Identifying gaps in the photographic record of the vascular plant flora of the Americas

Nigel C. A. Pitman (1) , Tomomi Suwa (1) , Carmen Ulloa Ulloa (2) , James Miller (2) , James Solomon (2) , Juliana Philipp (1) , Corine Vriesendorp (1) , Abigail Derby Lewis (1) , Sinem Perk (1) , Pierre Bonnet (3, 4) , Alexis Joly (5, 6) , Mathias Tobler (7) , Jason H. Best (8) , John P. Janovec (9) , Kevin C. Nixon (10) , Barbara M. Thiers (11) , Melissa Tulig (11) , Edward E. Gilbert (12) , Rafaela Campostrini Forzza (13) , Geraldo Zimbrão (14) , Fabiana Luiza Ranzato Filardi (13) , Robert Turner (15) , Fernando Zuloaga (16) , Manuel Belgrano (16) , Christian Zanotti (17) , Jurriaan M. de Vos (18) , Eduardo Hettwer Giehl (19) , Timothy C. E. Paine (20) , Rubens Texeira de Queiroz (21) , Katya Romoleroux (22) , Everton Hilo de Souza (23)

1 Field Museum of Natural History [Chicago, USA]
2 Missouri Botanical Garden
3 UMR AMAP - Botanique et Modélisation de l'Architecture des Plantes et des Végétations
4 Cirad-BIOS - Département Systèmes Biologiques
5 LIRMM - Laboratoire d'Informatique de Robotique et de Microélectronique de Montpellier
6 ZENITH - Scientific Data Management
7 San Diego Zoo Global Institute for Conservation Research
8 Botanical Research Institute of Texas
9 UNALM - Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina
10 Cornell University [New York]
11 NYBG - New York Botanical Garden
12 ASU - Arizona State University [Tempe]
13 JBRJ - Instituto de Pesquisas Jardim Botanico do Rio de Janeiro
14 UNIRIO - Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro
15 Royal Botanic Gardens [Kew]
16 IBODA - Instituto de Botánica Darwinion [Buenos Aires]
17 CONICET - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas [Buenos Aires]
18 Unibas - Université de Bâle = University of Basel = Basel Universität
19 UFSC - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina = Federal University of Santa Catarina [Florianópolis]
20 UNE - University of New England
21 UFPB - Universidade Federal da Paraiba / Federal University of Paraiba
22 Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador
23 UFRB - Universidade Federal do Recôncavo da Bahia

Field photographs of plant species are crucial for research and conservation, but the lack of a centralized database makes them difficult to locate. We surveyed 25 online databases of field photographs and found that they harboured only about 53% of the approximately 125,000 vascular plant species of the Americas. These results reflect the urgent need for a centralized database that can both integrate and complete the photographic record of the world’s flora.

Mots clés: Biodiversity; Databases; Natural variation in plants; Research management

Domaines: Systématique, phylogénie et taxonomie; Ecosystèmes; Botanique; Biodiversité et Ecologie

Nigel C. A. Pitman, Tomomi Suwa, Carmen Ulloa Ulloa, James Miller, James Solomon, et al.. Identifying gaps in the photographic record of the vascular plant flora of the Americas. Nature Plants, 2021, 7, pp.1010-1014. ⟨10.1038/s41477-021-00974-2⟩. ⟨hal-03312029⟩