From National Plant Checklist to Chinese Virtual Herbarium (CVH)
Keping Ma, Haining Qin, Lisong Wang
Abstract
The world’s largest Flora, the Flora Republicae Popularis Sinicae (FRPS) has been completed after 45 years of extraordinary effort by 312 Chinese botanists. The Flora documented more than 31,000 species of vascular plants native to China, with more than half of them found nowhere else. The Flora and its voucher herbarium specimens preserved in the herbaria of China and other countries are important baseline data to biodiversity research in this region. However, these data were not easily accessible to botanists and public users through an internet-based environment before our present project, the Chinese Virtual Herbarium (CVH) http://www.cvh.org.cn/. The initial goals of CVH are therefore to integrate these primary biodiversity data into a database, and provide web-based services through standard information technology.
There are two key elements in the present CVH, the Catalog of Life, China Plants and the Virtual Herbarium.
1) The Catalogue of Life, China Plants brings together all published scientific names of Chinese plants from FRPS, the (English language) Flora of China (FOC), local Chinese floras, taxonomic monographs, and journal papers. This comprehensive reference system of Chinese plant names represents the botanical portion for the Species2000 China Node. It now contains more than 95,000 records covering Chinese mosses, ferns and seed plants. The accepted name for each plant and its synonyms are flagged according to appropriate taxonomic opinion. Each name has been validated against the original literature by taxonomic experts. Geographic distribution, economic uses, conservation status etc. are also linked to each accepted name. These data will be put on-line and published as a CD ROM at the end of 2007.
2) The Virtual herbarium will bring together the label data from all Chinese herbaria through a distributed network. Emphasis is being placed on collection event information, such as when, where and by whom the specimen was collected. Presently, there are more than 2.7 million specimens in the 17 Chinese herbaria that are participating in CVH. High-resolution images have been linked to each specimen. Georeferencing and GIS-based distribution maps are also in preparation.
In order to provide an integrated information platform, CVH also includes electronic versions of local Chinese floras and important taxonomic bibliographies, such as the Illustrated Flora of Higher Plants in China, Flora of Tibet and Flora of Hainan, and The Bibliography of Chinese Systematic Botany, 1949-1990. A gallery database including more than 27,000 color images belonging to 3,800 native Chinese species also has been linked to accepted names.
Our ultimate goal for the CVH is to integrate all available data sources, including herbarium specimens, observational data, taxonomic bibliography, e-flora, and field color images, and to make it the corner-stone of Chinese plant biodiversity research.
There are two key elements in the present CVH, the Catalog of Life, China Plants and the Virtual Herbarium.
1) The Catalogue of Life, China Plants brings together all published scientific names of Chinese plants from FRPS, the (English language) Flora of China (FOC), local Chinese floras, taxonomic monographs, and journal papers. This comprehensive reference system of Chinese plant names represents the botanical portion for the Species2000 China Node. It now contains more than 95,000 records covering Chinese mosses, ferns and seed plants. The accepted name for each plant and its synonyms are flagged according to appropriate taxonomic opinion. Each name has been validated against the original literature by taxonomic experts. Geographic distribution, economic uses, conservation status etc. are also linked to each accepted name. These data will be put on-line and published as a CD ROM at the end of 2007.
2) The Virtual herbarium will bring together the label data from all Chinese herbaria through a distributed network. Emphasis is being placed on collection event information, such as when, where and by whom the specimen was collected. Presently, there are more than 2.7 million specimens in the 17 Chinese herbaria that are participating in CVH. High-resolution images have been linked to each specimen. Georeferencing and GIS-based distribution maps are also in preparation.
In order to provide an integrated information platform, CVH also includes electronic versions of local Chinese floras and important taxonomic bibliographies, such as the Illustrated Flora of Higher Plants in China, Flora of Tibet and Flora of Hainan, and The Bibliography of Chinese Systematic Botany, 1949-1990. A gallery database including more than 27,000 color images belonging to 3,800 native Chinese species also has been linked to accepted names.
Our ultimate goal for the CVH is to integrate all available data sources, including herbarium specimens, observational data, taxonomic bibliography, e-flora, and field color images, and to make it the corner-stone of Chinese plant biodiversity research.