Welcome to the GLOBAL Bryophyte & Lichen TCN Project Website!

“Building a Global Consortium of Bryophytes and Lichens: Keystones of Cryptobiotic Communities,” also known as the GLOBAL Bryophyte & Lichen Thematic Collections Network (TCN), is a collaboration of 25 universities, museums, and gardens located across the United States and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). This project will integrate information about bryophytes and lichens, with each other and with their commensal organisms, on a worldwide scale. The GLOBAL herbaria will image and digitize almost 1.2 million bryophyte and lichen herbarium specimens while providing students with professional training in digitization and collections management. Imaging the physical specimens of these organisms and integrating data from comparative genomics, nucleotide sequence data, and other resources is unprecedented on this scale. Digitized data will be shared freely online, making these specimens available to researchers, teachers, students, and communities across the world.

Bryophytes and lichens are functionally related as the main hosts for cryptobiotic communities forming minute “forests” that provide a matrix of habitats for many microscopic organisms, including tardigrades, mites, rotifers, micro-mollusks, microalgae, microfungi, and prokaryotes. These communities have global relevance and perform essential functions on our planet, for example, the biological soil crusts that harbor these communities form a “living skin” covering approximately 12% of Earth’s terrestrial surface.

Photos By: Laura Briscoe2,6,11, Jessica Budke4,8,13,15, Frank Bungartz1,3,7,10,16, Patrick Sweeney5,12,17, Todd Wildhelm9,14

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Participants

Project Summary

Project Goals

GLOBAL Progress *As of June 30, 2023

388,784 Specimens Imaged

277,068 Specimens Transcribed

276,831 Specimens Georeferenced

Photos By: Frank Bungartz1,3, Margaret Oliver2

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Progress Reports

GLOBAL News

  • Join us for Fall 2023 WeDigBio – October 12-15!
    Dear community scientists! Be a part of a global effort to digitize centuries of data about life on Earth! Organisms may include ferns, fungi, mosses, lichens, insects, and mammals. Participants will have an opportunity to meet scientists and join in behind-the-scenes tours or talks about the significance of the scientific collections! WeDigBio will be held online daily from Thursday, October … Read more
  • Welcome to our new PEN Partners!
    I am pleased to announce that the GLOBAL Bryophyte TCN will be joined by our first Partner to Existing Network (PEN), which includes the Bishop Museum (BISH), National Tropical Botanical Garden (PTBG), and the University of Hawai’i (HAW)! Our new collaborators expect to begin digitization work in June and will add even more unique specimens to the Bryophyte and Lichen … Read more
  • WeDigBio Spring 2023 – Thank you, Volunteers!
    Thank you to all the wonderful volunteers – and GLOBAL team members – who participated in our GLOBAL WeDigBio events last week! Together you helped to transcribe data from almost 2,500 specimens and add barcodes to over 8,000! Join us again next October! If you’re interested in helping out before then, consider joining our Friday transcription group (register here). Recordings of … Read more
  • Join us for Spring 2023 WeDigBio – April 13-16!
    Dear community scientists! Be a part of a global effort to digitize centuries of data about life on Earth! Organisms may include ferns, fungi, mosses, lichens, insects, and mammals. Participants will have an opportunity to meet scientists and join in behind-the-scenes tours or talks about the significance of the scientific collections! WeDigBio will be held online daily from Thursday, April 13th – Sunday, … Read more
  • WeDigBio Fall 2022 – Thank you!
    Thank you to everyone who participated in our GLOBAL WeDigBio events! Both virtual and in-person teams really turned out and made a huge impact for our project. Together you helped to transcribe data from over 2,700 specimens and add barcodes to over 6,000! Join us again next April! If you’re interested in helping out before then, consider joining our Friday … Read more

#globaltcn
utkherbarium UTK Herbarium - TENN @utkherbarium ·
3 Apr

Join TENN and our #GlobalTCN partners for a virtual WeDigBio event, April 13 & 15, 11am-2pm ET! Help us unlock the secrets of museum #specimens, learn about #bryophytes & #lichens, hear from scientists, & peak inside #collections. Register at: https://tinyurl.com/55w8nknt

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utkherbarium UTK Herbarium - TENN @utkherbarium ·
16 Mar

The Consortium of North American Bryophyte Herbaria has been renamed The Consortium of Bryophyte Herbaria, https://bryophyteportal.org and The Consortium of North American Lichen Herbaria is now The Consortium of Lichen Herbaria https://lichenportal.org. #globalTCN #herbaria

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utkherbarium UTK Herbarium - TENN @utkherbarium ·
14 Feb

Join us this Friday, February 17th, for GLOBAL's weekly virtual transcription workshop! Learn how to transcribe herbarium specimens and see mosses and lichens from around the world. RSVP at link in bio. #globalTCN #herbarium #specimens

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microplants MicroPlants @microplants ·
30 Jan

Volunteers @FieldMuseum found a #Moss #herbarium scientific specimen collected
in 1809 and 1829 https://www.onthisday.com/date/1829/january/29 when barcoding over 7000 specimens today! #wedigbio, #fieldmuseum, #globaltcn, #citizenscience #NSF @iDigBio

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microplants MicroPlants @microplants ·
30 Jan

Volunteers attached barcodes to over 7000 scientific moss specimens today! This is step one for digitizing herbarium specimens. Together we are accelerating biodiversity discovery! #wedigbio #globaltcn #scistarter #citizenscience #Moss #plants @FieldMuseum #NSF #iDigBio

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utkherbarium UTK Herbarium - TENN @utkherbarium ·
11 Jan

#Herbaria of Twitter, what are your oldest #specimens? We used to think ours was a 𝘏𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘴 𝘷𝘪𝘳𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘢 collected in Ohio in 1836, but yesterday a student found this 𝘛𝘩𝘶𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘶𝘮 𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘪 collected in Germany in 1819! #GlobalTCN #collections

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