H I S C O M
description
Transcript of H I S C O M
H I S C O M
Flora information Partnership
Barry Conn
Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney
Council of Heads of Australian Herbaria
Herbaria:
– centres of expertise in plant, algal & fungal biodiversity
• Australian collections - about 6.5 million
• Principal repositories of vouchered data
• Long-standing global and Australia-wide cooperative approach,
– specimen exchange and loan
– research across regional interests of herbaria
– publication
H I S C O M
Herbarium Information Systems Committee
Advisory committee to:Council of Heads of Australian Herbaria
(CHAH)
Aim of HISCOM:
• to advise, share, develop and promote all aspects of digitisation of herbarium information
• Representatives:– all Government Herbaria
– University Herbaria representative
– New Zealand Herbaria representative
– ad hoc invitees: key partners (ABRS, ERIN) and collaborators
Digitisation of herbarium datain Australia
• Since mid 1970s herbarium information data-processed
• Digitisation was driven by need for Census and Spatial data
Development of standards important
• In the 1980s HISPID - An herbarium specimen-label data interchange standard was developed
•HISPID used with specimens exchanged and loaned between Australian herbaria
Australian electronic plant, algal and fungal data: 1Censuses• Vascular plants – full Australian coverage
Nomenclator: Australian Plant Name Index• Cryptogams – incomplete• Fungi – incomplete, macrofungi current project for national census• Algae – national census of marine algae; freshwater algae
Specimen data• 40% of 6.5 million specimens in Australian Govt herbaria
Textual Descriptions:
vascular plants - 65-70% coverage • Flora of Australia, plus monographs: 60%• State floras (SA, NSW, Tas, Vic, ACT – 95-99% coverage• Regional: Qld 62%, NT 70%, WA 40%)
non-vascular plants, algae, fungi - Overall very incomplete coverage
• National handbooks (Flora of Australia)
• Regional or state handbooks (Marine Benthic Flora of Southern Australia; Lichens of SA; Mosses of SA)
Australian electronic plant, algal and fungal data: 2
Image data
• Image banks: few herbaria (CANB, PERTH)
• Other image banks: specialists, a number in Botanic Gardens, Societies, other Govt agencies e.g. weeds
Identification tools
• Many - mostly using LucID and DELTA, other applications Tropical Rainforest (Whiffin & Christophel); Cycad Pages (Hill)
• Notable on CD: Angiosperm families (World, Australian); Australian Rainforest Trees, Eucalyptus; Acacia.
• On Web: WA Flora Catalogue, Cycad Pages, WattleWeb, NSW Flora On-line
Australian eFloras and other digital products
Australian eFloras and other digital products
Australian eFloras and other digital products
Aim of Prototype:– demonstrate functional capabilities of a distributed network on Internet
– demonstrate the collective capability of IT expertise in Australian herbaria
– highlight the custodianship and legitimate claim by Australian herbaria to be stakeholders in Australian plant biodiversity projects
– highlight the need to resource data capture and delivery
– emphasise the essential underlying partnership
Development of Australia’s Virtual Herbarium
(VAH)
The Australian Government herbariaPartners in the initial prototype
1999: Initial prototype - Acacia data from all mainland herbaria via a single query
H I S C O M
Common mulga Acacia aneura
The Australian Government herbariaPartners in the initial prototype
Australia’s Virtual Herbarium Stage 1 Web development
Benefits of AVH over traditional herbarium
practices
• Sharing technological advances– Continue sharing IT developments
• Move to sharing data: avoid duplication of effort– Duplicate specimens
– Image banks
– Descriptions
– ID tools: simple and complex
• Develop an on-line information system: effectively electronic Flora of Australia
Maximises limited resources
Benefits of AVH over traditional herbarium
practices• Regional herbaria: distributed system or linkage to major
State
• State censuses: a thing of the past?
• Increased accessibility to collections by Community
• Publication - an On-line shared resource
Australia’s Virtual Herbarium New opportunities
Involving Community and other User groups • Increased collecting - gaps in plant distribution data obvious• Increased use of current plant systematic information
New (and continued) partnerships • Access to other data and information through partnerships of
mutual benefit to custodians
Capacity to link to International networks