| Abstract Detail
Biogeography Shultz, L. M. [1], Ramsey, R. D. [2], Garrard, C. [3]. "Virtual Utah" and the Digital Atlas of Utah Plants. “Virtual Utah” is a website providing tools and decisions support systems for natural resource management and is part of the Intermountain Region Digital Image Archive Center (earth.gis.usu.edu). In 2009, data from the digital atlas of Utah plants were incorporated in the site. The Digital Atlas of Utah Plants by L. Shultz, R.D. Ramsey, and W. Lindquist (2006) is a revision of the Atlas of the Vascular Plants of Utah by B. Albee, L. Shultz, and S. Goodrich, published in 1988 by the University of Utah Museum of Natural History. The original Atlas was compiled from approximately 400,000 specimens of Utah plants housed at Brigham Young University (BRY), University of Utah (UT), Utah State University (UTC), and several herbaria associated with federal offices in the state. The authors examined each specimen and verified identifications before the collections were mapped on a map showing townships within the state. Technicians at the Remote Sensing/Geographic Information System (RS/GIS) laboratory of Utah State University hand-digitized the original maps and the first on-line version was displayed on a web site in 1992. Development of GIS layers follows the methodology reported in Ramsey and Shultz (2004). The composite GIS system for 2,840 vascular plant species displays approximately 77,000 locations (some with multiple records) in 10 X 10 km grids (roughly equal to a township). The new digital version displays a source code for each mapped position (i.e. "Albee et al. 1988", "UNHP 2005", etc.), approximately 8,000 new records-- including locations for rare species from the Utah Natural Heritage Program (UNHP) -- and more than 500 nomenclatural updates. Incorporation of these data layers as part of the “Virtual Utah” website gives the user the ability to analyze patterns of biodiversity and generate species lists for targeted regions within the state.
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1 - Utah State University, Wildland Resources, Logan, UT, 84322-5230, USA
2 - Utah State University, Wildland Resources and Remote Sensing/GIS Lab, Logan, UT, 84322-5230, USA
3 - Utah State University, Remote Sensing/GIS Lab, Logan, UT, 84322-5230, USA
Keywords:
Utah
rare plants
atlas
vascular plants
Biodiversity.
Presentation Type: Poster:Posters for Topics
Session: P1
Location: Event Tent/Cliff Lodge
Date: Monday, July 27th, 2009
Time: 5:30 PM
Number: P1BG005
Abstract ID:416 |
