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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 18, 2004
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Leeann Lavin: 718-623-7289, leeannlavin@bbg.org
Sofiya Cabalquinto: 718-623-7241, sofiyacabalquinto@bbg.org
National Science Foundation Awards $310,000 Grant to Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Herbarium
Historic Grant Will Provide Funding To Enable Internet Access to The Garden's "AILANTHUS Grows in Brooklyn" Database of Tri-State Flora
BROOKLYN, NY—October 18, 2004—Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) was awarded its first-ever grant by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The $310,000 grant will make the Garden's Herbarium* catalog holdings universally accessible via the web and expand the existing data available in AILANTHUS, the Herbarium database.
The NSF grant of $310,000 will allow work to be completed for the curation, data capture, and presentation of specimens collected from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Under the direction of Dr. Kerry Barringer, curator of BBG's Herbarium, BBG staff will make the data on 90,000 contemporary and historical specimens from the tri-state area available on the internet via the Garden's Web site. In addition, the grant supports adding data on 60,000 historical specimens from the region to the existing Herbarium database, AILANTHUS (All Integrated LiterAture, NomenclaTure, and HerbariUm System. At the same time, BBG staff will reorganize Herbarium specimens from New Jersey and Connecticut to provide better access to those specimens. The Garden will share the results of this project, Web AILANTHUS, with the scientific and educational communities, thus increasing awareness of the Herbarium's holdings and of AILANTHUS.
"The result of this project will be increased awareness of BBG's Herbarium collection as an unparalleled scientific and environmental resource," said Judith Zuk, president Brooklyn Botanic Garden. "BBG is a leader in the study of our native flora and the urban environment. Our Herbarium, which includes important historical collections, is global in scope with a strong concentration in plants found growing in the New York metropolitan area. Now, through generous NSF funding, BBG will provide easy online access to unique data that was previously unavailable. Everyone from researchers and students to environmental enthusiasts will possess the ability to use the data from our Herbarium collection in their work," Zuk said. "We are very honored that NSF awarded the grant to BBG, allowing us to deliver on a key component of our mission, which is engaging in research in plant sciences to expand our knowledge of plants and disseminating the results to professionals and the general public." Zuk added.
Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Herbarium
Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Herbarium holds a unique and valuable collection of 290,000 specimens. The largest part of the collection represents plants of eastern North America, with 90,000 specimens from the tri-state area. The tri-state specimens span almost two centuries of collecting, from the 1800's to the present. The majority of contemporary specimens (approx. 20,000) have been collected through the Garden's New York Metropolitan Flora (NYMF) project—an active 20-year study of the flora of the tri-state area. Among the historical specimens from the region (approx. 70,000 in all) are collections found nowhere else, such as the George Scarborough (1890's) collection from southern New Jersey, the George Hulst collection (1860's), the Henry Dautun collection (1890's), and other collections from Lake George and Long Island. It is the pairing of extensive contemporary and historical records from one geographic region that gives the Herbarium's collection its unique value, enabling the Garden to use herbarium data in new ways. Researchers are able to compare and analyze changes in species' distributions over time, exploring new methods for using trend data to assist conservation efforts, and improve understanding of ecological change, the decline of native species, and the spread of invasive species.
NSF Grant
The WEB AILANTHUS project will contribute to the infrastructure for research and education by creating access to critical information. The ability to enhance scientific understanding in floristics, taxonomy, restoration ecology, biodiversity, and related disciplines, is in turn, expected to have significant benefits for society at large.
The NSF funded project will enable researchers to compare contemporary and historical records of the flora in the New York metropolitan area in new ways—from analyzing changes in the distribution of plant species over time, to exploring the decline of native species, and the spread of invasive species—while helping to build a more accurate model of the contemporary environment.
Using the WEB AILANTHUS database, scientists and environmental professionals, teachers, students and amateur naturalists will be able to study environmental change, the effects of habitat loss and urban sprawl, as well as vegetation history. State and Federal officials will also gain critical information needed to develop appropriate land use regulations and improve understanding of native biodiversity.
The Garden's experience making the New York Metropolitan Flora (NYMF) project available on the Web demonstrated that when scientific data are carefully presented, they are widely used, by a broad spectrum of individuals—from scientists and environmental professionals, to teachers, students and amateur naturalists. Funding from the NSF grant enables the Garden to further enhance BBG's science education initiatives that involve graduate, undergraduate, and high school students, including the Brooklyn Academy of Science and the Environment (BASE). BASE is a small, themed high school that is run in partnership by BBG, the Prospect Park Alliance, and New Visions for Public Schools, using the envronment as an innovative starting point for learning.
According to a Dr. Barringer, the power of the internet and the web has offered an incredible opportunity to change the relationship between people and knowledge. The Garden recognized the opportunity to produce a compelling contribution of scientific information and make it readily available to a vast audience "We have a lot of data in the Herbarium that could be useful, but it is hard to get to. By making the information easily accessible through the web, we hope that more people will be able to use it—whether for scientific research, conservation, or some project that we can't even think of yet," explained Dr. Barringer. In order to make the data readily available, the Garden will further develop a customized software program that is easy to use and that capitalizes on the expanded use of technology. Dr. Barringer noted that this project will take three years to complete.
The Technology
The Garden's in-house Information Technology (IT) team will produce the web interface for WEB AILANTHUS. "Using freely available, open-source technology we are able to build a customized web interface that brings our proprietary AILANTHUS database to the web so that it becomes easy to access and user friendly." said Dr. Barringer. The IT group at the Garden oversaw the development of the AILANTHUS database software seven years ago for the use of the Garden's scientists. "Now, the IT team will collaborate with BBG scientists again to create the web interface. We'll take a complex application and customize it for the WEB AILANTHUS database," he explained. "From a technology perspective, we are utilizing freely available tools to provide a value-added resource. WEB AILANTHUS will enhance the available body of knowledge through technology, making it easy to search and share with a worldwide audience." Dr. Barringer added.
* An herbarium (the term derived from the Latin herba, for herb, vegetation), is a collection of dried plants mounted, labeled, and systematically arranged for use in scientific study. Essentially, herbaria function as giant card catalogues and nature libraries that permanently store samples of plant species that have been gathered continually for centuries by taxonomists and explorers in their quest to identify, name, and classify all the plants on the face of the earth. Herbaria are priceless storehouses of information, indispensable to an understanding of the earth's biodiversity and to promoting scientific knowledge. The BBG Herbarium forms the basis for the Garden's two main research projects: a survey of the local flora whose goal is to document the effects of urbanization on the vegetation of the New York metropolitan region, and a study of the systematics and taxonomy of cultivated plants.