| Abstract Detail
Systematics Section / ASPT Lowrey, Tim [1], Ferguson, Carolyn [2]. The Herbarium-LTER Partnership: opportunities for reciprocal enhancement of research programs and infrastructure. HERBARIA associated with strong ecology programs, such as many of those at institutions affiliated with NSF Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites, have noteworthy opportunities for enhancement of herbarium resources (e.g., through acquisition of specimens), cross-disciplinary research (between systematists and ecologists), promotion of the herbarium within the broader institutional program, and broader funding initiatives. To what extent are these opportunities realized? This discussion will focus on ideas for enhancing herbaria (and the study of systematics generally) in the context of active institutional ecology research programs. The value of developing an organized network of herbarium curators at LTER affiliate institutions will be considered. We will explore 1) levels of interaction between herbarium and LTER workers at different institutions, 2) advantages and challenges of herbarium service at these institutions, 3) benefits to herbaria at these institutions, 4) opportunities for broader research interactions, in light of present and developing initiatives. All conference attendees with an interest in interactions between systematists and ecologists are encouraged to attend. _______________________________________________________________________
Topics for Discussion: I. What is the NSF-LTER Program? Program overview and site diversity. History of LTER Program including involvement of herbaria: collaboration or disconnect. General patterns/variation in interaction between systematists and LTER researchers. 2. Benefits to LTER ecologists from herbarium/systematist collaboration. Services provided by herbaria: use of collections, literature, plant identification service, data/voucher specimen archiving, data-sharing. 3. Benefits to herbaria from LTER sites and ecologists. 4. The Herbarium-LTER partnership: opportunities for reciprocal enhancement of research programs? Research project collaboration. Information technology-archiving and serving of specimen-related data including molecular data. Co-development of websites/electronic media that include images of taxa, identification tools, on-line floras, checklists etc. Collaboration in developing “Best Practices” for research. Broader initiatives: NEON, etc. development of regional herbarium networks.
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1 - University of New Mexico, Department of Biology, 167 Castetter Hall, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87131, USA 2 - Kansas State University, Herbarium and Division of Biology, Ackert Hall, Manhattan, Kansas, 66506-4901, USA
Keywords: Herbaria LTER ecology Systematics.
Presentation Type: Discussion Session Session: D1-1 Location: 120/Ayres Date: Monday, July 31st, 2006 Time: 1:30 PM Abstract ID:313 |