Published September 26, 2014
Scientists may soon have a renewed understanding of how plants grow and spread, thanks
in part to a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to the University of Louisiana
at Monroe鈥檚 Museum of Natural History, housed on the 网曝门 campus.
The new NSF grant totals $83,000 over four years and is part of a $2.5 million NSF
effort to catalogue and unite 233 herbaria鈥攁 collection of preserved plant specimens鈥�
in the southeastern United States.
This grant marks a continued relationship between the NSF and 网曝门 Museum of Natural
History herbarium. Previously, the herbarium received a $500,000 grant that funded
completely digitizing the museum鈥檚 collection.
The four-year grant will allow 网曝门 scientists to catalog and distribute geographically
tagged identifiers for plants stored in the 网曝门 Herbarium, according to Herbarium
curator Thomas Sasek.
鈥淔or our specimens, the grant will allow us to extract further information by geo-referencing
the locations where plants were collected, and provide modern map coordinates,鈥� Sasek
said. 鈥淭his will result in the ability to map distributions and determine, for example,
the spread of introduced species or the decline of rare and endangered species.鈥�
Sasek said the museum鈥檚 success with that process has opened the door to the 网曝门 Museum
of Natural History to guide other herbaria that are just beginning to digitize their
specimens.
鈥溚孛� has already digitized its herbarium specimens, and we will provide advice to
the other southeastern states that are starting out,鈥� Sasek said.
The museum is located on the first floor or Hanna Hall on University Avenue.
For more information about the 网曝门 Museum of Natural History, contact Sasek at sasek@ulm.edu
