Addressing Colorado Lichens and Bryophytes as Sensitive Indicators of Environmental Quality and Change

Addressing Colorado Lichens and Bryophytes as Sensitive Indicators of Environmental Quality and Change

Project Summary

This award joins the ongoing Thematic Collections Network project on "North American Lichens and Bryophytes: Sensitive Indicators of Environmental Quality and Change". The primary goal of this project is to image label data from the 100,000 North American bryophyte (mosses) and lichen specimens held at the University of Colorado Herbarium (COLO). The main scientific questions to be addressed from these efforts are: (1) How are changes in distribution patterns of lichens and bryophytes over time correlated with man-made environmental changes? (2) Can mapping of specimens document such changes, and can these organisms be used as bioindicators to focus our attention on steps needed to maintain a healthy environment? Natural history museums and herbaria serve as storehouses for plant and animal specimens collected over generations of scientific investigation. Collections are the basis for our understanding of life's diversity in all its abundance and variation across nature. The collections from Colorado will add information about high altitude lichens and bryophytes and will fill a gap for the original network.

Project Leadership

Project Lead PI (Lead Principal Investigator): Timothy Hogan, University of Colorado at Boulder

NSF Award Number

1205084

Project Collaborators

Academy of Natural Sciences
Auburn University
Boise State University
Botanical Research Institute of Texas
Brigham Young University
California Academy of Science
Cornell University
Duke University
Field Museum of Natural History
Harvard University
Idaho State University
Illinois Natural History Survey
Louisiana State University
Michigan State University
Michigan Technological University
Missouri Botanical Garden
Montana State University
Morehead State University
Morton Arboretum
Museum of Northern Arizona
New York Botanical Garden
North Dakota State University
Ohio State University
Oregon State University
Philadelphia Academy of Sciences
Pittsburg State University (Kansas)
Rutgers University
San Francisco State University
Santa Barbara Botanic Garden
Southern Illinois University
Towson University
Tulane University
University of Alaska Museum
University. of Arizona
University of Arkansas
University of California Berkeley
University of Colorado
University of Connecticut
University of Florida
University of Hawaii
University of Idaho
University of Illinois
University of Maine
University of Maine at Ft. Kent
University of Michigan
University of Nebraska
University of Nebraska at Kearny
University of Nevada Las Vegas
University of New Hampshire
University of New Mexico
University of New York Binghamton
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
University of Northern Alabama
University of Richmond
University of Tennessee
University of Vermont
University of Washington
University of West Virginia
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
Western State College of Colorado
Yale University