TCNs

Each Thematic Collections Network (TCN) is a network of institutions with a strategy for digitizing information that addresses a particular research theme, such as impacts of climate change or biota of a region. Once digitized, data are easily accessed and available for other research and educational use. Other institutions and collections may join an existing TCN as a Partner to Existing Network (PEN). The following are the TCNs, and any associated PENs, currently funded by the Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections (ADBC) project:

Award Year 2011

(TCN) InvertNet: An Integrative Platform for Research on Environmental Change, Species Discovery and Identification

• (PEN) Digitizing the University of Iowa Museum of Natural History's Historic Invertebrate Collections through the InvertNet TCN

(TCN) Plants, Herbivores, and Parasitoids: A Model System for the Study of Tri-trophic Associations

• Website: http://tcn.amnh.org/

(TCN) North American Lichens and Bryophytes - Sensitive Indicators of Environmental Quality and Change

• Primary Institution: University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Project Websites: http://lbcc.limnology.wisc.edu/
• Data Portals: http://lichenportal.org, http://bryophyteportal.org
• Associated PENs:
  • (PEN) Digitization of North American Bryophyte and Lichen Specimens from Florida Herbaria; Primary Institution: University of Florida, Florida Museum of Natural History; Website: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/herbarium/research.htm
  • (PEN) Addressing Colorado Lichens and Bryophytes as Sensitive Indicators of Environmental Quality and Change; Primary Institution: University of Colorado at Boulder
  • (PEN) Digitization of two Important Medium-sized Collections to Join the North American Bryophytes and Lichens TCN

Award Year 2012

(TCN) Mobilizing New England Vascular Plant Data to Track Environmental Changes

• Primary Institution: Yale University

(TCN) Digitizing Fossils to Enable New Syntheses in Biogeography- Creating a PALEONICHES

• Primary Institution: University of Kansas
• Associated PENs:
  • (PEN) Targeted Digitization to Expand and Enhance the PALEONICHES TCN
  • (PEN) Increasing the Robustness of the Ordovician and Pennsylvanian Dataset of PALEONICHES-TCN

(TCN) The Macrofungi Collection Consortium: Unlocking a Biodiversity for Understanding Biotec Interactions, Nutrient Cycling and Human Affairs

• Primary Institution: New York Botanical Garden
• Website: http://www.nybg.org/science/new_20120723.php

(TCN) Southwest Collections of Arthropods Network (SCAN): A Model for Collections Digitization to Promote Taxonomic and Ecological Research

• Primary Institution: Northern Arizona University
• Project Website: http://scan1.acis.ufl.edu/
• Data Portal: http://symbiota1.acis.ufl.edu/scan/portal/index.php
• Associated PENs:
  • (PEN) Facilitating a Shared Image Library and Occurrence Database for Ants of the Southwest as Part of the SCAN TCN