Workshop Greifswald, 2009: „Vegetation Databases and Bioindication“
A. Zemmrich & U. Najmi: „FloraGREIF – More than a virtual herbarium“ (Presentation)
Workshop „Vegetation Databases and Bioindication“, February 25 – 27 2009, University of Greifswald
Abstract:
FloraGREIF – A virtual database on the Flora of Mongolia
by Anne Zemmrich Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, Greifswald University, Grimmer Str. 88, 17487 Greifswald, Germany
FloraGREIF is a digital database providing taxonomic, bio-geographical and ecological information. Accessible via Internet
- it allows easy species determination on the basis of images of reliably determined herbarium specimens, it offers macro scans concerning taxonomic characteristics as well as photographs of living plants;
- it also provides data on site ecology, general distribution of species and locations where the respective specimens were collected. An additional WebGIS application allows to create and analyze maps concerning distribution in Mongolia, habitat and elevation of presented and imported herbarium records;
- it finally constitutes a source of digitalized specimens as material for further taxonomic revisions.
Since Central Asia has become a region of interest in light of climate change, desertification and biodiversity loss, FloraGREIF started with the flora of Mongolia. But it intends to further expand into Central Asia, for instance to Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. As an integral part of the content management system of the Greifswald University (GREIF), FloraGREIF is expected to be supported on a long-term basis.
This contribution wishes to introduce FloraGREIF as a practically applicable tool of future ecological research on Central Asia’s vegetation. Furthermore, as an integral component of the Open Source Initiative, FloraGREIF is presented as a future cooperation partner for scientists and projects involved in ecological and botanical research in Central Asia.