AUSTRALIA’S VIRTUAL HERBARIUM A national collaborative model for integrated access to distributed biological information Australian National Herbarium

Outline of presentation Background to the AVH –What is the AVH ? Aspects of the AVH –Plant names, specimens –Plant images, plant identification tools Uses and users of the AVH –Botanical research –Community projects Summary

What is a Virtual Herbarium? The physical resources and biological information of a herbarium represented digitally On-line access to herbaria and to botanical information managed by herbaria in real time Integrated access to botanical information from various sources in a herbarium and other on-line botanical information

Where is the AVH? Spread across Australian herbaria Data distributed; resides with custodians Access distributed; a portal to receive requests & deliver data in each herbarium A common single query AVH interface in each herbarium polls all herbaria Major Australian Herbaria

AVH General Architecture ClientsCommon Web portals GatewaysDatabases

Current AVH Partners State Herbarium of South Australia Queensland Herbarium Australian National Herbarium Northern Territory Herbarium Tasmanian Herbarium Partners being sought in NZ herbaria and UK (Kew) National Herbarium of Victoria National Herbarium of New South Wales Western Australian Herbarium Australian Biological Resources Study

Why is there an AVH? Pressure on Herbaria to work more efficiently Demand for access to larger amounts of data Demand to access data more quickly Demand to view data in different ways Pressure on herbaria to appear and to be more responsive to community needs

Potential users of the AVH The participating herbaria have access to all the data at the highest precision Public access filter restricts access to work in progress, sensitive locality data, etc. Research and education Public general interest Access to conservation agencies, land managers, environmental decision makers

There is some urgency … Historical ignorance Australia’s biodiversity has been damaged At risk from inappropriate land management practices We know a lot about what not to do Redressing the damage, and managing better for the future, requires sound information Sustainable natural resource management needs scientific knowledge – what was there and where it occurred – what is there now

There is some urgency …

> 20,000 species of higher plants > 64,000 available names Extensive synonymy (4 names per plant) Many alternative taxonomic concepts 8 major government-funded herbaria Similar number of university herbaria > 6,500,000 specimens in Aust. herbaria data elements per specimen Several Kb per specimen (excl. images) What is the problem?

Specimen data from major herbaria

Herbarium database status

$10M over 5 years to database all major Australian herbarium collections $10 million:- $ 4 million Commonwealth - $ 4 million State/Territory - $ 2 million private Initial focus on capture of herbarium specimen data Ultimate aim a complete flora information system The AVH Agreement

Australia’s Virtual Herbarium On-line access to herbarium specimen information and botanical knowledge

What do we want to know? What species does a plant belong to? What is its name? What other species is it related to? What does it look like? Where does it grow? Where might it grow? What other species grow with it? What species grow in a defined area? How did they get there?

Herbarium Specimens

Specimen data Collections data: – Scientific name – Collection date – Collector name & number – Location – Soils – Habitat (incl. topography) – Vegetation community – Associated species – Plant features, e.g. colour Core information is from herbarium specimens

An Herbarium Database Structure

Australia’s Virtual Herbarium Some views of the data

Australian Plant Name Index (APNI)

Acacia salicina

Australia’s Virtual Herbarium Some uses of the data

Data refinement data information knowledge action Increasing refinement & utility of data the real world observations Envir. decision making conservation restoration biology resource mgmt utilisation Policy & strategy government corporate individual

‘Greening the Grainbelt’

Invasive Plant Notification

Regional Floristic Analysis

Incurved Recurved Plant distribution analysis ? Incurved Recurved Pultenaea species in eastern Australia ?

Predictive Modelling

Stand alone (CDROM) or on-line (WWW) Generally regionally based Integrating: –Plant names –Descriptive Flora treatments –Illustrations –Distributions Flora Information Systems

High resolution image of type specimen of Austrobaileya downloaded over the Internet from the Herbarium of the New York Botanical Garden Type Images on demand

Interactive Plant Identification

Why it is working Communication - CHAH, few herbaria Collaboration - long-standing, data sharing, overcoming Australia’s Federal/State system Champions - management, public Lobbying and profile of herbaria Relevance of product And now…we need to maintain commitment to project

Summary Australia’s Virtual Herbarium: A collaborative national project Making botanical information available Using modern technology Using cheap readily available components A model for regional and global cooperation

Acknowledgements State Herbarium of South Australia Queensland Herbarium Australian National Herbarium Northern Territory Herbarium Tasmanian Herbarium National Herbarium of Victoria National Herbarium of New South Wales Western Australian Herbarium Australian Biological Resources Study