A new floristic atlas for the Southeast based on taxon concept relationships

1. A new floristic atlas for the Southeast based on taxon concept relationships • Robert K. Peet1, Alan S. Weakley1,2 & Xianhua Liu1,3 • 1The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • 2The North Carolina Botanical Garden • 3National Evolutionary Synthesis Center

2. Radford, Ahles & Bell 1968 Our History & Tradition

3. Why we need a new Atlas • New names • New taxon concepts (lumps & splits) • New discoveries • Taxa new to science • New collections & overlooked collections • New data sources (Plots, Heritage lists) • New determinations

4. Challenges in creating a modern Southeastern floristic atlas • Regional floras are generally obsolete and incomplete. • Local atlases follow idiosyncratic taxonomies. • Few museum collections have been databased. • Museum collections are rarely determined to concept. • Floristic lists and ecological datasets with multiple taxonomic authorities and inconsistent taxonomic concepts have defied integration.

5. Three concepts of subalpine fir Splitting one species into two illustrates the ambiguity often associated with scientific names. Abies bifolia Abies lasiocarpa Abies lasiocarpa sec. Little sec. USDA PLANTS sec. Flora North America

6. One concept ofAbieslasiocarpa USDA Plants & ITIS Abies lasiocarpa var. lasiocarpa var. arizonica

7. A narrow concept of Abies lasiocarpa Flora North America Abies lasiocarpa Abies bifolia Partnership with USDA plants to provide plant concepts for data integration

8. High-elevation fir trees of western North America AZ NM CO WY MT AB eBC wBC WA OR Distribution Abies lasiocarpa var. arizonica Abies lasiocarpa var. lasiocarpa USDA - ITIS Abies lasiocarpa Abies bifolia Flora North America A B C Minimal concepts

9. Andropogon virginicus complex in the Carolinas 9 elemental units; 17 base concepts, 27 scientific names

10. The good news: • Multiple organizations are developing tools for concept use and integration. • The challenge: • Few large-scale compilations of concepts and their relationships are available.

11. Massive Import • Scanned indices -- OCR • Spreadsheets for preliminary concept documentation • Import into software tool for managing concepts and relationships

12. Concept mapper

13. SE floristic works mapped • Weakley 2005. Flora of the Carolinas, Virginia, Georgia, and Surrounding Areas • Small 1933. Manual of the southeastern flora • Fernald 1950. Gray's manual of botany • Gleason 1952. Britton and Brown illustrated flora • Radford, Ahles & Bell 1968. Manual of the vascular flora of the Carolinas • Gleason & Cronquist 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada • 1993-2005. Flora of North America north of Mexico • Kartesz 1999. A synonymized checklist for the vascular flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland • Wofford 1989. Vascular Plants of the Blue Ridge • Godfrey & Wooton 1979. Aquatic and Wetland Plants of Southeastern United States • 1980-1990. Vascular Flora of the Southeastern United States • Recent monographs and revisions (>2000)

14. Concept mapping progress • ~ 65000 relationships of taxon concepts to Weakley 2005 concepts • Based on ~ 800 taxonomic references.

15. Toward a new Atlas http://herbarium.unc.edu/seflora/firstviewer.htm How to integrate new sources of data?? Carya carolinae-septentrionalis, Radford et al. 1968

16. Add dynamic access to NCU collection NCU RAB Carya carolinae-septentrionalis

17. Add USDA PLANTS records & CVS vegetation plot data NCU RAB USDA CVS Carya carolinae-septentrionalis

18. But wait !!There is a concept issue • According to Radford 1968, USDA PLANTS v 4.0, & Weakley 2005 • Carya carolinae-septentrionalis • Carya ovata • According to Stone 1997 in FNA • Carya ovata var australis • Carya ovata var. ovata

20. Some nominal occurrences might or might not represent the taxon Carya carolinae-septentrionalis

21. All specimens of Carya ovata must be identified to nominal concepts

22. Consider Cleistes • Cleistes bifaria was split off C. divaricata after Radford et al. was published. • Radford et al. records must be mapped as ambiguous. • Kartesz incorrectly maps all Cleistes in the Carolinas as C. divaricata owing to uncritical import of records from Radford.

25. Data layers • Specimens • NCU (~8,0000 - nominal) • NCSU (nominal) • Weymouth Woods (~2000 - Weakley) • UNCC (in process, ~43,000 - Weakley) • High-quality databases • Sorrie’s SE Costal Plain endemics (Weakley) • NC Natural Heritage Program (Weakley) • Harmon et al. 2006 West Virginia atlas (US) • Selected literature records (idiosyncratic)

26. Data layers – 2 • Other databases • Radford et al. (Radford) • USDA PLANTS (US) • Site records • Carolina Vegetation Survey (~300,000) • Total county records in database ~1,500,000

27. Specimens matching the name

28. ..\..\New Folder\Snap32.jpg Images matching the name

29. Community types with the concept

30. Link to Vegetation plots with the taxon

31. Next steps? Design: • Allow user to select date-specific version of Weakley. • Allow user to select a Weakley, PLANTS, or FNA perspective (or others?). Data needs: • Map relationships to PLANTS v 4.0 • Map relationships between PLANTS and FNA • Date-stamp changes in Weakley • More distribution layers

32. Links ConceptMapper http://152.2.14.231/conceptmapper/ Weakley flora http://herbarium.unc.edu/flora.htm NCU Atlas of the SE flora http://herbarium.unc.edu/seflora/firstviewer.htm Thanks NSF (SEEK, VegBank), NC Bot. Garden