University of Michigan (Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum, University of Michigan)

The University of Michigan's Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum will develop a geospatial collections database and series of GIS apps for mapping and managing the institution's living collections. Information on living collections of plants, animals, and natural communities is currently stored in a variety of electronic files and formats, and the vast majority of records lack digital locational data. The new unified geospatial collections database will be populated with current plant, animal, and natural community collections data, records from the U-M Herbarium and Museum of Zoology, and data on living collections published in the scientific literature. Records will be updated with precise locational data (GPS data) rather than subzone paper-map polygons and tabular codes. The integration of plant, animal, and natural community data into a single geospatial relational database will provide critical information for guiding collections stewardship.