Global Biodiversity Resource for Monocot Plants (eMonocot)
Lead Research Organisation:
Royal Botanic Gardens
Department Name: The Herbarium
Abstract
This is a proposal to build a novel biodiversity web-resource for monocot plants. The site would grow to contain a taxonomic treatment of all monocots with rich associated biodiversity information; it would also be a platform on which new taxonomy can be published and new biological information collected and collated. Monocot plants constitute approximately 20% (70,000 species) of all higher plants and include numerous groups of the highest conservation, ecological and economic importance (for example grasses, sedges, orchids, palms and aroids). The web-resource will be based on an existing checklist prepared by consortium members. Considerable information content will be provided by the consortium, but also by the project providing the tools for the world community of monocot taxonomists to contribute in their areas of expertise. Though the major deliverable of the project will be the first Web-based taxonomy of the monocots, all the ICT tools developed in the project will be fully generic and applicable to other groups of plants. We shall also make sure that they can be used in zoological taxonomy (which have different nomenclatural requirements) by testing them on an animal group for which a Web taxonomy is already available. Finally, we shall work with the Encyclopedia of Life project to ensure that the content we generate can be used by the very broadest spectrum of end users. If our project is successful we shall have revolutionised the way the core of biodiversity science is organised and accessed. We will have radically changed the type of fundamental and applied biodiversity science that is possible and we argue will have made a major contribution to one of NERC's seven major thematic priorities, the science of biodiversity.
Organisations
Publications
Baker E
(2011)
The future of the past in the present: biodiversity informatics and geological time.
in ZooKeys
Baker E
(2011)
Data standards, sense and stability: Scratchpads, the ICZN and ZooBank.
in ZooKeys
Smith VS
(2011)
Collaborative electronic infrastructures to accelerate taxonomic research.
in ZooKeys
Weber, O.
(2013)
eTaxonomy of Sansevieria and Dracaena: Assembling research resources and facilitating online collaboration via eMonocot
in Sansevieria
Wilkin P
(2013)
A new species from Thailand and Burma, Dracaena kaweesakii Wilkin & Suksathan (Asparagaceae subfamily Nolinoideae).
in PhytoKeys
Title | Short film profiling eMonocot: The Future of Taxonomy |
Description | A short film profiling eMonocot (e)Taxonomy and biodiversity informatics to a general audience to stimulate awareness and interest. It functions as the impact plan for eMonocot. |
Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
Year Produced | 2014 |
Impact | It was subsequently the basis of a Guardian Newspaper article: http://www.theguardian.com/science/grrlscientist/2014/sep/13/making-plant-taxonomy-freely-accessible. It is featured on the NERC youtube channel and has over 2, 900 views Other relevant URLs http://www.kew.org/discover/videos/the-future-of-taxonomy, http://emonocot.org/ and the NERC youtube channel. |
URL | http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOJWXQ4A_eQ |
Description | Data contributed to eMonocot by over 30 taxonomic communities via scratchpad and other websites is made available to all through a web "portal" designed to meet the needs of both biodiversity scientists and other user groups. The scratchpads have been developed via eMonocot's programme of engagement with taxonomists. Involvement in and ownership of the scratchpads by expert community members is a vital element of the sustainability of eMonocot. . The portal provides identification tools and taxon pages for all monocots, presenting data on their biology and conservation status (where available) and links to DNA sequences. Our users can search geographically or add filters to searches to explore the content in novel ways, providing answers to scientific questions in just a few clicks. Results of searches can be easily downloaded or displayed in graphical visualisations. |
Exploitation Route | eMonocot will spearhead Kew and the UK's contribution to the international effort to produce an online world flora via a project named Plants of the World Online Portal (POWOP). The end result will be a web-based treatment of all known plants, scheduled for completion in 2020 . There is a growing scale of interest in eMonocot by all user communities for e.g. monocot names, information, images and distribution data . Large scale eMonocot/POWOP datasets will increasingly be used to enable biodiversity science research. |
Sectors | Agriculture Food and Drink Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) Education Environment Leisure Activities including Sports Recreation and Tourism Culture Heritage Museums and Collections |
URL | http://emonocot.org/ |
Description | eMonocot had 119, 771 pageviews in 2013, 52, 964 unique. January-September 2014 has seen 203, 007 pageviews, 126, 025 unique. Average time on page has increased from 19 seconds to 62 seconds, with bounce rate steady at ca 62%. These use figures show the growing scale of interest in eMonocot by all user communities for monocot names, information, images and distribution data (for example). Large scale eMonocot datasets are currently being used in projects investigating monocot plant macroecology and lifeform evolution and the drivers of monocot diversity. We anticipate our aggregated data and content will increasingly be used to enable biodiversity science research by UK and international research teams. In 2015, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew committed to delivering nine strategic outputs which aim to disseminate Kew's scientific knowledge of plants and fungi to maximize its impact in science, education, conservation policy and management. The Plants of the World Online (POWO) portal, is one of the nine outputs and its aim is to enable users to access information on all the world's known seed-bearing plants by 2020. POWO builds on both data and code base of the eMonocot project. Indeed, the content from eMonocot will be harvested and implemented in POWO and thus, eMonocot will be subsumed within POWO. This means that eMonocot is sustained post project but in addition, is extended and its scale increased beyond monocots. Ultimately, POWO will become a single point of access for authoritative plant species information, a multi-dimensional catalogue of plant life, including information on identification, distribution, traits, conservation, molecular phylogenies and uses. The codebase is open source and Kew hopes to support existing partner networks to set up their own portals, creating a distributed network of botanical data hubs. POWO aims to become a resource that has global coverage which can empower and inform citizens, policy makers, conservationists and farmers everywhere, about the importance of plants and fungi to life. In addition, a key function of POWO is to ensure that Kew's floristic data can be harvested and ingested by the World Flora Online (WFO) portal enabling Kew to support GSPC Target 1. |
Sector | Creative Economy,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections,Other |
Impact Types | Cultural Societal |
Description | Philanthropic funding |
Amount | $1,000,000 (USD) |
Organisation | Weil Foundation |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United States |
Start | 09/2014 |
End | 09/2017 |
Title | eMonocot Alismataceae scratchpad |
Description | Source of digital taxonomic content on Alismataceae |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2013 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Online working environment for Alismataceae systematists |
URL | http://alismataceae.e-monocot.org/ |
Title | eMonocot Amaryllidaceae scratchpad |
Description | Source of digital taxonomic content on Amaryllidaceae |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2013 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Online working environment for Amaryllidaceae systematists |
URL | http://amaryllidaceae.e-monocot.org |
Title | eMonocot Aponogetonaceae Scratchpad |
Description | Source of digital taxonomic content on Aponogetonaceae |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2013 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Online working environment for Aponogetonaceae systematists |
URL | http://aponogetonaceae.e-monocot.org/ |
Title | eMonocot Araceae Scratchpad |
Description | Source of digital content on Araceae |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2013 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Online working environment for Araceae systematists |
URL | http://araceae.e-monocot.org |
Title | eMonocot Asparagaceae-Agavoideae scratchpad |
Description | Source of digital content for Asparagaceae-Agavoideae |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2012 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Online working environment for Asparagaceae-Agavoideae systematists |
URL | http://agavoideae.e-monocot.org/ |
Title | eMonocot Asparagaceae-Lomandroideae scratchpad |
Description | Source of digital taxonomic content on Asparagaceae-Lomandroideae |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2012 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Online working environment for Asparagaceae-Lomandroideae systematists |
URL | http://lomandroideae.e-monocot.org |
Title | eMonocot Asparagaceae-Nolinoideae scratchpad |
Description | Source of digital content on Asparagaceae-Nolinoideae |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2012 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Online working environment for Asparagaceae-Nolinoideae systematists |
URL | http://nolinoideae.e-monocot.org/ |
Title | eMonocot Asparagaceae-Scilloideae scratchpad |
Description | Source of digital content on Asparagaceae-Scilloideae |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2012 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Online working environment for Asparagaceae-Scilloideae systematists |
URL | http://scilloideae.e-monocot.org/ |
Title | eMonocot Cannaceae scratchpad |
Description | Source of digital content on Cannaceae |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2012 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Online working environment for Cannaceae systematists |
URL | http://cannaceae.e-monocot.org/ |
Title | eMonocot Colchicaceae scratchpad |
Description | Source of digital taxonomic content on Colchicaceae |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2012 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Online working environment for Colchicaceae systematists |
URL | http://colchicaceae.e-monocot.org/ |
Title | eMonocot Commelinaceae scratchpad |
Description | Source of digital taxonomic content on Commelinaceae |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2013 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Online working environment for Commelinaceae systematists |
URL | http://commelinaceae.e-monocot.org/ |
Title | eMonocot Cyperaceae scratchpad |
Description | Source of digital taxonomic content for Cyperaceae |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2011 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Online working environment for Cyperaceae systematists |
URL | http://cyperaceae.e-monocot.org |
Title | eMonocot Dioscoreaceae scratchpad |
Description | Source of digital taxonomic content on Dioscoreaceae |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2011 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Online working environment for Dioscoreaceae systematists |
URL | http://dioscoreaceae.e-monocot.org/ |
Title | eMonocot Eriocaulaceae scratchpad |
Description | Source of digital taxonomic content for Eriocaulaceae |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2012 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Online working environment for Eriocaulaceae systematists |
URL | http://eriocaulaceae.e-monocot.org/ |
Title | eMonocot Hypoxidaceae scratchpad |
Description | Source of digital taxonomic content on Hypoxidaceae |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2012 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Online working environment for Hypoxidaceae systematists |
URL | http://hypoxidaceae.e-monocot.org/ |
Title | eMonocot Iridaceae scratchpad |
Description | Source of digital taxonomic content on Iridaceae |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2012 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Online working environment for Iridaceae systematists |
URL | http://iridaceae.e-monocot.org/ |
Title | eMonocot Juncaceae scratchpad |
Description | Source of digital taxonomic content on Juncaceae |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2012 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Online working environment for Juncaceae systematists |
URL | http://juncaceae.e-monocot.org/ |
Title | eMonocot Juncaginaceae scratchpad |
Description | Source of digital content on Juncaginaceae |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2011 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Online working environment for Juncaginaceae systematists |
URL | http://juncaginaceae.myspecies.info/ |
Title | eMonocot Liliaceae scratchpad |
Description | Source of digital taxonomic content on Liliaceae |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2012 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Online working environment for Liliaceae systematists |
URL | http://liliaceae.e-monocot.org/ |
Title | eMonocot Orchidaceae-Aeridinae scratchpad |
Description | Source of digital taxonomic content on Orchidaceae-Aeridinae |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2012 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Online working environment for Orchidaceae-Aeridinae systematists |
URL | http://aeridinae.e-monocot.org/ |
Title | eMonocot Orchidaceae-Cypripedioideae scratchpad |
Description | Source of digital taxonomic content on Orchidaceae-Cypripedioideae |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2011 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Online working environment for Orchidaceae-Cypripedioideae systematists |
URL | http://cypripedioideae.e-monocot.org/ |
Title | eMonocot Orchidaceae-Eulophiinae scracthpad |
Description | Source of digital taxonomic content on Orchidaceae-Eulophiinae |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2012 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Online working environment for Orchidaceae-Eulophiinae systematists |
URL | http://eulophiinae.e-monocot.org/ |
Title | eMonocot Orchidaceae-Orchideae scracthpad |
Description | Source of digital taxonomic content on Orchidaceae-Orchideae |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2013 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Online working environment for Orchidaceae-Orchideae systematists |
URL | http://orchideae.e-monocot.org/ |
Title | eMonocot Orders and families of Monocotyledons scratchpad |
Description | Source of digital taxonomic content on monocot taxa above species rank and selected other datasets |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2011 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | None known |
URL | http://families.e-monocot.org/ |
Title | eMonocot Potamogetonaceae scratchpad |
Description | Source of digital content on Potamogetonaceae |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2013 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Online working environment for Potamogetonaceae systematists |
URL | http://potamogetonaceae.e-monocot.org/ |
Title | eMonocot Restionaceae scratchpad |
Description | Source of digital taxonomic content on Restionaceae |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2012 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Online working environment for Restionaceae systematists |
URL | http://restionaceae.e-monocot.org/ |
Title | eMonocot Smilacaceae scratchpad |
Description | Source of digital taxonomic content on Smilacaceae |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2013 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Online working environment for Smilacaceae systematists |
URL | http://smilacaceae.e-monocot.org/ |
Title | eMonocot Typhaceae scracthpad |
Description | Source of digital taxonomic content on Typhaceae |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2012 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Online working environment for Typhaceae systematists |
URL | http://typhaceae.e-monocot.org |
Title | eMonocot Xanthorrhoeaceae scratchpad |
Description | Source of digital taxonomic data on Xanthorrhoeaceae |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2012 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Online working environment for Xanthorrhoeaceae systematists |
URL | http://xanthorrhoeaceae.e-monocot.org/ |
Title | eMonocot Xyridaceae scratchpad |
Description | Source of digital taxonomic content on Xyridaceae |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2012 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Online working environment for Xyridaceae systematists |
URL | http://xyridaceae.e-monocot.org/ |
Title | eMonocot Zingiberaceae scratchpad |
Description | Source of digital taxonomic content on Zingiberaceae |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2012 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Online working environment for Zingiberaceae systematists |
URL | http://zingiberaceae.e-monocot.org/ |
Title | eMonocot portal |
Description | Aggregation portal website aimed at biodiversity scientists. Presenting data on 277,033 taxon names and 84, 277 accepted taxa, 13,107 images, 32 identification keys and 44 phylogenetic trees. Taxon pages carry IUCN conservation status, molecular marker data from NCBI - National Center for Biotechnology Information and BOLD Systems - Barcode of Life Data Systems and distribution maps linked to GBIF - Global Biodiversity Information Facility specimen data. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2012 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Has enabled other web products e.g. Palmworld Being used to develop "big data" studies of monocot ecology and evolution Provided a model for large aggregation websites for biodiversity data e.g. Online World Flora |
URL | http://emonocot.org/ |
Description | Blog posts - 61 posts |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Information about project shared and publicised None |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011,2012,2013 |
URL | http://about.e-monocot.org/blogs |
Description | Popular articles (4) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Project publicised None |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011,2013,2014 |
URL | http://planetearth.nerc.ac.uk/features/story.aspx?id=1752 |
Description | Public presentations: Lyme Regis Fossil Festival 2011 and 2012; Writhlington School Orchid Project (2011-13); public engagement series Nature Live at NHM, A Spoonful of Science at RBG, Kew. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Discussion, interest in biodiversity informatics and use of/participation in eMonocot Use of eMonocot portal and scratchpad websites |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011,2012,2013 |
URL | http://about.e-monocot.org/blogs/sarah-phillips |
Description | Scientific conference activity at 12 conferences |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
Results and Impact | Engagment with taxonomic producer communities and biodiversity science user communities Content in scratchpads and use of the portal |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011,2012,2013 |
Description | Tweets (266) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Information shared and project publicised None |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011,2012,2013,2014 |
URL | http://emonocot.org/ |
Description | Workshops (12 held) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
Results and Impact | Taxonomists enabled to use scratchpads and engaged with eTaxonomy and provision of datasets to a broader array of users more effectively.. Content submitted and aggregated in portal where it is presented to users in forms suitable for their needs. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011,2012,2013 |
URL | http://about.e-monocot.org/blogs |