Digitization of the Marine Herbarium “TAR” to Increase Biodiversity Knowledge

Created 24 marca 2026

Updated on 7 maja 2026

approved

Over the past twenty years, significant efforts have been made to digitize natural collections. This process represents a crucial step in preserving and enhancing biodiversity data. In this context, the phycology team from the Institute for Water Research (CNR-IRSA) in Taranto (southern Italy), as a partner of the NRRP Project ITINERIS, and within the nascent European Research Infrastructure “Distributed System of Scientific Collections” (DiSSCo), answered to the challenge of digitizing and sharing the extensive biodiversity data preserved in the marine macrophyte collection Herbarium TAR. This herbarium includes over 500 species collected between 1982 and 2025. Digitization was carried out in accordance with international standards for imaging and in compliance with FAIR principles for metadata curation. A total of 353 digital specimens were produced, including 152 species of seaweeds (76 Rhodophyta, 47 Heterokontophyta, and 29 Chlorophyta) and 3 species of Tracheophyta. Notably, 15 non-indigenous species were documented. Part of the metadata, structured using the Darwin Core standard, has been published on GBIF. This initiative, carried out within the ITINERIS framework, highlights the value of both long-term biodiversity monitoring and digital data in supporting research on climate change, biological invasions, and the conservation of marine ecosystems.

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Basic
Język
English
MainTitle
Digitization of the Marine Herbarium “TAR” to Increase Biodiversity Knowledge
Original ids
Research Infrastructure
DISSCO
Typ
publication
bestAccessRight
OPEN
countries
null
Creator/Author
Full name
  • Loredana Papa;
  • Ester Cecere;
  • Antonella Petrocelli, orcid: 0000-0001-7556-9451;
  • Lucia Spada, orcid: 0000-0002-5346-9449
Other
Opis
Over the past twenty years, significant efforts have been made to digitize natural collections. This process represents a crucial step in preserving and enhancing biodiversity data. In this context, the phycology team from the Institute for Water Research (CNR-IRSA) in Taranto (southern Italy), as a partner of the NRRP Project ITINERIS, and within the nascent European Research Infrastructure “Distributed System of Scientific Collections” (DiSSCo), answered to the challenge of digitizing and sharing the extensive biodiversity data preserved in the marine macrophyte collection Herbarium TAR. This herbarium includes over 500 species collected between 1982 and 2025. Digitization was carried out in accordance with international standards for imaging and in compliance with FAIR principles for metadata curation. A total of 353 digital specimens were produced, including 152 species of seaweeds (76 Rhodophyta, 47 Heterokontophyta, and 29 Chlorophyta) and 3 species of Spermatophyta. Notably, 15 non-indigenous species were documented. Part of the metadata, structured using the Darwin Core standard, has been published on GBIF. This initiative, carried out within the ITINERIS framework, highlights the value of both long-term biodiversity monitoring and digital data in supporting research on climate change, biological invasions, and the conservation of marine ecosystems.
Publication Date
2025-09-11
Publisher
MDPI
isGreen
false
isInDiamondJournal
false
Software
Publication
Nazwa
Diversity
Publication
Article
Starting page
641
iss
17(9)
issnOnline
1424-2818
vol
641
Other Research Product
Detailed informations
Management Info
Autor
Wersja
1
Last Updated
maja 7, 2026, 11:13 (UTC)
Created
marca 24, 2026, 23:25 (UTC)
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