THE JEPSON GLOBE a Newsletter from the Friends of the Jepson Herbarium
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THE JEPSON GLOBE A Newsletter from the Friends of The Jepson Herbarium VOLUME 24 NUMBER 2, Fall 2014 Special Curator’s Column New grant to digitize By Chelsea D. Specht specimens collected in Curator of Monocots Baja California The American Society of Plant Tax- The flora of Baja California, Mex- onomists awarded Dr. Alan R. Smith, ico, has captured the interest of many Emeritus Research Botanist of the Uni- notable botanists and collectors since versity Herbarium, UC Berkeley, the the early nineteenth century and now, Society’s 2014 Asa Gray Award. The with support from the UC MEXUS pro- award is named for Dr. Asa Gray (1810- gram, approximately 21,000 specimens 1888), the most important American collected in Baja California and housed botanist of the 19th century. It recog- in UC and UCLA will be imaged and nizes outstanding lifetime achievement databased. The records will then be in the field of plant systematics. georeferenced by The National Com- Dr. Alan Smith is an expert on ferns mission for the Knowledge and Use of from around the world and is widely Biodiversity (CONABIO). recognized as the greatest living student Data from this project will be of fern diversity and the undisputed served via CONABIO, Bajaflora.org expert of fern identification. During (http://bajaflora.org), a website dedi- his distinguished career, Dr. Smith Jeanne Marie Acceturo with the cated to the flora of the Baja California has published over 180 peer-reviewed Chancellor, Nicholas B. Dirks. Peninsula and related islands, the Con- articles and books and has contributed May 1, 2014. sortium of California Herbaria (CCH), to or been sole author on the floras Chancellor’s Outstanding and the Global Biodiversity Informa- ranging geographically from China Staff Award tion Facility (GBIF), an international to Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, portal for biodiversity data. The data Mesoamerica, and North America. This spring, Jeanne Marie will further advance the understanding Through his persistent dedication to Acceturo, Public Programs Coordinator of Baja California’s 4,500 taxa, aid the collection and identification, Dr. Smith of the Jepson Herbarium, received a conservation community, and be of par- has single-handedly generated the most prestigious award, the Chancellor’s ticular interest to researchers modeling inclusive and well-curated pteridophyte Outstanding Staff Award. These awards climate change. collection in the world. Despite not hav- are presented to individuals who, in ing a formal teaching appointment, Dr. addition to performing their normal job ALSO IN THIS ISSUE Smith has served on numerous graduate duties with excellence, also demonstrate Brent Mishler BIDS Senior Fellow student committees, was the primary exceptional initiative in contributing to New specimen search portal mentor for several PhD students and the UC Berkeley campus community. Herbaria news and donations mentored and instructed countless They are among the highest honors New book highlights Calif. bees visitors to the University and Jepson bestowed upon staff by the Chancellor. Visiting Fulbright Scholar Herbaria who came from around the This is Jeanne Marie’s fifth year In memoriam: Paul C. Silva world to seek his guidance and insights. coordinating the public programs A reference collection of pollen His commitment to training junior col- and as many of you have experienced Amy Kasameyer elected Second leagues even without a formal obligation first-hand, she displays a high level Vice President, CBHL (Continued on page 8) (Continued on page 9) Brent Mishler selected as a BIDS Senior Fellow This June, Brent Mishler was ap- stand spatial patterns of biodiversity Mishler, Bruce Baldwin, and David pointed a Senior Fellow in the Berke- based on two new measures, relative Ackerly are currently working on a ley Institute for Data Science (BIDS). phylogenetic diversity and relative phy- three-year grant from the National Sci- The BIDS community, comprised of logenetic endemism. The new method ence Foundation to apply CANAPE to distinguished faculty and professionals (called categorical analysis of neo- and the California flora (described in previ- that bring experience and engagement paleo-endemism, CANAPE), lever- ous issues of the Globe). Early results in data science approaches, will help ages a growing mass of distributional have already pinpointed regions, such as researchers harness the full potential of data—much of it from newly digitized the upper Sacramento Valley near Lake the data-rich world that today character- museum collections—to help pinpoint Shasta, the coastal redwood belt, and the izes all fields of science and discovery. the best areas to set aside as preserves San Francisco Bay Area’s unique ser- BIDS will also build on existing cam- and also help biologists understand the pentine soil areas, as hotbeds of endemic pus strengths to facilitate and enhance evolutionary history of life on Earth. biodiversity worthy of preservation. the development and application of The method takes into account not cutting-edge data science techniques only the number of species throughout in the biological, social, physical, and an area—the standard measure of bio- engineering sciences. diversity—but also the relationship of Mishler is interested in “big data” species and their geographic rarity, or in the field of biodiversity science and endemism. The new approach greatly has recently published a paper in Nature enhances our knowledge of biodiversity Communications based on work begun across both space and time and shows during his 2011 sabbatical in Australia. that using only species richness and Titled “Phylogenetic measures of biodi- species endemism as indicators of bio- versity and neo- and paleo-endemism in diversity misses out on the full richness Australian Acacia,” the paper describes of patterns that can be inferred using a a new phylogenetic method to under- phylogenetic approach. Image courtesy of Andrew Thornhill, CSIRO Australia. News from the Herbaria Announcing a New UC/JEPS nations, and high resolution images and Specimen Search Portal photographs when available. Specimens By David Baxter with coordinates can be mapped on-the- fly or browsed in BerkeleyMapper. The University and Jepson Her- The UC/JEPS search portal is baria have launched a dedicated search powered by CollectionSpace, an open- portal for all digitized collections in source museum collection database the Herbaria. Until now, the only UC/ developed at UC Berkeley. JEPS specimen records available online Fig.1 were those for vascular plant specimens collected in California, as well as type specimen records of all major groups. Now, over 560,000 records of specimens from all over the world are available through the UC/JEPS website (ucjeps. berkeley.edu/specimens/), and over 200,000 more are expected to be added over the next three years through our various digitization grants. The portal’s advanced search capa- bilities allow users to search on a com- bination of criteria and to view “facets” Fig.2 Fig.3 that summarize all the unique values within the results. The record “full Fig. 1: Lecanora magellanica, Lichens of the Falkland Islands, UC1937147. view” contains detailed information Fig. 2: Brothera leana, Bryoflora of Taiwan, Republic of China, UC1711103. Fig. 3: Cymatoderma caperatum, Fungi of Costa Rica, UC568977. including type status, previous determi- Above specimens soon to be included in the search portal. 2 Planning for the Future Jeff Greenhouse has had a long-time corpus is used to provide ongoing support component of our annual budget. association with the Jepson Herbarium, for programs and staff. With an average Thank you Jeff, your generosity is as a volunteer and as a staff member for annual return of 4% on each fund, en- amazing and will benefit future genera- the production of the second edition of dowments comprise an absolutely critical tions of botanists! The Jepson Manual. In recognition of his Jepson Herbarium ties, his love of California plants, and his participation in many Jepson Herbarium workshops, he has decided to include the herbarium in his estate plan. Jeff is planning a generous estate gift that will be added to the Mary L. Bower- man Fund of the Jepson Herbarium to provide funding for floristic studies in California and western North America, with preference to the flora of Mount Diablo and the greater East Bay. We are beyond grateful for Jeff’s foresight. Endowment funds allow a donor’s gift to have a significant impact on the program of their choice in perpetu- ity—the original investment is held in an invested fund so that the capital cannot be Jeff Greenhouse, Panamint Mountains workshop, 2011. Photo by Jeanne spent and the interest generated from the Marie Acceturo Library Receives Generous Donation of Books The University and Jepson Her- Arizona and the Rocky Mountains. He California Botanical Society recognized baria Library and Archives gratefully has regularly traveled to Bahia de Los his work there with an award from the acknowledge Peter Garcia for a recent Angeles and kayaked to Isla Angel de la Annetta Carter Memorial Fund to sup- donation of over 100 botanical books. Guarda (the second largest island in the port his research that was later published This donation represents the depth and Sea of Cortez) for multi-day botanizing in Madroño (Vol. 57, No. 3, p. 211). diversity of Pete’s botanical interests; the trips in very rugged conditions. The donation contains numerous local floras from all over western North America, as well as guidebooks for identifying mushrooms, lichens, and edible plants. By donating his botanical books to the Herbaria where they can be cared for and made accessible to students, staff, faculty, and outside researchers, Pete’s generosity will be appreciated and recognized by many future generations. Pete first joined the Friends of the Jepson Herbarium almost 20 years ago and he has taken over 40 workshops including the first Jepson workshop in 1994, “Compositae” offered by Bruce Baldwin and John Strother.