The Australasian Virtual Herbarium (AVH) is an online resource[1] that allows access to plant specimen data held by various
Australian and New Zealand herbaria.[1][2] It is part of the
Atlas of Living Australia (ALA),[3] and was formed by the amalgamation of Australia's Virtual Herbarium and NZ Virtual Herbarium.[4] As of 12 August 2014, more than five million specimens of the 8 million and upwards specimens available from participating institutions have been databased.[5]
Uses
This resource is used by academics, students, and anyone interested in research in botany in Australia or New Zealand, since each record tells all that is known about the specimen: where and when it was collected; by whom; its current identification together with the botanist who identified it; and information on habitat and associated species.[1]ALA post processes the original herbarium data, giving further fields with respect to taxonomy and quality of the data.[6] When interrogating individual specimen records, the environmental overlays show reverse
jackknife testing[7][8] to see whether the specimen is an outlier with respect to the climate and other environmental layers. See e.g.,
MEL 0304065A (Scaevola amblyanthera).
All records are downloadable in their entirety, by anyone.[9] Examples of the use of these records may be found in
journal articles on: e.g., sea warming;[10] marine biogeography;[11] acacias;[12] weeds;[13][14] determining phytogeographical regions via species composition;[15] developing biodiverse plantings suitable for changing climatic conditions;[16] phylogenetics and conservation;[17] and statistical issues arising when using herbaria data[18]
A
google scholar search, using the phrase Australia's Virtual Herbarium, shows that well over 200 articles (as of 3 May 2018) have been published using data from this resource.[19]
The
Australian Tropical Herbarium (CNS), a joint venture of CSIRO Plant Industry and the Director National Parks (through the Australian National Herbarium), the Queensland Government (through the Queensland Herbarium and the Department of Science, Information Technology, Innovation and the Arts (DSITIA)) and James Cook University
The
Northern Territory Herbarium, in Darwin (DNA) and Alice Springs (NT), Department of Environment and Natural Resources
The
Tasmanian Herbarium (HO), Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Department of State Growth
Plans for Australia's Virtual Herbarium were announced in 2001.[21] An article by
Tim Entwisle in 2003[22] shows it still to be largely in the planning stage at that time, although the projected usages for preservation of biodiversity in western New South Wales were already visible.[22]
^Richardson, D.M., Carruthers, J., Hui, C., Impson, F.A.C., Miller, J.T., Robertson, M.P., Rouget, M., Roux, J.J.L., Wilson, J.R.U. 2011. Human-mediated introductions of Australian acacias – a global experiment in biogeography. Diversity and Distributions 17, 771-787.
doi:
10.1111/j.1472-4642.2011.00824.xpdf
^Beaumont, Linda J.; Gallagher, Rachael V.; Leishman, Michelle R.; Hughes, Lesley; Downey, Paul O.; Wilson, John (2014). "How can knowledge of the climate niche inform the weed risk assessment process? A case study of Chrysanthemoides monilifera in Australia". Diversity and Distributions. 20 (6): 613–625.
Bibcode:
2014DivDi..20..613B.
doi:
10.1111/ddi.12190.
ISSN1366-9516.
S2CID84205376.