Macroalgal Herbarium Consortium In 2013, the Macroalgal Herbarium Consortium (MHC), a Thematic Collection Network (TCN) led by the University of New Hampshire, received $3.3 million from the NSF ADBC Program to digitize (image, database and georeference) all of its macroalgal herbarium specimens. Encompassing 49 institutions including universities, museums, botanical gardens and research field stations, the MHC represents algal collections held in 26 states and U.S. possessions. Included are more than 1.1 million specimens collected worldwide over the past 150 years with roughly 60% of specimens over 50 years old and 10% over 100 years old. The major research theme for this network is the utilization of vouchered algal specimens to determine how macroalgal biodiversity has changed both spatially and temporally and how that relates to changes in aquatic ecosystems. In concert with this overarching research theme, the primary goal of the MHC is to digitize the entire consortium holdings to facilitate biodiversity research in ecological changes of aquatic ecosystems and also to engage the public promoting a greater appreciation for macroalgae and natural history collections in general. Changes in macroalgal community structure and aquatic ecosystems can be studied in response to bioinvasions (Nettleton et al., 2013), increased human activity and of course climate change (Jueterbock et al., 2013). Results garnered from these collections can also be used to advise conservation policy, track global species distribution and increase our understanding of systematics and phylogenetics. To accomplish its goal, the consortium is organized into regional Primary Digitization Centers (PDCs), Digitizing Institutions (DIs) capable of digitizing their own collection and Contributing Institutions (CIs) that are sending their collection to one of the PDCs for digitization. Additional specimen collections that wish to join a MHC TCN should work with that TCN and iDigBio to submit a Partners to Existing Networks (PENs) grant proposal to the NSF ADBC Program. Introduction Biological Collections Biological collections have catalogued worldwide organismal diversity for 400 years providing a priceless record of species distribution and ecology for local and visiting scientists. Coupled with detailed field notes, environment and habitat information, these collections represent invaluable tools by which biodiversity can be documented over space and time, even allowing reconstruction of climate history (Oxford University Herbaria, 2014). Herein, macroalgae hold particular importance. Macroalgae are a diverse group of aquatic photosynthetic organisms from four divisions spanning two kingdoms. They serve as foundation species defining nearly every benthic habitat (marine, estuarine and freshwater) providing food, shelter and substrata for other organisms. Globally, they are important primary producers and essential participants in ecosystem nutrient cycling. They are an important food source for humans and extractable colloids are used in pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. Local populations of algae adapt to their environment over time and are generally resilient. It has been suggested though that perhaps due to local adaptation, they and the habitats they define, may be especially sensitive to climate change. Digitization of Biological Collections and the NSF ADBC Program Biological collections held by the U.S. are estimated to contain over one billion specimens, yet barely 10% of these collections are accessible outside of the institution where they are held (Plimpton, 2013). Foreign collections face the same level of inaccessibility essentially barring this critical information to all but a few scientists that are able to physically visit the collection. It has been recognized that there is a “digitization bottleneck.” Recently, there has been an enormous collective effort to digitize herbarium and museum collections worldwide making the information therein available online, open-access to scientists and citizens. The U.S. NSF Advancing Digitization of Biological Collections Program (ADBC) was formed to fund activities that address this bottleneck and digitize all U.S. held biological collections. Activities funded include: the development and advancement of digitization technologies; development and adherence to particular standard vocabularies, i.e. Darwin Core as set forth by the Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG 2014). This insures data can be universally shared. Also funded are activities that expand georeferencing techniques and software used to locate individual vouchers on a world map. Finally the creation and implementation of substantial digitization infrastructure with which future collections can immediately be digitized without risk of falling into obscurity. The ADBC has three levels of organization. The first is a “central coordinating organization” or hub. Integrated Digitized Biocollections (iDigBio) was created in 2011 as a national resource to serve this purpose and ingest digitized specimen data providing a central platform on which this data is easily searchable and widely available. Similar to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), iDigBio serves as a single portal through which multiple institution collections can be accessed online. The next level is the Thematic Collections Network (TCN) that brings together multiple institutions’ collections under a common research theme surrounding one or more “grand challenges” to biodiversity studies or other critically important research goal. The third level within the ADBC Program is comprised of the collections themselves. Collective digitized data from a TCN is gathered into one portal and then ingested for centralized distribution with other TCNs by iDigBio. Workflow cont. Pre- digitization curation (Fig. 1) Voucher barcoding (Fig. 2) Skeletal data capture as.csv file High resolution image capture (Fig. 3) Image upload to MHC Portal (Fig. 4) Primary key: barcode = NHA catalogue # Additional data Georeference specimens (Fig. 5a-b) Data ingestion by iDigBio (Fig. 6) References  Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) Darwin Core. Retrieved April 22, 2014 from  Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) Using Data. Retrieved April 20, 2014 from  iDigBio iDigBio ADBC Overview; Citizen Outreach; Digitization Resources and Mobilizing Small Herbaria Workshop. Retrieved April, 2014 from  Jueterbock, A., Tyberghein, L., Verbruggen, H. Coyer, J.A., Olsen, J. L., Hoarau, G Ecology and Evolution. 3(5):  Neefus, C.D Award Abstract Retrieved April 22, 2014 from  Neefus, C.D Herbarium Digitization Project Documents. Retrieved April 19, 2014 from  Nettleton, J., Mathieson, A.C., Thornber, C., Neefus, C.D., Yarish, C Introduction of Gracilaria vermiculophylla (Rhodophyta, Gracilariales) to New England, USA: Estimated Arrival Times and Current Distribution. Rhodora 115(961):  Oxford University Herbaria Oxford University Herbaria, Department of Plant Sciences. Retrieved April 22, 2014 from Workflow Fig. 1 Fig. 3 Fig. 2 1 Information Usage: Examples Bio Invasions: Increased biomass of Gracilaria sp in New England now attributed to previously unidentified invasive G. vermiculophylla. Nettleton JC, AC Mathieson, C Thornber, CD Neefus and C Yarish Introduction of Gracilaria vermiculophylla (Rhodophyta, Gracilariales) to New England, USA: estimated arrival times and current distribution. Rhodora. 115: 28–41. Climate Change: Predicted shifts of intertidal foundation fucoid species due to increasing ocean temperatures. Occurrence records for this study were, in part, accessed through GBIF. Jueterbock, A., Tyberghein, L., Verbruggen, H. Coyer, J.A., Olsen, J. L., Hoarau, G. Climate change impact on seaweed meadow distribution in the North Atlantic rocky intertidal. Ecology and Evolution. 3(5): , 12 APR 2013 DOI: /ece Acknowledgements This project greatly appreciates funding from the NSF ADBC program and the intellectual and technological support of the team at iDigBio! Fig. 4Fig. 5a Fig. 5b Fig. 6 Information Usage Bio Invasions: Increased biomass production of Gracilaria sp. in the Gulf of Maine is attributed to a previously unidentified invasive species Gracilaria vermiculophylla. The Macroalgal Herbarium Consortium