中国高等植物数字化标本分析

Analysis of digitized specimens of higher plants in China

关键词:  植物标本, 标本数字化, 采集空缺, 精准采集, 高等植物

Key words:  plant specimens, specimen digitization, collection vacancy, accurate collection, higher plants

摘要:

传统上馆藏标本,主要用于植物分类学、植物资源学的研究。数字标本的出现将标本的使用拓展到从研究生物多样性时间空间分布到生态学和进化学理论、生物多样性保护、农业和人类健康等广泛领域。截至目前,从互联网上获取的采自中国的植物标本数量已有1 200多万份。该文通过整理和分析这些数据以了解中国植物标本的数字化精度、采集时间和采集地区规律以及采集空缺等状况。结果表明:中国标本采集形成了4个高峰,即20世纪30年代、60年代、80年代和21世纪初,中国植物标本采集和研究工作主要在20世纪50年代后由中国学者完成。标本采集地区覆盖度在省级较好,县级标本采集则很不平衡; 标本采集类群在科属层面覆盖率高,但近五分之一的物种采集不足; 标本的采集量既与植物分布幅度相关,也与采集地区的知名度、所获科研项目及采集者偏好有关。未来中国植物标本数字化方向应该在继续挖掘馆藏标本的同时,一方面开展对现有数字化标本信息再审核及补充,并加强与欧美大馆的信息共享以获取早期历史标本信息; 另一方面应用数字化标本信息分析结果,指导境内标本的精准采集,包括采集薄弱/空白地区、采集薄弱/空白属种的采集,以进一步增强实体标本馆能力,提高数字化标本质量,为进一步完善植物标本数字化和精准化采集提供依据,更好地服务科学和社会的发展。

Abstract:

Traditionally, herbarium specimens are mainly used for plant taxonomy and resource science research. The emergence of digitized specimens has expanded the use of specimens to a wider range of fields, from the study of temporal and spatial distribution of biodiversity to theoretical ecology and evolutionary, biodiversity conservation, agriculture and human health. Up to now, information of more than 12 million plant specimen sheets collected from China has been available on the internet. This paper compiles and analyzes these data to evaluate the digitization accuracy, the temporal and spatial pattern of herbarium collection, and the collection vacancy of Chinese plant specimens, so as to provide a basis for further improving the digitization and accurate collection of plant specimens. The results are as follows: The collection of specimens in China formed four peaks, namely, the 1930s, the 1960s, the 1980s and the early 21st century, and the collection and research of Chinese plant specimens have been mainly completed by Chinese scholars since the 1950s. The coverage of specimen collection is rather high on province level while greatly unbalanced on county level. The coverage of specimen collection by plant groups is high on family and genus level, but nearly one fifth of the species have not been collected sufficiently. The number of collected specimens is related to the distribution range of plants, as well as the popularity of the collection area, the scientific research projects, and the preferences of the collectors. To better digitize Chinese plant specimens in the future, we should continue to explore the undigitized herbarium specimens, review and supplement the existing digitized specimen information, and strengthen the information sharing with European and American herbaria to obtain the information of early historical specimens. The results from our analysis can be applied as a guidance for accurate collection of specimens in China, showing the weak or blank areas and genera/species, which can further enhance the capacity of the herbaria and improve the quality of digitized specimens to better serve science and the society.