Progress 10/01/21 to 09/30/22
Outputs
Target Audience:The primary audience for the Intermountain Herbarium (UTC) includes academic researchers, government agency employees, private consultants, and the general public interested in plant and fungal diversity. Changes/Problems:The major change this year, in addition the relaxing of some COVID restrictions is the arrival of the new Herbarium Director. One problem that is becoming increasingly evident is the inadequacy of the current housing of the Herbarium (it is in the basement of the Junction cafeteria). Specifically, there was a major leak this year, from a burst pipe, which imperiled the collection, and the collection is not accessible (the ramp is too steep, and the elevator is ancient, borderline functional, and overdue for a safety inspection). What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Herbarium staff attended the annual Eriogonum society meeting. The Director collected and photo-documented (using iNaturalist) extensively in Cache Valley, with the primary goal of getting a better grasp of the local flora. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Project products and outcomes were dissemination directly (ie, via in-person interactions such as educational programming) and digitally (data published online, the production of keys and fieldguides), as described under the "Accomplishments" section. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Director In coordination with the Herbarium Manager and the newly formed Intermountain Herbarium Advisory Board (Dr. Mary Barkworth, Dr. Leila Schultz, Dr. Nancy Huntly, Dr. Bill Varga, Dr. Pat Holmgren, Dr. Noel Holmgren), the Director will focus on three main areas: -- Herbarium promotion. The Director will work to strengthen the connections between UTC and its many stakeholders, both within the University and beyond. As part of this effort, he will continue the direct outreach to USU labs and instructors, emphasizing the resources that UTC has to offer, we will host the annual meeting of the Forest Service Region 4 team, and the Director will continue to offer and promote the newly instituted "Plant Identification Practice" weekly sessions. -- Integration with the Blanding campus and the MESAS program. As part of an NSF-funded CAREER grant, the Director will work on building botanical capacity at the Blanding campus (ultimately including the creation of a herbarium there), and on supporting transfer students from Blanding here at USU. -- Building and disseminating Herbarium resources. The Director will initiate an annual foray program, whereby UTC will coordinate a multi-day public survey and collecting expedition to a different area within the Intermountain Region each year. This program will add specimens to the collection, contribute to our understanding of botanically under-explored area, and build connections with regional land owners and land managers. In addition it will contribute to building a UTC-associated community of field botany enthusiasts. The Director will also concentrate on making his own collections (primarily as a means to learn the flora, but secondarily to contribute to the UTC collection and our exchange program), and on supporting and improving our digitization and data-dissemination processes. Herbarium Manager -- Supervise students working on the herbarium's curatorial activities and special projects. -- Improve the current herbarium practices to include freezing of incoming specimens and requiring all specimens to be placed in cabinets to eliminate insect pests. -- Continue collection of sensitive species in the state of Utah to assist researchers and land management groups. -- Determine policies and priorities for the herbarium, in discussion with the Director. -- Process incoming gifts, exchanges, and loan requests. -- Host Logan Endemics walk, if allowed (depending on social distancing limitations). -- Assist researchers, agency employees, consultants, and students in identification and resource access. -- Continue national and global specimen exchanges. -- Rearrange cabinets to reflect current nomenclature. -- Confirm nomenclature of incoming specimens. -- Annotate accessioned specimens to reflect current nomenclature. Herbarium technicians (student employees) -- Continue specimen imaging -- Continue digitization of collection and incoming specimens -- Clean data in GBIF, focusing on georeferencing and fixing minor errors to strengthen our reputation for providing accurate data -- Georeference vascular plant collection -- Assist Herbarium Manager in rearrangement of collection -- File specimens into the collection -- Bring to the attention of the Herbarium Manager any discrepancies in the collection labels or data
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Our accomplishments are divided into five categories: increasing knowledge of plant diversity; assisting others in research and education; databasing; development of identification tools; and outreach. Accomplishments 1: Increased knowledge 1,880 specimens were added to the vascular plant collection during 2022, bringing the total number of accessioned specimens to 291,300 (see Table 1). Though we have greatly reduced the backlog of available material, active collecting by UTC staff and associates has allowed for continued exchange to occur: 615 specimens were sent and 608 received. In addition we secured a donation of 800 specimens from the Utah Geologic Society. Accessioned specimens collected by members of the herbarium (staff, associates, employees) during the year of 2022 totaled 602 specimens (the Director collected an addition ~400 specimens, but these have not yet been accessioned). This tally represents an increase of 33 percent over last year and is the product of an active effort to prioritize collecting to increase exchange material, collecting in under-collected areas, and focusing on under-collected species that are not well represented in the herbarium. Herbarium affiliates also contributed over 1400 iNaturalist observations in 2022 and contributed over 4000 identifications of others' observations, over 1800 of which were of observations made in Utah. All digitized data are available through our Intermountain Regional Herbarium Network (IRHN) Symbiota portal (intermountainbiota.org) and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF; gbif.org). GBIF has numerous data errors that the herbarium staff are currently correcting; a majority of these issues are due to incompatibility of hybrid names in their system or fields that are empty due to absence of collection information. There have been no printed publications relating directly to development of the collection, but copies of portions of the database have been made available to various individuals in the form of a computer file. Accomplishments 2:Research and education Staff invested approx. 164 hours (Table 3) responding to inquiries in 2022. These inquiries are diverse in nature, ranging from requests for help with plant identification, for access to plant occurrence records, and to request advise on specific plant reference materials. The amount of response time per inquiry varies and usually ranges from 30 minutes to an hour. Herbarium associate Leila Shultz taught a wetland flora course; Herbarium staff assisted with QCNR rangeland grass identification; Kristian Valles assisted with plant identification and specimen preparation and curation techniques for the poisonous plant class; Various instructors and students visited the herbarium in support of course activities; Herbarium staff assisted with collection of Schoenoplectusfor study by researchers at Syracuse University; Staff assisted with identification of Eriogonum specimens collected by the Utah Rare Plant Team; Staff assisted an USU Archeology class with ethnobotanical information regarding plants around project sites; Staff assisted the Utah Native Plant Society with nomenclature for new UNPS posters; Staff assisted the Montana Heritage Program with identification of specimens; Staff provided a presentation to the Biology Department's Introduction to Graduate Studies class regarding resources available through UTC and the importance of voucher specimens; Staff assisted the National Park Service with an inventory of National Park specimens at UTC; Staff assisted the La Sal Forest Service with finding lost localities of endemic species. Nine specimens were sent on loan and 12 were received. There were 335 visits to the herbarium during the 2022 year, a 37% increase from last year. Accomplishments 3: DatabasingOur databasing efforts this year brought our total databased specimens to 193,351, of which 80,949 are georeferenced and 100,809 are imaged (see Table 1). All our databased specimens (and their images) are publicly available via our online Intermountain Region Herbarium Network (IRHN) portal: intermountainbiota.org. To optimize our digitization protocols, we collected completion-rate data for each of the digitization steps. These data will form the basis for potential modifications to our workflows. In addition, we have added a crowdsourcing option to the front page of the IRHN to further engage the public with the herbarium and increase our digitization rates. Accomplishments 4: Developed resources Kristian Valles started publishing the Flora of Northern Utah online to replace the dated Vascular Plants of Northern Utah. The treatments are currently being published on Keybase (https://keybase.rbg.vic.gov.au/projects/show/53). The geographic boundary of the covered area has been expanded to include Wasatch and Toole counties, and the keys revised accordingly. Kristian Valles created an identification key for all species known to occur in the Canyonland Research Center, for use by the USGS and Weber State University. Kristian Valles created an identification key for the Penstemon of Cache County. This key will be expanded to form the first in what we anticipate will be a series of Intermountain Herbarium fieldguides. Director Emeritus Mary Barkworth offered digitization workshops at three prominent Pakistani institutions: Hazara University, PCSIR Laboratory complex, and Islamia College. Herbarium staff assisted FragileBox with development of novel herbaria specimen imaging technology. We submitted a subaward proposal as part of a large collaborative NSF grant image and digitize tree specimens for North and Central America. The herbarium Director offered PIP (Plant identification Practice) to help increase plant identification skills. This is a drop-in session for two hours each morning, for anyone interested in working on plant identification. Weekly attendance ranged from two to six participants, mostly graduate students. Accomplishments 5: OutreachUTC offered a workshop on conifer identification for Northern Utah Museum Week; Staff set up informational booth during USU's Science Unwrapped Series; Staff assisted the Edith Bowen Donor Art Project with samples of native species that were used by Native Americans within Utah; Staff offered tours to Summer Citizens and started development of a "Collections of USU" punch card program; Staff provided a workshop and tour to the USU Plant Science Club regarding specimen pressing and mounting; The Director presented on the resources available through the Intermountain Herbarium at the December monthly meeting of the Utah Native Plant Society.
Publications
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Progress 07/01/21 to 09/30/21
Outputs
Target Audience:The intermountain Herbariums target audience is separated into two categories to better assist our patrons. 2021 overall had an increase in visitors in both categories with the hope of maintaining and increasing usage of the collection. 1) Academic and Agency: The majority of visitations occur from academic (University faculty, staff, students, and researchers) and government agency (Federal level: Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service, Department of Agriculture, and National Parks. State level: Division of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife, and Utah Geologic Survey) individuals using our resources to cross reference specimens or to drop off voucher specimens that were collected during field surveys. K-12 classes use the herbarium to provide students with an in depth look into the botanical world which is sometimes left out of core lessons taught. 2) Nongovernment organizations and Public: Private consultants frequently contact the herbarium to assist with plant identification and cross reference specimens that were collected during the field seasons. The general public inquires are often due to garden anomalies and questions regarding the flora of our region. Due to our open door policy this gives the general public the ability to consult herbaria staff with their questions. Changes/Problems:None What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?None for the herbarium manager this year due to the negative impacts of COVID-19 on travel. Three undergraduate student technicians were hired and trained on curatorial procedures followed in the herbarium. Current average of hours worked per pay period (two weeks) of the three technicians is 31.4 hours. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?All data can be accessed through our regional Symbiota portal (intermountainbiota.org) and The Global Biodiversity Information facility (gbif.org). GBIF has numerous data errors that the herbarium staff are currently correcting, however; a majority of these issues are due to incompatibility of hybrid names in their system or certain fields that are empty due to absence of collection information. These issues currently cannot be addressed due to the limitations of GBIF but geo-referencing and other minor errors will be addressed in the coming year to strengthen our reputation for providing accurate data. There have been no printed publications relating directly to development of the collection, but copies of portions of the database have been made available to various individuals in the form of a computer file. These are considered part of the herbarium's service function. Various instructors and students visited the herbarium in support of course activities. Some of the students involved have subsequently returned to make use of the herbarium's resources. With the COVID-19 pandemic impacting herbarium visitation in 2020, numbers of class visits were greatly reduced. Table 3. Number of visitors and hours spent on service requests. Time was spent on specimen identification and record acquisitions from the collection. Number of Visitors Avg. time spent Total Specimen Identification 164 30 minutes 41 Hours Record Acquisitions 70 1 Hour 70 Hours Total 111 Hours What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?1. Supervise students working on the herbarium's routine curatorial activities and special projects. 2. Improve the current herbarium practices to include freezing of incoming specimens and requiring all specimens to be placed in cabinets to eliminate insect pests. 3. Prepare and publish the Northern Utah Flora families in Keybase. This work will depend on other priorities in the herbarium. 4. Start a collection of sensitive species to the state of Utah to assist researchers and land management groups. 5. Determine policies and priorities for the herbarium, in discussion with the Director. 6. Process incoming gifts, exchanges and loan request. 7. Host Logan Endemics walk, if allowed (depending on social distancing limitations). 8. Assist researchers, agency employees, consultants, and students in identification and resource access. 9. Increase national and global specimen exchanges. 10. Rearrange cabinets to reflect current nomenclature. 11. Confirm nomenclature of incoming specimens. 12. Annotate specimens to reflect current nomenclature.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The family Scrophulariaceae was updated to APG IV (Angiosperm Phylogeny Grouping version 4) to reflect our current taxonomic understanding of the family. Major revisions done to the family include Penstemon being included into Plantaginaceae, Mimulus being included into Phrymaceae, Castilleja included into Orobanchaceae. The combined effort of this involved the moving and reordering of 51 cabinets in the herbariuim. Other accomplishments during 2021 include reviving an herbaria exchange program to improve the holdings and diversity of species representation in herbaria. We received 1,205 specimens and sent out 1,174 specimens. While the amount of incoming exchange can vary, we plan to maintain this level of exchange to realize our goal of being the data aggregate of the region for plant specimens. Through active collection efforts by herbarium staff and associates of the 1,174 specimens sent this year, 551 were collected this year. The collection amount is lower than what we hoped for due to drought conditions limiting population sizes. We will create contingency plans to collect in higher elevation areas to help combat this issue. Table1. The number of records we currently housed in the Intermountain Herbarium collection. Imagining of nonvascular specimens is currently not being conducted due to absence of adequate technology. Number of specimens in the collection 289,495 Number of databased specimens 190,843 Number of georeferenced specimens 78,406 Number of imaged specimens 96,706 (34%) Table 2. Exchange and gift material received and sent during 2021. Herbarium Code Exchange Sent Exchange Received Gifts sent Gifts Received BRY 148 21 - - COLO 110 - - - DBG - 119 - - GH - - 10 - IDS 330 - - - NY 16 - 75 - RENO 118 914 - - RM 76 - - - RSA-PO 23 - 2 - TAES 152 151 - - US 37 - - - USUUB - - - 32 UT 85 - -- WSCO 79 - - - Totals 1174 1205 87 32
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