Identifying gaps in the photographic record of the vascular plant flora of the Americas

Nigel C.A. Pitman; Tomomi Suwa; Carmen Ulloa Ulloa; James Miller; James Solomon; Juliana Philipp; Corine F. Vriesendorp; Abigail Derby Lewis; Sinem Perk; Pierre Bonnet; Alexis Joly; Mathias W. Tobler; Jason H. Best; John P. Janovec; Kevin C. Nixon; Barbara M. Thiers; Melissa Tulig; Edward E. Gilbert; Rafaela Campostrini Forzza; Geraldo Zimbrão; Fabiana Luiza Ranzato Filardi; Robert Turner; Fernando O. Zuloaga; Manuel J. Belgrano; Christian A. Zanotti; Jurriaan M. de Vos; Eduardo L. Hettwer Giehl; C. E.Timothy Paine; Rubens Texeira de Queiroz; Katya Romoleroux; Everton Hilo de Souza

doi:10.1038/s41477-021-00974-2

Identifying gaps in the photographic record of the vascular plant flora of the Americas

Nigel C.A. Pitman^*, Tomomi Suwa, Carmen Ulloa Ulloa, James Miller, James Solomon, Juliana Philipp, Corine F. Vriesendorp, Abigail Derby Lewis, Sinem Perk, Pierre Bonnet, Alexis Joly, Mathias W. Tobler, Jason H. Best, John P. Janovec, Kevin C. Nixon, Barbara M. Thiers, Melissa Tulig, Edward E. Gilbert, Rafaela Campostrini Forzza, Geraldo ZimbrãoFabiana Luiza Ranzato Filardi, Robert Turner, Fernando O. Zuloaga, Manuel J. Belgrano, Christian A. Zanotti, Jurriaan M. de Vos, Eduardo L. Hettwer Giehl, C. E.Timothy Paine, Rubens Texeira de Queiroz, Katya Romoleroux, Everton Hilo de Souza

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

Field photographs of plant species are crucial for research and conservation, but the lack of a centralized database makes them difficult to locate. We surveyed 25 online databases of field photographs and found that they harboured only about 53% of the approximately 125,000 vascular plant species of the Americas. These results reflect the urgent need for a centralized database that can both integrate and complete the photographic record of the world’s flora.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1010-1014
Number of pages	5
Journal	Nature Plants
Volume	7
Issue number	8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-021-00974-2
State	Published - Aug 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.

Funding

We thank the thousands of photographers who have contributed photographs to the online resources surveyed in this paper, and the dozens of museums, universities, government agencies that maintain those resources. We thank R. Foster and T. Wachter for initiating the live plant photos and field guides projects at the Field Museum; the Field Museum IT and data management teams, especially S. Grant, K. Webbink, P. Herbst and J. Jones, for their work databasing and sharing the Museum’s field photographs; and N. Hensold for her heroic curation of their constantly evolving taxonomy. The following Field Museum volunteers carried out Google Image searches of individual species: M. Heisley, U. Major, S. Brangman and P. Hu. This publication received support from the Field Museum’s Grainger Bioinformatics Center. We thank the University of Basel, owner of the World Orchid Iconography database, and the Swiss Orchid Foundation, who facilitated its development. F.L.R.F. acknowledges a senior postdoctoral grant from FAPERJ (E-26/201.562/2018—process 236717). R.C.F. was supported by research grants from CNPQ (303420/2016-2) and FAPERJ (E-26/202.778/2018). E.H.S. acknowledges a postdoctoral grant from CAPES (PNPD/UFRB-88882.315208/2019-01).

Funders	Funder number
Field Museum
Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior	PNPD/UFRB-88882.315208/2019-01
Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico	E-26/202.778/2018, 303420/2016-2
Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro	236717, E-26/201.562/2018

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Pitman, N. C. A., Suwa, T., Ulloa Ulloa, C., Miller, J., Solomon, J., Philipp, J., Vriesendorp, C. F., Derby Lewis, A., Perk, S., Bonnet, P., Joly, A., Tobler, M. W., Best, J. H., Janovec, J. P., Nixon, K. C., Thiers, B. M., Tulig, M., Gilbert, E. E., Campostrini Forzza, R., ... Hilo de Souza, E. (2021). Identifying gaps in the photographic record of the vascular plant flora of the Americas. Nature Plants, 7(8), 1010-1014. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-021-00974-2

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abstract = "Field photographs of plant species are crucial for research and conservation, but the lack of a centralized database makes them difficult to locate. We surveyed 25 online databases of field photographs and found that they harboured only about 53% of the approximately 125,000 vascular plant species of the Americas. These results reflect the urgent need for a centralized database that can both integrate and complete the photographic record of the world{\textquoteright}s flora.",

author = "Pitman, {Nigel C.A.} and Tomomi Suwa and {Ulloa Ulloa}, Carmen and James Miller and James Solomon and Juliana Philipp and Vriesendorp, {Corine F.} and {Derby Lewis}, Abigail and Sinem Perk and Pierre Bonnet and Alexis Joly and Tobler, {Mathias W.} and Best, {Jason H.} and Janovec, {John P.} and Nixon, {Kevin C.} and Thiers, {Barbara M.} and Melissa Tulig and Gilbert, {Edward E.} and {Campostrini Forzza}, Rafaela and Geraldo Zimbr{\~a}o and {Ranzato Filardi}, {Fabiana Luiza} and Robert Turner and Zuloaga, {Fernando O.} and Belgrano, {Manuel J.} and Zanotti, {Christian A.} and {de Vos}, {Jurriaan M.} and {Hettwer Giehl}, {Eduardo L.} and Paine, {C. E.Timothy} and {Texeira de Queiroz}, Rubens and Katya Romoleroux and {Hilo de Souza}, Everton",

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Pitman, NCA, Suwa, T, Ulloa Ulloa, C, Miller, J, Solomon, J, Philipp, J, Vriesendorp, CF, Derby Lewis, A, Perk, S, Bonnet, P, Joly, A, Tobler, MW, Best, JH, Janovec, JP, Nixon, KC, Thiers, BM, Tulig, M, Gilbert, EE, Campostrini Forzza, R, Zimbrão, G, Ranzato Filardi, FL, Turner, R, Zuloaga, FO, Belgrano, MJ, Zanotti, CA, de Vos, JM, Hettwer Giehl, EL, Paine, CET, Texeira de Queiroz, R, Romoleroux, K & Hilo de Souza, E 2021, 'Identifying gaps in the photographic record of the vascular plant flora of the Americas', Nature Plants, vol. 7, no. 8, pp. 1010-1014. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-021-00974-2

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Identifying gaps in the photographic record of the vascular plant flora of the Americas

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

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