OOS 19 - Leveraging the Power of Biodiversity Specimen Data for Ecological Research

Wednesday, August 10, 2016: 8:00 AM-11:30 AM
Grand Floridian Blrm G, Ft Lauderdale Convention Center
Organizer:
Deborah Paul
Co-organizer:
Libby Ellwood
Moderator:
Deborah Paul
In this Organized Oral Session, we bring together a diversity of speakers who have incorporated biological specimen data into their ecological research. Specimen collections include centuries of information from around the world and, as a result, comprise data collected in a wide range of formats, languages, media, accuracy, precision, and completeness. Using these data therefore requires an interdisciplinary approach that incorporates international standards and protocols. Further, these efforts must be forward-thinking to anticipate the needs of future researchers and the capabilities of future technologies. The opportunities and challenges in working with these data are numerous and widely applicable across ecological fields. The session will include talks that span taxa, time and geographies, with an emphasis on data from iDigBio (Integrated Digitized Biocollections; www.idigibio.org). The session will begin with an introduction to iDigBio within the framework of the larger biodiversity collections community. Speakers will then present information on best practices in field-based data collection, publishing datasets, and examples from research groups that have successfully used biodiversity specimen data to address challenging ecological questions in the sub-fields of botany, entomology, marine ecology, and citizen science. Presentations will include information on data standards, sharing and publishing data, attribution and data gaps. They will also include data management strategies that are used to digitize, access, share, analyze, archive, update, and publish biodiversity data. The broad range of applications of biodiversity data in ecological research and the benefits of collaboration will be explored. Lastly, speakers in this session will explore the ways in which ecologists and biodiversity specimen collections can work together to improve data quality, enhance research, and ensure reproducible science.
8:00 AM
Linking heterogeneous resources for biodiversity research
Pamela Soltis, University of Florida
8:20 AM
8:40 AM
Using museum data for species distribution modeling: The case of plants in Florida
Charlotte Germain-Aubrey, University of Florida; Julie Allen, Univertisty of Illinois; Robert Guralnick, University of Florida; Shawn Laffan, University of New South Wales; Brent D. Mishler, University of California, Berkeley; Kurt M. Neubig, Southern Illinois University; Douglas Soltis, University of Florida; Lucas Majure, Desert Botanical Garden; Pamela Soltis, University of Florida
9:00 AM
Herbarium specimens show patterns of native and invasive wild fruit ripening across New England, from the 1800’s to present
Amanda S. Gallinat, Boston University; Luca Russo, Boston University; Richard Primack, Boston University; Eli K. Melaas, Boston University
9:20 AM
Using citizen science to determine the future of forests through digitized herbaria
Emily K. Meineke, North Carolina State University; Robert R. Dunn, North Carolina State University
9:40 AM
9:50 AM
Natural history collections in support of conservation and ecological restoration
Katja C. Seltmann, University of California Santa Barbara
10:10 AM
Using digital natural history collection specimens to investigate the future of bee conservation
Joan M. Meiners, University of Florida; Jonathan B. Koch, University of Hawai'i at Hilo; Amber D. Tripodi, USDA-ARS Pollinating Insects Research Unit
10:50 AM
On the front lines of discovering change: Biodiversity specimen collectors as the Anthropocene’s outlier detectors
Katelin D. Pearson, Florida State University; Shari Ellis, University of Florida; Elizabeth R. Ellwood, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County; Gil Nelson, Florida State University; Deborah Paul, Florida State University; Greg Riccardi, Florida State University; Austin R. Mast, Florida State University
11:10 AM
Citizen science as a tool for expanding biodiversity research across ecological fields
Elizabeth R. Ellwood, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County; Henry L. Bart Jr., Tulane University Biodiversity Research Institute; Michael H. Doosey, Tulane University Biodiversity Research Institute; Paul Flemons, Australian Museum; Robert Guralnick, University of Florida; Dean K. Jue, Florida Resources and Environmental Analysis Center, Florida State University; Paul Kimberly, Smithsonian Institution; Kevin Love, University of Florida; Justin Mann, Tulane University Biodiversity Research Institute; Nelson Rios, Tulane University Biodiversity Research Institute; Katja C. Seltmann, University of California Santa Barbara; Austin R. Mast, Florida State University