iDigBio, Integrated Digitized Biocollections, is the National Resource funded by the National Science Foundation for Advancing Digitization of Biological Collections (ADBC). Through iDigBio, data and images for millions of biological specimens are being curated, connected and made available in electronic format for the biological research community, government agencies, students, educators, and the general public. The (iDigBio) HUB is based at the University of Florida (UF), in partnership with Florida State University (FSU).

iDigBio involves the development of a permanent and powerful cloud computing infrastructure to linkbiological specimen data and images from collections across the United States into a single unified web interface, overcoming the “data silos” that currently exist across the country.

Search and analytics tools will enable anyone to mine and reference diverse data, such as taxonomy, geographic location, 2- and 3-dimensional images, vocalizations, molecular resources, which are tied to specific specimens, publications, and grey literature. These data promote integrative biological research on living and fossil species and provide an immense resource for agricultural sciences, land use management, assessing the impacts of climate change, invasive species, and othernatural resource management issues.

What is iDigBio?

Thematic Collection Networks (TCN) – the first three

Image Credits: Echinarachnius juliensis, Charles Darwin, MCZ Harvard; Agraulis vanillae ssp. nigrior Kevin Robertson, Tall Timbers Research Station; Hibiscus coccineus Austin Mast, R. K. Godfrey Herbarium (FSU); Eosalpingogaster cochenillivora, Ximo Mengual, USNM ENT00036835; Mytilus galloprovincialis Luciana Genio, USNM 199373; Penestomus egazini , Jeremy Miller, Nationaal Natuurhistorisch Museum Naturalis; Splachnum luteum Hedw.,Biopix: JC Schou, Consortium of North American Bryophyte Herbaria; Digitothyrea polyglossa (Nyl.) Morreno & Egea,Photographer: Matthias Schultz, Consortium of North American Lichen Herbaria; Falcidens hartmanae spicule, Kelvin Barwick, SCAMIT; Eupolybothrus werneri, Nesrine Akkari, Faculty of Sciences of Tunis; Tarundia cinctipennis, Gundvi Lindberg, NHRS-HEMI000000171; Calligrapha species, Wills Flowers, INBio; Naemia seriata, Matthew Greenstone, USDA-ARS-Insect Biocontrol Laboratory; Philoliche Philoliche umbratipennis, Shelah Morita, North Carolina State University; Specularius impressithorax, Forest and Kim Starr, USGS Haleakala Field Station; Kallstroemia grandiflora, Steven Baskauf, Vanderbilt University. Many images from http://www.morphbank.net.

Join the effort! Become a Partner to an Existing Network (PEN). Submitting new proposals to partner with and

further the efforts of ongoing NSF-funded TCNs is encouraged. New partners must increase the number of specimens digitized in the ongoing project. Priority will be given to proposals that improve efficiency of the digitization process.

Become a Thematic Collection Network (TCN). The NSF is currently accepting solicitations for additional Thematic Collections Networks (TCNs) to participate in the ADBC initiative. Please review the publication on NSF’s website for full details or contact iDigBio.

iDigBio: The National Resource for Advancing Digitization of Biological Collections

North American Lichens and Bryophytes: Sensitive Indicators of Environmental Quality and Change Issue: Lichens and bryophytes (mosses and their relatives)

are sensitive indicators of environmental change and are dominant organisms in arctic-alpine and desert habitats, where the effects of climate change are well-documented.

Scope: to unify data and images of approximately 2.3 million North American specimens from more than 60 collections .

Purpose: to address questions of how species distributions change after major environmental events, both in the past and projected into the future. Large-scale distribution mapping will help identify regions where such changes are likely, fostering programs designed to protect these organisms.

Principal Investigator: Corinna Gries, University of Wisconsin, Madison. Co-PIs: Andrew Miller, Edward Schilling, Meredith Blackwell, Donald Pfister,

Francois Lutzoni, Robert Luecking, Bruce Allen, Timothy James, Larry St.Clair, Stefanie Ickert-Bond, William Buck, John Freudenstein, Tatyana Livschultz,

David Giblin, Alan Fryday, Brent Mishler

Plants, Herbivores and Parasitoids:A Model System for the Study of Tri-Trophic Associations

Issue: All the nearly 20,000 plant species in North America are attacked by insect pests, including those in the group Hemiptera (known as the “true bugs”), which are in turn attacked by parasitoid insects in the Hymenoptera (sawflies, wasps, ants), widely used for biological control of agricultural pests.

Scope: to unify data and images for some 1.6 million hemipteran, 200,000 parasitoid, and 6 million plant specimens in 34 collections in a Tri-Trophic Databasing and imaging project – the TTD.

Purpose: to create linked specimen data and image sets to facilitate research in agricultural sciences, climate change, invasive species, biological classification, conservation and ecosystems to answer questions like: how the distributions and phenologies of the plants, pests and parasitoids relate to each other.

Principal Investigator: Randall T. Schuh, American Museum of Natural History. Co-PIs: Richard Rabeler, Charles Bartlett, Robert Naczi, Robert Magill,

Christiane Weirauch, Benjamin Normark

Acknowledgements and text from: iDigBio, The National Resource for Advancing Digitization of Biological Collections at https://www.idigbio.org/; A Strategic Plan for Establishing a Network Integrated Biocollections Alliance (NIBA) at http://digbiocol.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/niba_brochure.pdf; iDigBio, Roles & Goals presented in New Orleans at TDWG 2011. iDigBio is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation's Advancing Digitization of Biological Collections Program (#EF1115210). Disclaimer: This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. (EF1115210). Any opinions findings and conclusions or other recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do no necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Domain Data

Producers

Infrastructure

Providers

Domain

Service

Providers

Domain Data

Consumers

National /

Global Data

Aggregators

TCNsMuseums

Collectors

Data Conservancy

Amazon Turk

DataONE

Amazon WS

Google

Microsoft Azure

Imaging services

Georeferencing

Data quality

NESCent

Translation

OCR

iPlant

TCNs

Mapping

ALA

BISONiPlant

GBIFEOL

Researchers

Citizens

TCNs

Government

Students

More about the HUB and TCNs The iDigBio HUB cyberinfrastructure, compiling and inter-linking data from the TCNs

and existing databases, creates opportunities to ask such research questions as:

o What is the history of life on Earth?o What factors lead to speciation, dispersal and extinction?o What are the impacts of climate change likely to be?o What information is needed for effective conservation strategies?o How are species distributed in geographical and ecological space?

InvertNet - An Integrative Platform for Research on Environmental Change, Species Discovery and Identification Issue: Arthropods (insects, spiders, crabs) are the most

diverse and abundant group of macro-organisms in biological collections, but are underrepresented in databases accessible online or elsewhere.

Scope: InvertNet plans to digitally image invertebrate collection specimens and related metadata from 22 Midwestern institutions and compile this invaluable data set into a searchable on-line virtual museum of more than 50 million specimens accessible to all.

Purpose: create a centralized dataset representing more than 160 years of North American arthropod collecting to support scientific inquiry on the effects of land use change on biodiversity, and basic research on species discovery and identification.

Principal Investigator: Christopher Dietrich, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Co-PIs: Gregory Zolnerowich, Anthony Cognato, Paul Tinerella, Paul Johnson, Daniel Young, Johannes Klompen, Jennifer Zaspel, Andrew

Short, Jeffrey Holland, John Rawlins, Robert Sites, Gregory Courtney, David Rider

Funding from NSF gives the HUB and TCNs the opportunity to train future researchers about collections techniques, informatics technology and data integration. For example, a new Visiting Scholars program is now available at the national headquarters (HUB), University of Florida, Gainesville, starting in 2012. Emphasis will be placed on early-career collections and biodiversity informatics-based professionals.

iDigBio HUB, Lead Principal Investigator: Dr. Lawrence Page, University of Florida, Director of iDigBio. Co-PIs: Dr. Jose Fortes, Director for Computational Activities. Dr. Bruce MacFadden, iDigBio Director for Education and Outreach. Dr. Gregory Riccardi, iDigBio co-

Director for Computational Activities. Dr. Pamela Soltis, iDigBio Director for Research Activities.

Next deadline for TCN proposals: October 19, 2012

Participate in an upcoming Workshop. Check http://www.idigibio.org website under Engage – Education and Outreach – Upcoming Events.

Key partners in this effort are Thematic Collections Networks (TCNs), which are ADBC institutions that conduct

the actual digitization of the specimens. Three TCNs were funded by NSF in the first year (2011) and include 92 institutions in 45 states. More will be funded in succeeding years as ADBC is a 10-year project. Each TCN itself, is a network of institutions with a strategy for digitizing information that addresses a particular research theme, such as impacts of climate change or the biota of a geographic area.

Join the iDigBio listserv, or Volunteer. Contact Jason Grabon, Project Manager to find out more about volunteer activities with the iDigBio HUB or one of the current TCNs or PENs. See contact information at http://www.idigibio.org

Blog, join the conversation, at https://www.idigbio.org/tags/blog