Gardens joins global effort to archive its collection for researchers to study
David Ee Straits Times 19 Apr 13;
THOUSANDS of old and fragile plant specimens from the Singapore Botanic Gardens' 138-year-old herbarium are being given a second home - on the Internet.
The Gardens is digitally scanning its approximately 8,000 "type specimens", the oldest of which dates back to 1802, and uploading the high-resolution images to online academic library JSTOR for taxonomists all around the world to study.
This is its contribution to the Global Plant Initiative, an international effort started in 2003 to create a comprehensive online record of plant type specimens.
A plant type specimen is the very first of each species or sub-species of plant to be described and named.
They are crucial references for taxonomists - biologists who specialise in classifying organisms - when they examine specimens that are subsequently collected.
Being able to access the images in a central online library would save time and money for taxonomists, who would otherwise have to travel to view the type specimens, said Dr George Staples, a senior researcher at the Gardens' herbarium.
This speeds up the identifying, naming and understanding of plant species, which may aid in their conservation. The process could sometimes take five or 10 years.
"We are losing biodiversity at a faster rate than ever before. If we can do something to speed up its study, we should. With this, you can study (type specimens) from anywhere on Earth. All you need is an Internet connection," he said.
It also ensures a back-up exists if the specimens - some of which are of extinct or endangered plants - were lost or destroyed.
The US-based Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is funding the global initiative. It gave the Gardens, whose type specimen collection is the region's second biggest after Bogor Botanical Gardens' in Indonesia, a $97,000 grant.
It also provided a scanner known as Herbscan, which digitises the specimens without damaging them. The Gardens began work on the project last September and expects to finish it in a year's time.
While its herbarium may hold some of the oldest botanical records in the region, it is by no means a finished collection.
Two years ago, Gardens ginger taxonomist Jana Leung-Skornickova identified two new ginger species in Vietnam, and they have found a place in the herbarium.
Said Dr Staples: "We are a long way from finding all our type specimens. People are going to continue to find new species."
Researchers and members of the public who sign up at JSTOR can access the archive, which has more than 1.6 million images, at http://plants.jstor.org/
