Integration of Two Large Orphaned Lichen Collections into the Oregon State University Herbarium

Oregon State University, Corvallis OR

Investigators

Abstract

The Oregon State University (OSU) Herbarium is a major regional collection of approximately 425,000 specimens of plants and fungi. It is an actively growing and heavily utilized research herbarium, and is the primary resource for the documentation and study of Oregon's diverse plants and fungi. This project will enable the addition of approximately 220,000 lichen specimens permanently transferred from the USDA Forest Service (USFS). These specimens were collected as part of the USFS Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) and Air Resource Management programs. They comprise a unique and voluminous source of data and specimens not available in regular herbarium collections. The extensive, fine-grained sampling framework for the FIA program provides an exceptional basis for species distribution modeling, phylogeography, and measuring biological responses to environmental change. The need to secure these specimens is urgent because they are currently housed in non-archival conditions and are inaccessible to researchers. Incorporating the USFS specimens into the OSU Herbarium will protect them for the future by virtue of OSU's commitment to long-term preservation and use of biological collections. In addition, a popular educational resource developed at OSU for learning about lichens (http://ocid.nacse.org/lichenland) will be revitalized and enhanced as part of this project. To accommodate the USFS lichen collections, 54 steel herbarium cases will be added to the OSU Herbarium. The lichen specimen labels will be photographed in order to capture information that is not maintained in the FIA and Air Resource Management electronic databases. The specimens will then be repackaged in archival materials, organized taxonomically, and integrated into the OSU Herbarium. Specimen label data and images will be made available online via the Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria (http://www.pnwherbaria.org) which is based at the University of Washington Herbarium, Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, and with the digitization HUB iDigBio. More information about the OSU Herbarium and this project is available at: http://oregonstate.edu/dept/botany/herbarium.