Author: Pensoft Editorial Team

Mass digitisation of a herbarium collection: ten lessons learned from Meise Botanic Garden

The lessons were published in the open-access journal PhytoKeys.

Herbaria – collections of preserved plant specimens – are crucial in botanical research and biodiversity conservation. Digitising these collections is an important step towards making data available to all, preserving specimens by reducing the need for handling, and creating new research opportunities.

Herbarium specimens on a conveyor belt at Meise Botanic Garden.
Mass digitisation of herbarium specimens on a conveyor belt at Meise Botanic Garden, allowing the imaging of 3,000–5,000 specimens per day.

Meise Botanic Garden recently completed a six-year project to digitise approximately three million specimens of their herbarium collection. While it was a big change for their organisation, it was one they deemed necessary to bring their collection into the digital age. 

The digitisation project contributes to the Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo) research infrastructure aiming to unify access to biodiversity and geodiversity specimens under common standards, giving users access to specimens and their data from European institutions. DiSSCo has also created a website with digitisation guides and the DiSSCo Knowledge Base. 

Several people sitting at tables working on herbarium specimens.
Joint restoration session of the herbarium team at Meise Botanic Garden.

Based on their experience, the team published ten valuable lessons they learned during the process to assist  other institutions embarking on similar digitisation projects. These lessons are available in the open-access journal PhytoKeys.

1. Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom ― Aristotle

Before starting digitisation, it is important to understand the full scope of your collection. This involves detailed inventory checks and assessments of the state of the specimens. Knowing the exact number and condition of the specimens will help in accurate budgeting and planning. A detailed inventory of a representative tenth of your collection can be extrapolated to the entire collection.

2. Prioritise (if lack of money forces you to do so)

If resources are limited, prioritising which parts of the collection to digitise first is key. Consider factors such as the scientific importance of the specimens, their physical state, and stakeholder needs. It is important to note that digitising the entire collection can be more efficient than selecting subcollections, as partial digitisation can complicate management.

3. Learn from other people’s successes – and mistakes

Do not reinvent the wheel. Engage with other institutions that have undertaken similar projects to learn from their successes and mistakes. Follow existing guidelines and adapt them to fit your specific needs. If you think you have a better way of doing things, talk it over with someone with experience. 

4. Decide whether to do it yourself or have it done for you

Deciding whether to conduct the digitisation in-house or to outsource it depends on available resources. Consider the skills and availability of your staff and the costs associated with outsourcing. Some tasks, such as imaging or data transcription, might be more efficiently handled by external specialists.

5. Make a plan

A well-thought-out plan is crucial. Define workflows, procedures, and quality control mechanisms. And be specific about your requirements when outsourcing parts of the project to avoid any misunderstandings.

6. Go shopping

Ensure that all necessary supplies, such as barcodes, storage containers, and IT infrastructure, are in place before starting the digitisation process. Bulk purchasing is often cost-effective, and having everything ready will prevent delays.

7. Make your collection look its best for the photographer

Prepare the specimens for imaging by incorporating pre-digitisation curation steps like repairing damaged specimens and adding barcodes. 

8. Expect problems, particularly ones that you don’t expect

Problems will arise, from equipment malfunctions to human errors. Establish quality control processes to catch issues early. Automate checks where possible and ensure prompt human review for aspects like image focus and lighting.

9. Make your data visible – make a big deal of it

Making digitised data publicly accessible is vital. Use online portals and ensure the data adheres to FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). Publicity will increase the use and impact of your collection.

10. Save your data for the future

Make sure the digitised data is backed up in a secure, offsite archive. Long-term storage solutions should be considered to preserve the data for future use. And factor this ongoing cost into the budget.

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To read extended advice from Meise Botanic Garden, as well as four case studies, check out the full research paper below:

Original source

De Smedt S, Bogaerts A, De Meeter N, Dillen M, Engledow H, Van Wambeke P, Leliaert F, Groom Q (2024) Ten lessons learned from the mass digitisation of a herbarium collection. PhytoKeys 244: 23-37. https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.244.120112 

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Monster Hunter in real life: eyeless spider named after video game monstrosity

Discovered in China, the cave-dwelling arachnid was assigned a rather unflattering species name.

Deep within a cave in the Du’an Yao Autonomous County of Guangxi, China, researchers discovered a pale, eyeless spider unknown to science.

This discovery, detailed in the open-access Biodiversity Data Journal adds a remarkable member to the Otacilia genus. And, as is often the case, the scientist behind the revelation turned to popular culture to name the new species.

They settled on Otacilia khezu.

A close-up shot of the face Khezu from Monster Hunter at night. It is a wwyvern with no eyes and many teeth.
Khezu in Monster Hunter.

The Khezu wyvern features in the popular video game series Monster Hunter. It is known for its blindness and unsettling appearance, just like newly discovered species. By naming the spider Otacilia khezu, the researchers highlight its troglobitic – or cave-dwelling – nature, particularly the complete absence of its eyes.

“Its long, elastic neck stretching out while it clings to a wall or the ceiling is a sight straight out of a nightmare. Make sure you do not get overwhelmed by its horrific appearance.”

Khezu description, Monster Hunter Wiki.

Otacilia khezu, like many troglobitic creatures, lacks eyes and pigmentation, has elongated appendages, and has developed heightened sensory adaptations to navigate and thrive in its dark environment.

A pale eyeless spider on a cave floor.
Otacilia khezu juvenile, in life. Photo: Shanmi Zheng.

The research team led by Yejie Li,  Langfang Normal University, note the significance of the discovery, as it marks the first recorded troglobitic Otacilia species in China. Prior to this, only two troglobitic Otacilia species had been identified, both in Laos. 

The species is one of many spiders named after influential fictional characters. In fact, one spider was named after a character and the actor playing him.

The Venom Spider: new genus named after Tom Hardy’s Marvel character

The documentation and publication of this new species set the stage for further studies on the ecological roles of troglobitic spiders and their evolutionary adaptations.

Chinese civillians can rest assured that Otacilia khezu is considerably less dangerous than its namesake when they keep an eye out for the eyeless arachnid.

Original source:

Lin Y, Chen H, Wang X, Li S (2024) Otacilia khezu sp. nov., a new troglobitic spider (Araneae, Phrurolithidae) from Guangxi, China. Biodiversity Data Journal 12: e126716. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.12.e126716

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Pensoft at the 7th European Congress of Conservation Biology as a publisher and Horizon project partner

At the Pensoft’s stand, delegates learned about the scientific publisher’s versatile open-access journal portfolio, as well as related publishing services and the Horizon project where Pensoft is a partner.

Between 17th and 22nd June 2024, Pensoft’s scholarly publishing and project teams joined the European Congress of Conservation Biology (ECCB), organised by the Society for Conservation Biology and hosted by the University of Bologna.

Here’s a fun fact: the University of Bologna is the oldest one still in operation in the world. It is also etched in history for being the first institution to award degrees of higher learning.  

This year, the annual event themed “Biodiversity positive by 2030” took place in the stunning Italian city of Bologna famous for its historical and cultural heritage, in a way building a bridge between the past of European civilisation and the future, which is now in our hands.

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At the Pensoft’s stand, delegates learned about the scientific publisher’s versatile open-access journal portfolio of over 30 journals covering the fields of ecology and biodiversity, as well as other related services and products offered by Pensoft, including the end-to-end full-featured scholarly publishing platform ARPHA, which hosts and powers all Pensoft journals, in addition to dozens other academic outlets owned by learned societies, natural history museums and other academic institutions.

In addition to its convenient collaborative online environment, user interface and automated export/import workflows, what ARPHA’s clients enjoy perhaps the most, are the various human-provided services that come with the platform, including graphic and web design, assistance in journal indexing, typesetting, copyediting and science communication.

Visitors at the stand could also be heard chatting with Pensoft’s Head of Journal development, Marketing and PR: Iva Boyadzhieva about the publisher’s innovative solutions for permanent preservation and far-reaching dissemination and communication of academic outputs that do not match the traditional research article format.

For example, the Research Ideas and Outcomes (RIO) journal was launched in 2015 by Pensoft as an open-science journal that would publish ‘unconventional’ research outputs, such as Grant proposals, Policy briefs, Project reports, Data management plans, Research ideas etc. Its project-branded open-science collections are in fact one of the Pensoft’s products that enjoys particular attention to participants in scientific projects funded by the likes of the European Commission’s Horizon programme.

Another innovation by Pensoft that easily becomes a talking point at forums like ECCB, is the ARPHA Conference Abstract (ACA) platform, which is basically a journal for conference abstracts, where abstracts are treated and published much like regular journal articles (a.k.a. ‘mini papers’) to enable permanent preservation, but also accessibility, discoverability and citability. Furthermore, ACA has been designed to act as an abstracts submission portal, where the abstracts undergo review and receive feedback before being published and indexed at dozens of relevant scientific databases.

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At ECCB 2024, our team was also happy to meet in person many authors and editors, whose work has frequented the pages of journals like Nature Conservation, Biodiversity Data Journal, ZooKeys and NeoBiota, to name a few.

On Wednesday, delegates also got a chance to hear the talk by renowned vegetation ecologist at the ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences and Editor-in-Chief at the Vegetation Classification and Survey journal: Prof. Dr. Jürgen Dengler. He presented findings and conclusions concerning neophytes in Switzerland, while drawing comparisons with other European countries and regions.

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At this year’s ECCB, Pensoft took a stand as an active Horizon project participant too. At the publisher’s booth, the delegates could explore various project outputs produced within REST-COAST, SpongeBoost and BioAgora. Each of these initiatives has been selected by the European Commission to work on the mitigation of biodiversity decline, while aiming for sustainable ecosystems throughout the Old continent.

In all three projects, Pensoft is a consortium member, who contributes with expertise in science communication, dissemination, stakeholder engagement and technological development.

Coordinated by the Catalonia University of Technology UPC-BarcelonaTech and involving over 30 European institutions, REST-COAST has been working on developing tools to address key challenges to coastal ecosystems – all consequences of a long history of environmental degradation of our rivers and coasts.

Having started earlier this year, SpongeBoost is to build upon existing solutions and their large-scale implementation by implementing innovative approaches to improve the functional capacity of sponge landscapes. The project is coordinated by the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) and will be developed with the active participation of 10 partnering institutions from seven countries across Europe. 

In the meantime, since 2022, the five-year BioAgora project has been working towards setting up the Science Service for Biodiversity platform, which will turn into an efficient forum for dialogue between scientists, policy actors and other knowledge holders. BioAgora is a joint initiative, which brings together 22 partners from 13 European countries led by the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE).

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Still, REST-COAST, SpongeBoost and BioAgora were not the only Horizon projects involving Pensoft that made an appearance at ECCB this year thanks to the Pensoft team. 

On behalf of OBSGESSION – another Horizon-funded project, Nikola Ganchev, Communications officer at Pensoft, presented a poster about the recently started project. Until the end of 2027, the OBSGESSION project, also led by the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) and involving a total of 12 partnering organisations, will be tasked with the integration of different biodiversity data sources, including Earth Observation, in-situ research, and ecological models. Eventually, these will all be made into a comprehensive product for biodiversity management in both terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. 

On Tuesday evening, the CO-OP4CBD (abbreviation for Co-operation for the Convention on Biological Diversity) team: another Horizon Europe project, where Pensoft contributes with expertise in science communication and dissemination, held a workshop dedicated to what needs to be done to promote CBD activities in Central and Eastern Europe.

On the next day, scientists from the EuropaBON consortium: another project involving Pensoft that had concluded only about a month ago, held a session to report on the final conclusions from the project concerning the state and progress in biodiversity monitoring.

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You can find the detailed scientific programme of this year’s ECCB on the congress’ website. 

Use the #ECCB2024 hashtag on X (formerly Twitter) to relive highlights from the ECCB congress. 

Cute but deadly: a new velvet worm species from Ecuador

The so-called “living fossil” shoots a sticky substance from a pair of glands to trap its prey.

Researchers have described a remarkable new species of velvet worm from the Ecuadorian Amazon.

Take a look below:

Oroperipatus tiputini.
Credit: Roberto J. León, Archive Universidad San Francisco de Quito USFQ.

While the Tiputini velvet worm (Oroperipatus tiputini) may look friendly, it is an accomplished hunter that shoots a sticky substance from a pair of glands to trap its prey.

However, lead author Jorge Montalvo from the USFQ Museum of Zoology, notes that the species also has a softer side, with the mother taking care of her considerably lighter-coloured young after they are born.

Adult female velvet worm with her offspring on a leaf.
Adult female with her offspring.

Velvet worms, also known as onychophorans or peripatus, are rare and unique invertebrates often referred to as “living fossils” because they evolved over 500 million years ago, long before the appearance of dinosaurs.

Currently, only about 240 velvet worm species are known, inhabiting tropical regions in the Americas, southern Chile, Africa, Southeast Asia, Oceania, and New Zealand.

Adult velvet worm on a leaf.
Oroperipatus tiputini.
Pedro Peñaherrera-R., Archive Universidad San Francisco de Quito USFQ

Published in the open-access journal Zoosystematics and Evolution, the discovery was more than 20 years in the making. It also represented the first study of Ecuadorian velvet worms for over 100 years.

“The research on this new species took several decades. I discovered the first individual of this new species in 2001, and we finally managed to describe it as part of Jorge Montalvo’s graduation thesis, who is now my colleague at the Museum of Zoology at USFQ. To complete the description, we used not only macromorphological descriptions but also high-magnification images obtained with a scanning electron microscope.”

Diego F. Cisneros-Heredia, one of the authors and director of the USFQ Museum of Zoology, Ecuador.

The researchers named the species after the Tiputini Biodiversity Station (TBS), part of the Yasuní Biosphere Reserve. The name recognises the hard work of the station’s management, research, and field team in protecting biodiversity.

Map of Ecuador showing the location of the Tiputini Biodiversity Station.
Map of Ecuador showing the location of the Tiputini Biodiversity Station (white square), type locality of Oroperipatus tiputini sp. nov., in the Amazonian lowlands.

The description of the Tiputini velvet worm raises the total number of described velvet worm species in Ecuador to seven. This species is the first from the Ecuadorian Amazon lowlands and the third in the western Amazon.

Original source

Montalvo-Salazar JL, Bejarano ML, Valarezo A, Cisneros-Heredia DF (2024) A new species of velvet worm of the genus Oroperipatus (Onychophora, Peripatidae) from western Amazonia. Zoosystematics and Evolution 100(3): 779-789. https://doi.org/10.3897/zse.100.117952

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Brand new computer language describes organismal traits to create computable species descriptions

Describing traits with Phenoscript is like programming a computer code for how an organism looks.

The beetle species Grebennikovius basilewskyi. Numbers next to arrows indicate patterns of phenotype statements explained in the section “Phenoscript: main patterns of phenotype statements”. Arrow numbers from T1 to T5 illustrate individual body parts. See more in the research study.

One of the most beautiful aspects of Nature is the endless variety of shapes, colours and behaviours exhibited by organisms. These traits help organisms survive and find mates, like how a male peacock’s colourful tail attracts females or his wings allow him to fly away from danger. Understanding traits is crucial for biologists, who study them to learn how organisms evolve and adapt to different environments.

To do this, scientists first need to describe these traits in words, like saying a peacock’s tail is “vibrant, iridescent, and ornate”. This approach works for small studies, but when looking at hundreds or even millions of different animals or plants, it’s impossible for the human brain to keep track of everything.

Computers could help, but not even the latest AI technology is able to grasp human language to the extent needed by biologists. This hampers research significantly because, although scientists can handle large volumes of DNA data, linking this information to physical traits is still very difficult.

To solve this problem, researchers from the Finnish Museum of Natural History, Giulio Montanaro and Sergei Tarasov, along with collaborators, have created a special language called Phenoscript. This language is designed to describe traits in a way that both humans and computers can understand. Describing traits with Phenoscript is like programming a computer code for how an organism looks.

Phenoscript uses something called semantic technology, which helps computers understand the meaning behind words, much like how modern search engines know the difference between the fruit “apple” and the tech company “Apple” based on the context of your search.

“This language is still being tested, but it shows a lot of promise. As more scientists start using Phenoscript, it will revolutionise biology by making vast amounts of trait data available for large-scale studies, boosting the emerging field of phenomics,”

explains Montanaro.

In their research article, newly published in the open-access, peer-reviewed Biodiversity Data Journal, the researchers make use of the new language for the first time, as they create semantic phenotypes for four species of dung beetles from the genus Grebennikovius. Then, to demonstrate the power of the semantic approach, they apply simple semantic queries to the generated phenotypic descriptions. 

Finally, the team takes a look yet further ahead into modernising the way scientists work with species information. Their next aim is to integrate semantic species descriptions with the concept of nanopublications, “which encapsulates discrete pieces of information into a comprehensive knowledge graph”. As a result, data that has become part of this graph can be queried directly, thereby ensuring that it remains Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR) through a variety of semantic resources.

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Research paper:

Montanaro G, Balhoff JP, Girón JC, Söderholm M, Tarasov S (2024) Computable species descriptions and nanopublications: applying ontology-based technologies to dung beetles (Coleoptera, Scarabaeinae). Biodiversity Data Journal 12: e121562. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.12.e121562

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The hereby study is the latest addition to the special topical collection: “Linking FAIR biodiversity data through publications: The BiCIKL approach”, launched and supported by the recently concluded Horizon 2020 project: Biodiversity Community Integrated Knowledge Library (BiCIKL). The collection aims to bring together scientific publications that demonstrate the advantages and novel approaches in accessing and (re-)using linked biodiversity data.

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What expert recommendations did the BiCIKL consortium give to policy makers and research funders to ensure that biodiversity data is FAIR, linked, open and, indeed, future-proof? Find out in the blog post summarising key lessons learnt from the Horizon 2020 project.

How to ensure biodiversity data are FAIR, linked, open and future-proof?

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Lazy predator: A new species of mountain pit viper from China

Ovophis jenkinsi is dark brownish-grey, with trapezoidal patches on its back. It is endemic to China’s Yingjiang County and is not difficult to find in the wild.

Yunnan, China is a biodiversity hotspot, with many new reptile species discovered in the region in recent years. It is also where a research team from China found a new species of medium-sized venomous snake, known as a mountain pit viper.

Ovophis jenkinsi. Photo by Xianchun Qiu

“We checked specimens of the [snake] genus Ovophis collected by Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Beijing Forestry University in Yingjiang, Yunnan in 2008, and found that these specimens were different from all known similar species. We collected some new specimens from Yingjiang in 2023 and finally determined that this population represents a new species!” the researchers explained.

The new species was named Ovophis jenkinsi in honour of herpetologist Robert “Hank” William Garfield Jenkins AM (September 1947−September 2023), who had “a passion for snakes, especially pit vipers, and helped China, along with many Asian countries, complete snake census, conservation, and management projects,” the team writes in their study, which was published in the open-access journal ZooKeys.

A specimen of Ovophis jenkinsi from Yingjiang, Yunnan, China. Photo by Xianchun Qiu

Ovophis jenkinsi is generally dark brownish-grey, but some individuals can be deep orange-brown, and has trapezoidal patches on its back. “It is usually slow-moving but shows great aggression when disturbed,” the researchers explain after observing the snake’s behaviour. “When threatened, these snakes inflate their bodies to make themselves appear larger and strike quickly.”

There are no records to date of humans being bitten by this species.

The only known habitat of Ovophis jenkinsi, the tropical montane rainforest in Yingjiang, Yunnan, China. Photo by Xiaojun Gu

Like many other species, this snake is endemic to China’s Yingjiang County, which means it is currently found only there. “It is not difficult to find this species in the wild, they are active mainly in the autumn and prefer cool, humid, and even rainy nights, probably to avoid competition with other snakes,” the researchers say, suggesting it might feed on small mammals.

“We will be collecting more information about O. jenkinsi in the future, including their appearance, distribution, and habits, to improve our understanding of this species,” the researchers say in conclusion.

Research article:

Qiu X-C, Wang J-Z, Xia Z-Y, Jiang Z-W, Zeng Y, Wang N, Li P-P, Shi J-S (2024) A new mountain pitviper of the genus Ovophis Burger in Hoge & Romano-Hoge, 1981 (Serpentes, Viperidae) from Yunnan, China. ZooKeys 1203: 173-187. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1203.119218

Pensoft launches official Weibo account to expand global reach

¡Que Vive Centinela! A tiny new plant species reaffirms the “miraculous” survival of Western Ecuador’s ravished biodiversity

The discovery represents an inspiration for biodiversity conservation in an area the scientific community assumed to be a barren agricultural landscape of plant extinctions.

A new 5 cm-high plant species has been discovered on the western Andean slopes of Ecuador in an area where scientists once believed a rich diversity of native plants and animals had been totally destroyed.

John L. Clark with Amalophyllon miraculum. Credit @phinaea on Instagram.

The tiny plant, with iridescent foliage and white ephemeral flowers, was found in a farmer’s backyard during ongoing collaborative research expeditions in western Ecuador, led by teams of Ecuadorian and international researchers.

The expeditions resulted in the rediscovery of small forest fragments in a legendary hotspot known as Centinela. Selby Gardens research botanist, John L. Clark is the lead author of the article describing the new species in the peer-reviewed, open-access journal PhytoKeys.

The forest fragments are less than 20 miles from Santo Domingo, a major city of more than 300,000 people. Each fragment of Centinela is an isolated biodiversity island surrounded by large swaths of agricultural landscape largely devoid of forest.

Small purple plant leaf held between thumb and index finger.
Amalophyllon miraculum leaf.

A seminal publication titled “Biological extinction in western Ecuador” brought attention to the rapid loss of rainforest in western Ecuador. It was authored by the late botanists Alwyn Gentry and Calaway Dodson, Selby Gardens’ first Executive Director, whose research inspired names such as Gasteranthus extinctus in recognition of the loss of more than 70-97% of rainforests from the western Ecuadorian lowlands due to agriculture.

This discovery, amongst others, has shattered the preconception that the multitudes of life in the region had vanished entirely. The name Amalophyllon miraculum reflects the “miracle” of its discovery in the unexpected fragments of protected forests.

“The heroic efforts of local landowners who maintained small patches of forests – usually surrounding waterfalls – were instrumental in conserving these remnant forest fragments,” Clark says.

Ongoing conservation initiatives by foundations and academic institutions such as the Ecuadorian conservation NGO Fundación de Conservación Jocotoco and the Jardín Botánico Padre Julio Marrero (JBJM) of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador are also crucial to protecting the areas.

Original source:

Clark JL, Fernández A, Zapata JN, Restrepo-Villarroel C, White DM, Pitman NCA (2024) Amalophyllon miraculum (Gesneriaceae), an exceptionally small lithophilous new species from the western Andean slopes of Ecuador. PhytoKeys 242: 307–316. https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.242.118069

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Pensoft launches official Weibo account to expand global reach

The Pensoft team is looking forward to engaging in conversations with its Chinese authors, editors, and readers.

Scholarly publisher Pensoft is excited to announce it is now on Chinese social media platform Weibo. The move is aimed at fostering stronger connections with researchers, academics, and enthusiasts in China, which in turn will enhance the dissemination of scientific knowledge and facilitate international collaboration.

With over half a billion active users, Weibo is a powerful social media platform that combines the functionalities of microblogging and social networking. The Pensoft team is looking forward to engaging in real-time conversations with its Chinese audience, sharing insights, and receiving their feedback.

The launch coincides with the Dragon Boat Festival, a significant cultural event in China that commemorates the ancient poet Qu Yuan and symbolizes unity and teamwork. 

The move aims to make Pensoft’s publications and updates more accessible to Chinese researchers, allowing them to stay informed about the latest scientific discoveries and advancements. In addition, it offers an excellent opportunity for Pensoft to foster collaborations with Chinese institutions, researchers, and academic societies.

As a pioneer in open-access publishing, Pensoft will also use its Weibo account to promote the benefits of open access, making sure Chinese research reaches a global audience without paywalls.

“China, with its rapidly growing research output and a burgeoning community of scholars, represents a significant segment of the global academic landscape. Recognizing the importance of engaging with this vibrant community, Pensoft’s decision to establish a presence on Weibo underscores its commitment to inclusivity and accessibility in scientific publishing,” says Lyubomir Penev, CEO and founder of Pensoft.

We invite you to join Pensoft’s Weibo account to learn all about our latest scientific discoveries and publishing updates.

Arctic botany amongst the fjords: a new annotated species checklist for Agguttinni Territorial Park

A team of museum botanists and guides travelled across the park on foot and by helicopter seeking out every plant and lichen species within the park.

Guest blog post by Paul C. Sokoloff, Lynn J. Gillespie, Geoffrey A. Levin

On northern Baffin Island, Nunavut – the northernmost territory of Canada and Inuit homeland since time immemorial – the tips of long fjords weave around towering peaks and harbour shrubby plants, mounds of lichens, and carpets of mosses and other bryophytes, all set in a majestic landscape known and stewarded by Inuit past, present, and future. This is Agguttinni, Nunavut’s newest and largest territorial park. A new study published in Check List and led by Dr. Lynn Gillespie from the Canadian Museum of Nature, documents the 141 vascular plant, 69 bryophyte, and 93 lichen species collected from this unique protected area.

Arviqtujuq Kangiqtua fjord and Atagulisaktalik valley, location of one of the team’s base camps. Credit: Paul Sokoloff © Canadian Museum of Nature

The backdrop to this study is the Canadian Arctic ecozone. This vast region comprises approximately 40% of Canada’s landmass and a broad array of unique habitats, from expansive flat tundra to glacial peaks to rich wetlands. The plants that grow here are well-adapted to their environment. Most grow low, soaking up heat from sun-warmed soil and staying out of cold, drying winds. Many are covered in insulating hairs and can go from bud to flower to fruit quickly during the short Arctic summers. And while woody, spreading shrubs can dominate in the low Arctic, they become rarer further north; conversely bryophyte and lichen species become increasingly important components of the biomass. In this context, the 303 species found in Agguttinni represent a wide swath of Arctic floristic diversity.

  • Arctic Pyrola (Pyrola grandiflora)
    Arctic Pyrola (Pyrola grandiflora). Credit: Lynn Gillespie © Canadian Museum of Nature
  • Arctic cinquefoil (Potentilla hyparctica)
    Arctic cinquefoil (Potentilla hyparctica). Credit: Lynn Gillespie © Canadian Museum of Nature
  • Black crowberry (Empetrum nigrum)
    Black crowberry (Empetrum nigrum). Credit: Paul Sokoloff © Canadian Museum of Nature
  • Whiteworm lichen (Thamnolia subuliformis)
    Whiteworm lichen (Thamnolia subuliformis). Credit: Paul Sokoloff © Canadian Museum of Nature
  • Nodding catchfly (Silene uralensis subsp. arctica)
    Nodding catchfly (Silene uralensis subsp. arctica). Credit Lynn Gillespie © Canadian Museum of Nature

In 2021, Dr. Gillespie’s team travelled to Kanngiqtugaapik (Clyde River) to conduct a botanical inventory of Agguttinni Territorial Park, in partnership with Nunavut Parks and Special Places and with the support of Polar Knowledge Canada. Over the course of five weeks, the team, a fearless five including museum botanists and guides from Kanngiqtugaapik, travelled across the park on foot and by helicopter seeking out every habitat and plant and lichen species within the park.  The team established four base camps at the heads of fjords, within mountain passes, and in sheltered harbours, where all necessities were slung in by helicopter, including sleeping tents, kitchen shelters, a field lab for processing samples, and even a solar panel to take advantage of the 24-hour sunlight. Through the weeks on the land, the team found an efficient tempo of collecting specimens in the field and pressing back at camp.

Paul Sokoloff and Lynn Gillespie pressing Alpine fireweed (Chamaenerion latifolium) at Atagulisaktalik. Credit: Geoffrey Levin © Canadian Museum of Nature

While 2021 was a cold, wet year on northern Baffin Island, the challenging conditions were offset with good company, good food, and warming long hikes. The team searched through hummocky tundra, over gravel scree, in river valleys and on esker ridges, documenting the flora of every terrain within Agguttinni, while our guides from Clyde River, Jaypiti Inutiq and Leeno Apak, provided us with valuable insight into their lands and kept us safe in numerous ways. These wanders, and helicopter excursions from Kanngiqtugaapik, allowed us to thoroughly inventory and compare various habitats within the park.

Geoff Levin collecting Holmen’s dandelion (Taraxacum holmenianum)
A helicopter hovering over a tent.
Glacier on south side of Tasialuk
Credit: Lynn Gillespie © Canadian Museum of Nature

The sheltered valleys and heads of fjords, far inland from the coast of Baffin Bay, were the most floristically diverse in the study area. At these sites, willow shrubs grow tall (well, at up to 1.5 m high, tall for Baffin Island), and a diverse patchwork of geology and topography is home to species found nowhere else in the park, including new northern-most Canadian records of Lapland Diapensia (Diapensia lapponica) and Flame-tipped Lousewort (Pedicularis flammea), as well as species rare on Baffin Island, such as Dwarf Hawksbeard (Askellia pygmaea) and Hartz’s Bluegrass (Poa hartzii).

Flame-tipped lousewort (Pedicularis flammea) at the head of Kangiqtualuk Uqquqtifiord. This species was found only in warmer inland valleys; our collections represent the northernmost confirmed records of the species in Canada. Credit: Lynn Gillespie © Canadian Museum of Nature

Conversely, coastal habitats and inland valleys and plateaus proved to be less floristically diverse. Immediately adjacent to the Barnes Ice Cap, the recently-unglaciated zone harboured few vascular plant species and no lichens – a lesson in succession. However, amid this scour, large mounds of blackened moss, likely covered during the Little Ice Age, could be seen regenerating – new green growth amongst bare rock.

Even so, we encountered fascinating new botanical records in these environments, including the first records of Bruggemann’s Alkaligrass (Puccinellia bruggemannii) and Skult’s Shield Lichen (Parmelia skultii) for Baffin Island. On the Barnes Plateau, collections of Powdered Matchstick Lichen (Pilophorus caerulus), Starke’s Fork Moss (Kiaeria starkei) and Sprig Moss (Aongstroemia longipes) are newly reported for Nunavut.

Acutetip aulacomnium moss (Aongstroemia longipes), growing in the recently deglaciated zone in front of the Barnes icecap. This species is rare in eastern North America and was not previously reported for Nunavut. Credit: Lynn Gillespie © Canadian Museum of Nature

While these new records provide important new knowledge about the Arctic flora, commonly encountered species also provide important context about species important to ecosystem health and functioning, and some species proved to be unusually common in the area. For example, Mountain Woodrush (Luzula confusa), Four Angled-Mountain Heather (Cassiope tetragona), Hairy Rock-Moss (Racomitrium lanuginosum), and Orange Chocolate Chip Lichen (Solorina crocea) were encountered throughout the park. Arctic Mushroom Scales Lichen (Lichenomphalia hudsoniana) was also encountered in many locations throughout the park, despite its relative under-collection elsewhere in Nunavut.

Four-angled mountain heather (Cassiope tetragona), one of the most common plants in Agguttinni Territorial Park. Credit: Lynn Gillespie © Canadian Museum of Nature

The 1007 collections made by Dr. Gillespie’s team in 2021, deposited at the National Herbarium of Canada (CAN), serve as the biodiversity backbone of this current study. The authors examined an additional 386 existing herbarium specimens at CAN, Agriculture and Agrifoods Canada (DAO), and the Université de Montréal (MT), and from other institutions accessed through the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). The vast majority of these existing specimens were collected during the Baird Expedition to Baffin Island in 1950. Seventy-four years later, these specimens still provide valuable insight into the biodiversity of Agguttinni.

This powerful combination of old and new specimens, brought together in this paper, more than doubles the number of plant and lichen species known from the park (from 136 to 299), and triples the number of known vascular plants from 45 to 137. It therefore provides a vital biodiversity reference to help in the management and conservation of Agguttinni Territorial Park. More broadly, it expands our understanding of plant diversity in northern Canada, a vast area that includes many under-explored areas. Studies like this also provide important baseline data for assessing future impacts of climate change.

With Thanks

We are grateful to the community of Kanngiqtugaapik for hosting us and this research on their land, Nunavut Parks and Special Places and Polar Knowledge Canada for supporting this work, Jaypiti Inutiq and Leeno Apak for their knowledge and protection on the land, Stéphane Caron and Louis André Grégoire for keeping us up in the air, Patrick Graillon and Linda Vaillancourt from Nunavut Parks for facilitating this work, Martha Raynolds, Helga Bültmann, Yemisi Dare and Julian Starr for excellent recent collections that were included in the study, and herbarium specialists at CAN, DAO, and MT.

Original Study

Gillespie LJ, Sokoloff PC, Levin GA, Doubt J, McMullin RT (2024) Vascular plant, bryophyte, and lichen biodiversity of Agguttinni Territorial Park, Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada: an annotated species checklist of a new Arctic protected area. Check List 20(2): 279-443. https://doi.org/10.15560/20.2.279

Understanding the complex interactions between people and nature

eLTER catalyses scientific discovery and insights through state-of-the-art research infrastructure, collaborative work, and transdisciplinary expertise.

From June 4th to 18th, the Integrated European Long-Term Ecosystem, critical zone and socio-ecological Research (eLTER) is presenting its first physical exhibition in Sofia, Bulgaria.

At Lover’s Bridge, one of the most central venues in the capital for such events, visitors could see 58 photos showcasing the work of eLTER scientists and their key role in combating the grand societal challenges.

The authors – Evgeni Dimitrov and Kaloyan Konstantinov – spent half a year preparing the so-called Grand Campaign. Together, they traveled to over 30 sites in 23 countries in the span of 88 days, resulting in nearly 3000 photos and 50 videos.

Environmental sustainability can only be achieved on the basis of the robust knowledge and empirical evidence needed to identify and mitigate human impacts on ecosystems.

The pictures are accompanied by a description of each national network, site and platform, as well as the importance of eLTER’s scientific activities for Europe and the world. The goal, apart from purely aesthetic, is to acquaint the residents and guests of Sofia with the work of one of the largest and most important European Research Infrastructures.

A building with a sign that says "Consejo superior de investigaciones científicas" against a background of starry sky.
The main Doñana LTSER facilities are located inside the Doñana Biological Reserve, a UNESCO
Biosphere Reserve in Spain.

The exhibition is part of the events accompanying the annual consortia meeting, organized by the Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (in charge of the Bulgarian LTER network), and Pensoft Publishers (leading the communication and dissemination of eLTER). This year the event is held from 3rd to 7th of June, and is attended by nearly 100 scientists from all 26 eLTER countries.

Dr Bojana Ivošević posing with unmanned aerial vehicles.
Dr Bojana Ivošević with BioSense UAVs used for vegetation monitoring of natural ecosystems, agriculture as well as archaeology in Serbia and across Southeast Europe.

The exposition is carried out in partnership with the Sofia Municipality and will be officially opened on June 6 at 11:30 am local time.

eLTER responds to the challenge of understanding the complex interactions between people and nature over the long term. Environmental sustainability can only be achieved on the basis of the robust knowledge and empirical evidence needed to identify and mitigate human impacts on ecosystems. eLTER catalyses scientific discovery and insights through its state-of-the-art research infrastructure, collaborative working culture, and transdisciplinary expertise. This enables the development and application of evidence-based solutions for the wellbeing of current and future generations.

Studies of the biogeochemical cycles and physical properties of sea-water have been conducted since the ‘70s at the Gulf of Venice.

The mission of eLTER is to facilitate high impact research and catalyse new insights about the compounded impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss, soil degradation, pollution, and unsustainable resource use on a range of European ecosystems and socio-ecological systems, representing the “critical zone” in which we live.