The Society for Preservation of Natural History Collection's (SPNHC) 2017 Conference, "The Next Generation in Best Practices" is being held in Denver, Colorado, from June 18 - 24, 2017, hosted by the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and the Denver Botanic Gardens.
Second Update: Inaugural Digital Data in Biodiversity Research Conference, 5-6 June 2017, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Conference sponsors include iDigBio, the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, the University of Michigan Herbarium, and the University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology.
The conference planning team is here announcing two important program updates as well as information about registration fees and deadlines.
Contributed by Deborah Paul (iDigBio – FSU), Shelley James (iDigBio- UF)
Biodiversity research is a constantly evolving field of science, and scientists are continuously looking for knowledge and skills for the analysis of biocollections data to advance the understanding of the natural world. iDigBio can offer professional training opportunities through workshops, webinars and conferences. Here we outline some tutorials and workshop lessons and webinars already available that you might find useful for biodiversity data research.
Contributed by-- Matthew Collins, Dan Stoner, and Alex Thompson
Downloaded data from iDigBio serve as a base for important biodiversity research. It is important to understand how to interpret the way data are represented in the Darwin Core Archives (DwC-A) that you retrieve from our download system either through the portal or the download API. For more information about our data processes and how to use our data, feel free to email idigbio@acis.ufl.edu.
Conference Update: Inaugural Digital Data in Biodiversity Research Conference, 5-6 June 2017
by Deb Paul
iDigBio had a blast at ICE XXV International Congress of Entomology, held September 25-30, in Orlando, Florida.. The event brought together thousands of scientists from around the world under the theme “Entomology without Borders.” iDigBio staff participated in two symposia, the Insect Expo, and hosted the iDigBio booth in the ICE Exhibit Hall.
-- Contributed by Elizabeth R. Ellwood, Florida State University, with Henry L. Bart, Jr., Michael H. Doosey, Dean K. Jue, Justin G. Mann, Gil Nelson, Nelson Rios, Austin R. Mast
Citizen scientists participate in a host of activities that advance scientific research. These individuals are not trained scientists, but their contributions to research enable scientists to scale up their research across taxa and geographies. Read more here.
-- Contributed by Jillian Goodwin, iDigBio, interviewing Sam Droege, USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center
Sam Droege heads the USGS Native Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab based at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Maryland, and is working with other researchers to assess the status of bees nationwide.
This was originally a guest post from PLOS Ecology Reporting Fellow, Caitlin McDonough, on research from the Ecological Society of America Scientific Meeting in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, August 7-11, 2016 on the PLOS Ecology Community blog.
-- Contributed by Katie Peterson, PhD Student, Parent Lab, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Idaho
I am currently a third year PhD student at the University of Idaho in the Parent Lab. The Parent Lab studies the biodiversity and evolution of organisms that have recently colonized novel, “blank slate”, environments on islands....read more here.
For the third straight year, iDigBio hosted a full-day workshop on research methods using digitized herbarium specimen data at the annual Botany conference (Botany 2016, Savannah, GA), sponsored by the Botanical Society of America and its affiliated societies. After successful workshops on Georeferencing (Bo
Specimens collected in Nicaragua by American mycologist Charles Leonard Smith in the late 19th century were thought to have been lost for over 100 years.Through records created on the MyCoPortal, Gregorio Delgado and Ondřej Koukol of EMLab P&K (Phoenix, AZ) and Charles University (Prague, Czech Republic), respectively, were able to
-- Contributed by Joan Meiners, PhD Student, Ernest Lab, School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Florida
For my PhD research in Dr. Morgan Ernest's lab at the University of Florida, I am using large datasets of occurrence records of native bees and their habitat associations to try to understand native bee biodiversity and foraging patterns...read more here.
Who could resist a conference where the mascot is a giant bright red Rafflesia flower, where bagpipes serenade the participants, and kilt-wearing and traditional folk dancing are encouraged, along with stimulating science? The 10th International Flora Malesiana Symposium was hosted by the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Scotland between 11-15 July 2016.
The 23rd Pacific Science Congress, successfully hosted by Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan brought together scientists from a broad range of fields to discuss progress being made towards a sustainable future in Asia and the Pacific.
This fish specimen is Acantopsis thiemmedhi. The specimen is about five inches long, and comes from the Wang River in Thailand. Photo by Zachary S. Randall.
From the Pensoft Editorial Team
-- Contributed by Lauren Gonzalez
I’m currently a graduate student in the Soltis Lab in the Florida Museum of Natural History, working on Polygonella(Polygonaceae), sometimes called the jointweeds....read more here.
Photo courtesy of Phil Colclough
