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The Mid-Atlantic Megalopolis: Difference between revisions
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== PENs == | == PENs == | ||
=== Digitization PEN: Connecting Rust Belt | === Digitization PEN: Connecting Rust Belt Dynamics to the Mid-Atlantic Megalopolis Project Utilizing the Carnegie Museum Herbarium === | ||
Urbanization represents an extreme form of ecosystem transformation, leading to changes that redefine our conception of nature. However, scientific understanding of our increasingly urban world is limited by the availability of historical data documenting these ecological changes. This project partners the Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CM) with the Mid-Atlantic Megalopolis (MAM) Project, a Thematic Collections Network (TCN) involving 11 institutions in the urban corridor from New York City to Washington, D.C., to digitize herbarium specimens from the Mid-Atlantic states. Western Pennsylvania is widely recognized as an urbanized area that was transformed from an industrial powerhouse (and one of the most polluted metropolitan areas in the 19th and 20th centuries) to an emerging center for sustainability and technological innovation. This partnership will fill a "Rust Belt" data gap by including urban areas in Pennsylvania that have undergone remarkable environmental and ecological change over the past two centuries. CM specimens will enhance the MAM Project by adding nearly 190,000 herbarium specimens, increasing the total number of MAM specimens by more than 25%. In addition to making these valuable specimens more accessible through public databases, targeted activities will directly connect digitized data to scientists and the public, contributing to ongoing programs in invasive species management, education of nature in the city, and museum exhibition. Taken together, these activities will improve scientific and public understanding of urban environments, highlighting sustainability and the future of this increasingly common biome in the current era of global change. | Urbanization represents an extreme form of ecosystem transformation, leading to changes that redefine our conception of nature. However, scientific understanding of our increasingly urban world is limited by the availability of historical data documenting these ecological changes. This project partners the Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CM) with the Mid-Atlantic Megalopolis (MAM) Project, a Thematic Collections Network (TCN) involving 11 institutions in the urban corridor from New York City to Washington, D.C., to digitize herbarium specimens from the Mid-Atlantic states. Western Pennsylvania is widely recognized as an urbanized area that was transformed from an industrial powerhouse (and one of the most polluted metropolitan areas in the 19th and 20th centuries) to an emerging center for sustainability and technological innovation. This partnership will fill a "Rust Belt" data gap by including urban areas in Pennsylvania that have undergone remarkable environmental and ecological change over the past two centuries. CM specimens will enhance the MAM Project by adding nearly 190,000 herbarium specimens, increasing the total number of MAM specimens by more than 25%. In addition to making these valuable specimens more accessible through public databases, targeted activities will directly connect digitized data to scientists and the public, contributing to ongoing programs in invasive species management, education of nature in the city, and museum exhibition. Taken together, these activities will improve scientific and public understanding of urban environments, highlighting sustainability and the future of this increasingly common biome in the current era of global change. | ||