenetic and multivariate morphological data across the landscape, and test hypotheses that predict their relationships. We demonstrate the functionality of this new tool by asking whether or not species richness in the rodent family Heteromyidae increases in topographically complex regions. We then test whether or not diversification in topographically complex regions exhibits a signal of adaptive radiation coupled with ecological speciation, or whether diversification has been allopatric and non-adaptive. We make available a set of analytical tools that allow one to take full advantage of the rich data contained in museum collections: species occurrence datasets and morphological data extracted from voucher specimens. | Miriam Zelditch, University of Michigan | |||||||||||||||||||
13 | Richardson | Susan | Wilkes Honors College, Florida Atlantic University | Affiliated Assistant Professor of Biology | Using Digital Imagery to Reanalyze Traditional Characters in Fusulinacean (Foraminifera) Systematics | Fusulinacea is an extinct clade of multichambered foraminiferans (single-celled eukaryotes) with biomineralized tests (or shells). The earliest members of the clade first appeared in Mississippian-aged rocks, and the clade subsequently underwent diversification during Pennsylvanian to early-mid Permian times. As a consequence of a two-step extinction event in the Late Permian (end Guadalupian and end Lopingian), this clade is the only major subclade of Foraminifera that has no living members. The systematics of fusulinacean foraminiferans is based entirely on characters that are derived from the examination of 2D thin-sections of the rock in which the tests were preserved. While some of these characters can be accurately determined in thin section (e.g., wall thickness and wall structure), other characters are more easily analyzed from the examination of a 3D test (e.g., the nature and extent of septal fluting). High resolution stacked 3D digital imagery of whole fusulinacean tests from the Yale Peabody Museum Invertebrate Paleontology collections was used to reinterpret characters that have traditionally been described from 2D thin sections. This study shows the utility of combining different types of digital images for character analysis, and emphasizes the importance of eliciting feedback from researchers in how these images will be used. | ||||||||||||||||||||
14 | Martinez | Ciera | UC Berkeley | post-doc | Designing a synergistic relationship between undergraduate Data Science education and usability of Biodiversity databases | Biodiversity data is extremely approachable – the concept of a specimen existing in time and place is clear to grasp and interesting to a wide range of people. I exploited this inherent feature of Biodiversity data to create an educational framework for teaching undergraduate Data Science. The project utilized Discovery Learning theory, based in the belief that it is best for learners to discover facts and relationships for themselves. Students were given a choice of databases and were mentored through an entire data analysis pipeline, including gathering, cleaning, analyzing, and visualization of the data. Their work culminates into a tutorial posted online (curiositydata.org) – instilling proper documentation, open science, and data management techniques. These tutorials can then be used and remixed as documentation for the databases, curriculum, and workshops detailing how to access and analyze the databases data. Increased documentation will overcome accessibility challenges that plague many Biodiversity databases, in an overarching aim to increase the usage and in turn value of these vital data resources. Computer Science, Statistics, and Biology undergraduates are increasingly “data literate”, and if mentored properly, we can foster a symbiotic relationship between the real-world Data Science education and the increase of usability of Biodiversity databases. | Ciera Martinez, University of California, Berkeley | |||||||||||||||||||
15 | Trizna | Mike | Data Science Lab, Smithsonian Institution | Staff | The Smithsonian Sequence Hub: a dashboard to illuminate collection impacts via genomic sequencing | Genomic sequencing is becoming an integral component of most collections-based biodiversity research. However, it is difficult to connect sequence and genome records in NCBI with specimen collections database entries -- if they exist at all. If best practices are followed using well-formatted BioSample records or the specimen_voucher field in the sequence record itself, then NCBI can automatically index these values for searching and linking. There are thousands of existing sequence records derived from Smithsonian specimens that were published without following these best practices, so the Smithsonian Sequence Hub uses machine learning algorithms to identify them. The combined datasets are displayed as several visualizations in dashboard format to show distributions across multiple dimensions, such as sequencing completion date, what sequencing technology was used, taxonomic groups targeted, etc. The infrastructure for the Smithsonian Sequence Hub will be general enough that it can serve as a model for other natural history collections and will showcase the value of natural history collections for genetic and genomic research. The Smithsonian Data Science Lab is also building the Smithsonian Biodiversity Genome Hub as a collaborative platform for analyzing and annotating whole genome projects, and the Sequence Hub will act as a foundation for connecting those projects to specimen records. | Mirian T. N. Tsuchiya, Data Science Lab, Smithsonian Institution; Niamh Redmond, Smithsonian DNA Barcode Network, Smithsonian Institution; Rebecca Dikow, Data Science Lab, Smithsonian Institution | |||||||||||||||||||
16 | Schulz | Katja | Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History | Staff | Management of taxonomic data in the Encyclopedia of Life | Taxonomic data are central to any biodiversity information system. In the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL, eol.org), taxonomic hierarchies are essential elements of the data integration and dissemination infrastructure. While EOL harvests taxonomic information from many sources, all organism names are mapped to a single synthetic reference hierarchy which supports reporting and analytics, web site navigation, autogeneration of natural language taxon descriptions, taxonomic data extrapolation, and data queries via graphical user and application programming interfaces. The hierarchy is informed by phylogeny and aims to minimize the use of poly- or paraphyletic groups. To facilitate data browsing, some artificial groups are created for taxa of uncertain placement. A manually curated trunk (maintained in the Taxonomic Tree Tool, developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences) determines the basic structure of the hierarchy, which is extended by subtrees recruited from authoritative source data sets (including Catalogue of Life, World Register of Marine Species, National Center for Biotechnology Information Taxonomy) and custom patches filling gaps in these resources. Automated assembly of the full hierarchy is accomplished using software developed by the Open Tree of Life project. This system supports frequent updates of the hierarchy and allows us to accommodate community feedback about potential improvements. | ||||||||||||||||||||
17 | Upham | Nathan S. | Yale University | Postdoctoral Associate | Ecological causes of uneven diversification and richness in the mammal tree of life | The uneven distribution of species in the tree of life is rooted in unequal speciation and extinction among groups. Yet the causes of differential diversification are little known despite their relevance for sustaining biodiversity into the future. Here we investigate rates of species diversification across extant Mammalia, a compelling system that includes our own closest relatives. We develop a new phylogeny of nearly all ~6000 species using a 31-gene supermatrix and fossil node- and tip-dating approaches to establish a robust evolutionary timescale for mammals. Our findings link the causes of uneven modern species richness with ecologically-driven variation in rates of speciation and/or extinction, including 24 detected rate shifts. Surprisingly, speciation rate heterogeneity in recent radiations shows limited association with latitude, despite the well-known increase in species richness toward the equator. Instead, we find a deeper-time association where clades of high-latitude species have the highest speciation rates, suggesting that species durations are shorter (turnover is higher) outside than inside the tropics. These findings highlight the underappreciated joint roles of ephemeral (turnover-based) and adaptive (persistence-based) processes of diversification, which manifest in recent and more ancient evolutionary radiations of mammals to explain modern diversity. | Nathan S. Upham, Yale University; Jacob A. Esselstyn, Louisiana State University; Walter Jetz, Yale University | |||||||||||||||||||
18 | Carlson | Ben | Yale | PhD Candidate | Assessing individual variation in white stork foraging habitat niches | Grinnellian variables—such as temperature, precipitation, or landcover—are often used to understand species responses to climate change, but intraspecific variation in response to these variables is rarely investigated. A large number of studies show that intraspecific variation exists with respect to Eltonian variables—such as diet items or prey size—and that this variation can influence the outcomes of demographic rates, competition, and predator-prey interactions. Investigation of intraspecific variation in Grinnellian niches is now possible due to advances in animal tracking technology and availability of fine-grained, remotely sensed time-series environmental variables. Here, using white stork (Ciconia ciconia) movement tracks from three populations (a total of 62 individuals), we construct and compare individual Grinnellian niches by describing fine-grained environmental associations of individuals. We show that within populations, individuals vary in their use of habitat, from individuals with wide “generalist” niches to individuals with narrow “specialist” niches. Furthermore, these niches are consistent across years within the same individual. These results imply that ecological processes sensitive to Grinnellian variables, such as responses to climate change, may be sensitive to intraspecific variation in environmental associations. | Shay Rotics, Ran Nathan, Martin Wikelski, Walter Jetz | |||||||||||||||||||
19 | Ellis Soto | Diego | Yale University | PhD Student | Advancing mountain species distribution information through model-based data integration | Mountains hold large biodiversity which provides important functions and is globally unique. Socioeconomic and environmental changes are rapidly affecting biodiversity along elevational gradients worldwide, necessitating an improved spatial understanding. We develop a novel approach for the model-based integration of expert opinion elevational range data with expert range maps and point data. We show that combining this data provides improved high-resolution range predictions. We demonstrate these improvements for 276 hummingbird species predicted at 1km2 resolution. Predictions were compared with extensive and independent local bird survey data to assess model performance. Improvements were more evident when sample sizes were small. This highlights the broad applicability of adding elevation as offset when building species distribution models (SDM), especially for data poor species. For two species used as case studies, models improved (measured as delta AUC) up to 40% when adding elevation as offset. Improvement diminished with increasing sample size, yet consistently outperformed models without elevation as offset. Addition of elevation into models also led to smaller predicted hummingbird range sizes. When stacking single species models to make richness maps, applying elevation as offset led to lower species richness estimates. Our methodology prevents overestimating biodiversity and has potential for biodiversity assessments. | {Diego}{ Ellis-Soto}, Yale University, {Cory} {Merow}, Yale University, {Giuseppe} {Amatulli}, Yale University, {Walter} {Jetz}, Yale University | |||||||||||||||||||
20 | Schricker | Lauren | University of Pittsburgh | grad student | Collector bias in native and non-native herbarium specimens | Herbaria are increasingly appreciated as troves of information about historical patterns in plant phenology, and widespread specimen digitization is expanding phenological research to unprecedented temporal, geographic, and taxonomic scales. During the course of recent study on leaf out and flowering times of trees and herbs using >3,000 specimens from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, we found that phenological comparisons of native and invasive species’ responses to temperature may be confounded by collector bias. As expected, herbaceous species as a group were frequently collected while flowering. However, natives were more likely to be collected while leafing out (60%, n=1002) compared to nonnatives. In contrast, non-native species were more frequently collected while fruiting (56%, n=720). Herbaria provide a promising source for studies on phenological mismatch between functional groups, but collector bias must be carefully considered when selecting focal species for phenological studies and for comparisons between native and invasive or tree and herb species. | Lauren E. Schricker, University of Pittsburgh; J. Mason Heberling, Carnegie Museum of Natural History; Sara E. Kuebbing, University of Pittsburgh | |||||||||||||||||||
21 | Jungbluth | Michelle | San Francisco State University, Estuary & Ocean Science Center | Faculty | A targeted genetic database of local fauna for analysis of aquatic community metabarcode data | Surveys of biological diversity are increasingly using DNA sequencing techniques on a massive scale. Due to the interest in high-throughput DNA sequencing, diverse research disciplines are contributing to explosive growth in the existing sequence databases, such as NCBI. The recent large increase in sequence data is straining the infrastructure and methods required for high-level interrogation of existing public databases. Here we present a targeted genetic database of local fauna in the San Francisco Bay and Delta region and a workflow for classification of related sequencing data. The database was systematically curated from the full NCBI nucleotide database (~320 billion-basepairs) to identify a representative set of relevant biological taxa in the San Francisco Bay and Delta watershed. A major advantage of the targeted database is its size, which allows for rapid and specific identification of new sequence data without sacrificing sensitivity. In combination with phylogenetic approaches, the curated database allows for systematic identification of the novel lineages – species, genera, and families – of plankton that have not been previously described. | Michelle Jungbluth, San Francisco State University, Estuary & Ocean Science Center, Tiburon, CA, USA; Sean Jungbluth, J1ab Consulting, Petaluma, CA, USA; Wim Kimmerer, San Francisco State University, Estuary & Ocean Science Center, Tiburon, CA, USA | |||||||||||||||||||
22 | Giermakowski | Tom | University of New Mexico | Museum Collection Manager | Arctos: A Collaborative Collection Management Solution | Arctos (arctosdb.org) is a collaborative collection management solution serving global data for over 3.5 million biodiversity and cultural records and 775,000 media objects from more than 182 collections. It is a leader in providing museums with community-driven solutions to managing collections and developing workflows for data cleaning and publication. The portal (http://arctos.database.museum) provides numerous tools and services to manage data and make them publically available. A web interface supports data entry and editing, and allows for geocoding, mapping, as well as tracking transactions and usage. By utilizing a highly normalized structure, standardized data shared among institutions have led to innovative ways of relating objects within or between collections (e.g., predator-prey, host-parasite relationships), promoting data exploration and interdisciplinary research. Arctos also leverages external web services to extend capabilities and generate reciprocal links with many collaborators. Furthermore, Arctos is a community of museum professionals who cooperate on best practices, trainings and webinars, and together work to expand functionality. A robust research infrastructure, Arctos integrates biological, earth science, and cultural data as well as emerging data types such as eDNA. At a time when timely data discovery is imperative, Arctos provides a uniquely collaborative platform for bridging gaps between collections and research. | Emily M. Braker, University of Colorado Museum of Natural History; Mariel Campbell, Museum of Southwestern Biology, University of New Mexico; Carla Cicero, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkele; John R. Demboski, Denver Museum of Nature& Science; Andrew Doll, Denver Museum of Nature & Science; J. Tom Giermakowski, Museum of Southwestern Biology, University of New Mexico; Kyndall Hildebrandt, University of Alaska Museum of the North; Michelle Koo, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley; Angela Linn, University of Alaska Museum of the North; Teresa J. Mayfield-Meyer, Museum of Southwestern Biology, University of New Mexico; Carol Spencer, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley | |||||||||||||||||||
23 | Callahan | Hilary | Barnard College, Columbia University | Faculty (corrected abstract) | Teaching Digital Botany: Making Change, Maintaining Standards | Barnard College recently introduced a requirement for all undergraduates: a course that teaches "digital and technological thinking.” Now, my students and I are learning in new ways about botany, community ecology, evolution, biogeography and biodiversity conservation. Using GitHub Classroom, R-Studio and several R OpenSci packages, my upper-level course includes a series of digital labs, portfolio assignments, and individualized projects. All involve asking questions about biodiversity and answering them with data from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), the Botanical Information and Ecological Network (BIEN), the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) or digital herbaria at the New York Botanical Gardens and the Mid-Atlantic Herbaria Consortium and I-DigBio. Concepts in nomenclature and taxonomy or in precision and accuracy, topics students have often found to be archaic or obtuse, are now problems that are both meaningful and solvable via specific protocols. We continue to engage with physical vouchers, living greenhouse collections and nearby nature. Also, I have added non-traditional and critical reading assignments to deepen and broaden perspectives on who has contributed, is contributing, and can contribute to and benefit from the investigation, use and management of botanical biodiversity. The poster presents outcomes of pre-test and post-tests and examples of student projects. | Hilary Callahan, Department of Biology, Barnard College; Caroline Dolt, Department of Biology, Barnard College; Jared Meek, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology, Columbia University | |||||||||||||||||||
24 | Franz | Nico | Arizona State University | Faculty | Introducing the National Ecological Observatory Network - NEON Biorepository Data Portal | NEON, the National Ecological Observatory Network, is designed to monitor and forecast ecological processes for thirty years at a continental scale, based on a range of well-structured, environmental and organismal data signals. In 2018, Arizona State University's Biocollections were selected to serve as the primary NEON Biorepository. As projected, the NEON Biorepository will receive approximately 105,000 samples annually, originating from 81 field sites and pertaining to 45 different kinds such as vertebrate, invertebrate, plant, and various microbial or environmental samples. These samples are stored under different conditions pursuant to future study and analysis. To facilitate sample discoverability and coordination of the NEON project with prospective ecological and collections-centered contributor and user communities, we are building an integrated NEON Biorepository data portal (https://biorepo.neonscience.org), based on the Darwin Core data standard and Symbiota software platform (https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.2.e1114). This presentation will introduce the portal, and highlight its potential to deliver access to NEON organismal data and valued-added products; particularly the integration with iDigBio and similar natural history collections data. The prospect of combining NEON and iDigBio (GBIF) data opens up new opportunities to understand how data signals from diverse biodiversity data sampling regimes can inform and enhance each other. | Edward Gilbert, Arizona State University; Azhar Husain, Arizona State University; Andrew Johnston, Arizona State University; Laura Rocha Prado, Arizona State University; Laura Steger, Arizona State University; Kelsey Yule, Arizona State University | |||||||||||||||||||
25 | Rinaldo | Constance | Ernst Mayr Library and Archives of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University | Biodiversity Heritage Library as a Data Repository as well as a Literature Repository: Help us to Identify how to Better Surface Content | Data in the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) describes collections held in the world's major museums within the organized literature that has been digitized. BHL is actively incorporating tools including DOI's and full-text search, to improve finding and linking to museum specimen, geographic and taxonomic information. Finding specific collections information in the non-semantically tagged BHL content is difficult. BHL is an international consortium making research literature openly available to the world as part of a global biodiversity community. BHL was established in 2006 as a direct response to the needs of the taxonomic community for access to taxonomic information in the early literature. Initially, BHL was established with ten United States and United Kingdom partners but has grown into a virtual organization with more than 80 global partners. Through this extensive network of partners, over 56 million pages of biodiversity literature has been digitized and is available to anyone with an internet connection. BHL is an active research center enabling access to scientific data in archival material as well as from the digitized, published literature. Unpublished field notes, correspondence and other materials deposited in BHL enable researchers to connect historical information that is physically held in different member archives. Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) has added links to its database for ledgers, field notes, transcriptions and published literature, many from BHL, to reinforce connections between specimens and historical sources. By enhancing the daily work of Smithsonian and Harvard research, BHL provides a global network of researchers with a digital library of content and services. | Martin R. Kalfatovic, Smithsonian Libraries | ||||||||||||||||||||
26 | Black | Karaline | Marquette University | Using collections data to detect patterns of co-occurrence between adult moths and their larval host plants | Calyptra canadensis (Bethune) is the only species in the blood-feeding vampire moth genus Calyptra to occur in North America. The distribution of C. canadensis is large and overlaps with its putative host plants in the genus Thalictrum. In this study, collection records were used to analyze the distributions of C. canadensis moths and Thalictrum species in the eastern United State to determine possible co-occurrence patterns between the adult moths and larval host plants. We used a co-occurrence analyses for individual pairs of species based on a presence-absence model to directly test if the two species show patterns of co-occurrence. Our results suggest that Calyptra canadensis prefers to pair primarily with Thalictrum dioicum L. and secondarily pair with Thalictrum dasycarpum Fisch. & Avé-Lall. Because larval records for many species are scarce in collections, these results highlight the potential value of data from adult specimens for detecting species interactions in nature that may otherwise be unknown. Next steps include investigating the behaviors of C. canadensis with respect to environmental conditions for Thalictrum. For example, we will test whether moths respond differently north and south of the Wisconsin tension zone, an area separating the largely forested north from the southern prairies and savannahs. | |||||||||||||||||||||
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