Small Collections Grant
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Creating a digital collection of Puerto Rico's endemic plant species
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico
Database, Digitally image, Other
Cost (USD):
2000
SJ
Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, Puerto Rico
Objective:
The flora of Puerto Rico is one of the most studied floras in the Caribbean due to its diversity and richness of species. Having previously helped SJ digitise some restricted range species endemic to the Puerto Rican Bank in 2016, a team comprised of staff from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and SJ Herbarium are submitting this grant application, with the aim to digitise (image and database) all herbarium specimens of Puerto Rican endemic species. All specimens will be geo-referenced, so the distribution data can be widely used to inform local conservation and global threat assessments.
Timetable:
The project will take place in the last quarter of 2020. A target list of species will be compiled by Kew and SJ staff using published literature (e.g. Axelrod’s A systematic vademecum to the vascular plants of Puerto Rico) and online databases (e.g. Kew’s POWO, Smithsonian’s Catalogue of Seed Plants of the West Indies). The digitisation work in Puerto Rico will take place over two weeks in late 2020. All data cleaning will take place at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in consultation with SJ staff. Those data and images generated will be repatriated to SJ by April 2021.
Scoring Rubric
Reviewer's name:
Collection Improvement (max. 120 points)
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Facilitating access to the physical collections by digitization (e.g., data entry, setting up database structure with an outline of the platform to be used, purchasing equipment, and imaging specimens) – up to 30 points.
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Enhancing physical collections by improving the conservation status of specimens in the herbarium (e.g., better folders, protecting covers, mounting paper, labeling, etc.) – up to 30 points.
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Curating specimens (e.g., updating families, species identification, identifying types) – up to 20 points.
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Increasing our understanding of the flora or funga by making new herbarium specimens available, such as processing of backlog or collecting and mounting of new specimens from understudied sites – up to 20 points.
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Securing collections by distribution of duplicates (or orphan collections) to other regional or international herbaria or shipping endangered collections to another herbarium – up to 20 points.
This proposal scores:
/120
Methods & Funding (max. 40 points)
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Match between the proposed budget and methods for the aims described – up to 10 points.
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Perceived need, the extent to which the project will benefit from IAPT funding: e.g., due to active floristic work or contribution to poorly collected sites, due to threatened conditions of collections, and for the degree of involvement of others (outreach and education). We give more points for herbaria in low- and middle-income countries – up to 20 points.
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Sharing duplicate specimens with other herbaria – up to 10 points.
This proposal scores:
/40
Broader Impacts (max. 40 points)
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Degree of regional importance of the collection or the taxonomic importance of the targeted collection – up to 10 points.
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The project will yield durable benefits (specimens, digitized metadata, databases, websites) – up to 15 points.
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The project involves outreach/mentoring and broad dissemination – up to 15 points.
This proposal scores:
/40
Year of last successful SCG application:
Has applicant applied for SCG before?:
Plan:
The digitisation of herbarium collections will give greater accessibility to carry out countless scientific studies. Many projects require examining the specimens collected, others require rapid verification of the data that labels have as locations, phenology and distribution of species that can be obtained from images through the digitisation of specimens themselves as well as their electronic databases. Access to relevant plant collections is essential to promote knowledge of global biodiversity and inform conservation activities.
Two members of staff from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew with extensive digitisation experience, will travel to SJ to work alongside the collection curator, Mr Jose Sustache. The digitisation workflow developed at Kew and previously employed at SJ will be followed. This workflow has three main elements: a specimen workflow, an image workflow and a data workflow. The specimen workflow involves the selection and barcoding of the targeted specimens. The image workflow comprises image capture, processing, image management, metadata recording and quality control. The final stage of the digitisation workflow focuses on the data, which includes capturing and managing those data associated with specimens and is primarily focused on the curatorial information – the geographic area and stored under name.
Institution:
IH Code:
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Target areas:
Applicant First Name/s:
email:
Geo-referencing the historical collections
"Other" target:
Dr Martin Hamilton & Mr Jose Sustache
Applicant Last Name/s: