Denver Botanic Gardens

Denver Botanic Gardens will develop new open-source data management tools that will enable natural history collections to link specimen records with external datasets. Although large-scale digitization efforts have made tens of millions of specimens accessible, much of the rich, multidimensional data associated with these specimens remains fragmented across disconnected databases. This new platform will link a core physical specimen with a network of associated digital resources, including images, genomic data, functional traits, ecological observations, and downstream analytical outputs. Staff will test the tool’s efficacy by conducting a case study examining biodiversity responses to changing wildfire regimes in the semi-arid western United States, focusing primarily on specimens in herbarium collections. By linking specimens to ecological and environmental data through accessible digital infrastructure, this project will transform natural history collections into powerful tools for interdisciplinary research and applied decision-making.