Taxonomy Group Report
Taxonomy Notes
I. Attendants
1. Rex Lowe-diatoms
2. Don Wilson-mammals
3. Mike Sharkey-Hymenoptera
4. Ken McFarland-bryophytes
5. Carl Nordman-TN Heritage botanist
6. Zack Murrell- App. State; botany/biogeography
7. Rick Phillippe- collection manager for herbarium- Champaign IL
8. Pat Cox- University of TN/ composites
9. Dr. Wofford University of TN/ vascular plants
10. Dr. Smith-bryophytes
11. Peter Adler-flies
12. Oliver Flint- rep of aquatic insects
13. Ted Simons- Birds
14. Lorelei Norvell
15. Jeff Johannson- algae
16. Susan Makosky- diatoms
17. James Kiser-Mollusks
18. Dan Dourson
19. Paul Super
20. Thomas Rude
II. Outgroups
1. Databasing- Rick Phillippe
2. Inventory Design- Carl Nordman
3. Fund Raising- Zack Murrell
4. Education/Design- Pat Cox5.Curation- Eugene Wofford
6. Collecting- D.K. Smith, Oliver Flint
7. Web/Publications- Jeff Johansen
8. Communications- Susan Makosky
III. Rough estimate of known taxa for various groups
1.Vascular Plants
a. UT herbarium= 90% of GSMNP collection
b. 90% plants known
c. Need to look at old collections/ no inventory in long time
2. Bryophytes
a. 95% of bryophytes known
b. UT herbarium=3D 6500 records from GSMNP
3. Flies
a. Long way to go
4. Aquatic insects
a. 50-80% caddis flies known
b. Good outline of what is in GSMNP
c. Lots of information out there, but never brought together
5. Fungi
a. 2200 fungi on record from GSMNP
b. Estimate 20,000
6. Algae
a. Very little is known
IV. What do we need
1. Lab space/ lodging for researchers
a. Can we use any space until the building is erected?
1. University of TN Botany cabin (1.22 acres)
2. Local support / hotel owner?
b. Facilities needed
1. Place to dry fungi
2. Microscope space
3. Digital imagery lab
4. Macro/micro imagery
c. Examples of lab facilities
1. Protocol for fungi book on field lab set up
2. Need a database of the collectors
3. Need to know who to send information to
4. On =B3Get involved Web page=B2
a. Who collected, how much, where
b. Areas of expertise, geographical, etc.
c. Increase # of fields listed
5.Create a hard copy of a user guide including a user directory
6. Basic information available for a sample site before decide to sample these areas
V. One year mission goals/ideas Brainstorm
1. Session 1
a. One area of intense study
b. Some taxa completely studied across entire park
c. Every taxa recorded within a small area
d. Pick 10 sites that look interesting for the year rather than just one
defined plot
e. Low impact general inventory
f. Pick a small group of taxa within your field that is manageable and
gather information only on that group
g. Set up list of target species and study these
h. Identify hot spots for extreme uniqueness.
i. For botany
1. What are the herbaria with collections already available
a. Where is the material housed
b. Who are important collectors over time
c. Get information from these people
2. Important Literature relating to park
a.Add to database
b.Localities, collection numbers
3. Taxon verification
a. Old herbarium records
b. Do these still exist
4. What nomenclature to use
5. Begin getting a handle on what is known
6. Service roles of botanist
a.What are things growing in, on, under, etc. interactions
j. Another suggestion list
1. Background
2. Collecting
3. Facilities
4. Financial
5. Expertise
6. Peliminary study
2. Session 2
a. Forming a list of what is currently known about each
group
b. Accumulating data and documenting
c. Select areas for intensive one year sampling
d.Different groups do different things based on the level
of information they begin with
3. Session 3
a. Objective 1: Create a document of the current state of
knowledge for each special group
1.Species list (follow rules of nomenclature
specific to the group)
2. Common names (if available)
3. Include asterix if herbarium specimen known
(if available)
a. Individuals responsible
1. Diatoms- Rex Lowe
2. Diptera- Peter Adler
3. Aquatic insects- Oliver Flint
4. Non-diatom algae- Jeff Johansen
5. Plants/Bryophytes -D.K. Smith, B.E.
Wofford
6. Hymenoptera- Mike Sharkey
7. Mollusc-James Kiser
b. Objective 2: Design a demonstration project that i
illustrates how preliminary some of the current species lists are.
1.Demonstrate how diverse GSMNP is.
2. Estimate the completeness of data on a group
3. Run the entire operation to find any problems
4. Provide a predicted distribution
5. Produce a matrix of characters for each taxa
6. Illustrated keys (for some groups?)
c. Objective 3: Budget
1. Estimate the number of volunteer hours
2. Estimate the amount of funding necessary
equipment, technicians, lodging, etc.)
d. Objective 4: Each TWIG should develop a recruitment
strategy and a long-term strategy
1. Names of committed individuals
2. Specialist for problem taxa
e. Objective 5: Publish the information gathered from
objectives 1,2 in the
ASB Journal (Talk with Pat Cox)
f. Objective 6: Convincing Departmental Heads, and
other positions that this information is important and a worth while way to
spend research time
VI.Examples to follow/ Information to gather
1. Models
a. Fred ? Spiders
2. Information to gather
a. Where do certain species occur
b. Species list
c. Matrix
d. Distribution
e. Photodocumentation
VII. Suggestions for developing a model to sample
1. Decide on a model for sampling each group in each twig
2. Use reference sites with a plot number rather than Long. and Lat.
coordinates
3. Put all together, look at budgets
VIII. Collecting suggestions/ideas
1. Minimal impact
2. Field identification of plants only with minimal collecting besides
voucher specimens
3. Different needs for different groups
4.Collect within defined communities
5. Coordination
a. Signing in to make collecting efforts concerted
b. Communication
c. Organization
d. Outgroup- needs to say these ideas
IX. Size of Sites for different organisms
1. Fungi- 1 hectare
2. Algae- 15 transect
3. Diatoms-10 m of streams
4. One drainage basin
5. Easy access.
X. Ways to achieve information
1. Algae foray
2. Graduate students
3. UT endowment fund for visiting scientist
4. Volunteer role
a. Visitors to park
b. People live in area
c. Job core
d. SCA
e. ASB poster
XI. Other concerns
1. Where information goes-ie.curation
2. Monetary support
XII. Grants- Biotic Surveys and Inventory $100,000+ for Diptera and
include other groups also
1. Ecological information
2. Distribution
3. Microhabitat
4. Predict distributions
5. Minimize duplication in collection
7. Entire pilot project can be added into the proposal
XIII. Expand the number of twigs and breaking twigs apart
1. Need a hierarchy
2. List of species in the taxon
3. Matrix to develop interactive key
4. Images of taxa
5. Distribution in park
6. Use high profile taxa for intersecting with the public
7. Only for high profile ones
8. Pictorial key at gift shops to refuel the operation
XIV. Information available through the GSMNP
1. Digital satellite information for things like major community
types ie. balds, etc.
2. More intensive mapping down to low herbs for 2 quads out of 26 (Nature
Conservancy helped on this project)
a. Rest of park completed in two yrs.
3. Varying levels of forest description
a. Association level- communities
b. Alliance= aprox. 30
c. Gross satellite info.
4. All permanent streams are mapped and digitized
5. 5 climate sites in the park
6. Quality data from 100's of streams
7. Room available in the Park
a.35x25 at park for sorting
b. Elkmont
c. 70 housing facilities but used in the summer
8. Rules on flagging
a. Only in backcountry for flags
b. Permanent stakes
c. Low visibility
XV.Information from Outgroups
1. Session 2
a. Two ways of sampling
1.Structure collecting-bulk sampling
2. Individuals wandering
b. What protocols to employ to preserve specimens
c. Central sorting center or clusters of sorting centers
d.Collecting group
1. Issue with mammals
2. Print a protocol addressing who is doing what in the park
a. To facilitate protocols, etc.
3. Avoid too much sorting
e. Inventory Design
1.Protocol to be written
a. Overview of the park
b. Permanent structure sites
c. Ad hoc collecting info. necessary
d. Overview of sampling technique
f.Inventory design
1. Generate a species accumulation curve=3D idea of numbers
2. Determine how close we are to being done
3. Stop orders so we are not collecting the same thing
4. Create a user guide
5. What to expect from ad hoc collectors
a. Do they have to do statistic to quantify the specimens
b. Other people =3D effort for statistics
c. 1st year=3D minimal # of plots before determine # of
samples needed
g.Sorting
1. Tracking of specimens
a. Cherly Bright
b. Bar codes
c. If specialists collect samples=3D send to sorting center for
the various things.
h. Curation= where do these things end up
1. How many herbaria do specimens need to be kept at
2. Find place for all species collected
3. Murk bioprospecting
4. Nature centers
5. Education
6. Not into the trash can
2. Session 3
a. Web group goals: web page for each twig, one page, 1 species for each TWIG
template already created
1. Get html file =easy to create a page
2.Who will take responsibility for each TWIG
3.Publications-indicate status where we are
b. Education Committee
1.web pages
2. 2 focuses
a.Train individuals to train volunteers
b.Get volunteers
1. Concern over too young of kids
2. Increase # of taxonomic expertise
c. Database group-
1. Send out a list from biota (database program)
a.Specify types of data needed for each taxa
b. All information gleaned from collection
c. Each collection =3D a number
d.To service all the people who might need information from the
collection
e. Bar coding
1. Specimen has a bar code and expand out from sample 2.Includes the collec=
tor and the date collected
3. Two aspects of collecting
a. Volunteers to established plots--sorting center=8B
specimens sent to the specialist
b. Individual efforts
c. Concern amount too much data need to be
collected at each site.
4. Require that must collect all information before you can
collect
d. Inventory design
1. User guide for ATBI volunteers
2. Arc view
3. Historical info, elevation, aspect.....
4. Landscape reference areas
a. 100 ha
b. Include stream segments
c. Other individual dispersed areas
d. GPS and permanently marked
e. Location information important
e.Development
1. Develop business plans for mission statement
2. Costs must be broken out
3. Can raise fund as long as broken out
f. Inventory design
1.mission design
g. Communications - Bob Miller
8-16-98 Taxonomy outgroup
I. Databasing
A. What do you want on species web page=3D Critical habitat parameters
1. Ex. Distribution maps
2. Communities things found in
3. Done without having to type things in
4. Database would do all of it
5. Distribution map beyond just the park= how restricted a species is relative
to its distribution in the park
6. Make this a National initiative to allow other parks to jump in
7. Synonyms need to be put onto the web page
8. If link to other systems= create a species authority file; already started
a. www.itis.usda.gov/itis/index.html
9. Different template for key vs. Species page
10. Do need a page for each group, but not necessary for each species
11. Some of the information will be generated from database and some will be
created when you click on the button "info".
12. Pilot project =write static part of web pages=learn from ones done
B. What are you doing to archive it?
1. Eros data center
2. Park
3. Oak Ridge
4. Only possibilities
C. Pilot project
1. Web pages from each TWIG
D. Give feed back that need to be included in the database for your group
II. Curation
A. Bar Codes- unique identifier=3Dsubsets of one another
1. Will be available for the first year
2. Historical records can be assigned a bar code
a. Will have certain geographic information missing
b. What if specimen has already been bar codes -use one already on
put a pre-fix on it
III. Mission statement
A. Document current state of knowledge from park
1. Group of 7 volunteers (see previous notes)
2. Ask other TWIGS that have not volunteered
3. List of species- authorities, synonym
B. Develop small pilot projects
1. Salamander
2. Mammals
3. Ferns (50taxa)
4. Needs to be web ready
a. Images (so can identify with a key), text, distribution in the
park; habitat preference, references they can go to, links to
other web sites, matrix for a key (see Mike Sharkey to create
matrix)
1. Distribution- how large is the dot. Ie. What does it indicate?
2. If from herbaria information; what if only one specimen= one dot?
3. Dots for voucher specimens; shaded for range
4. Security reasons=3D if you have a dot on the map it may be dangerout
5. If state or federally listed =not include
6. Have a park board (to include or not)
5. Botany budget
a. $0.00 not known
b. $1,000-3=3D only for visiting professors
c. $15-30,000=3D hire a full time individual
III. First year gathering
A. Areas to sample
1. Cades Cove Quad; Rotenoned recently
2. Do Mt. LeConte quad 1st.
3. Top of the World- burn effects
4. Cove forests- never cut (Porters creek; historical work in this area,
Ramsey cascade), cut (Little River; Meigs campground and ?) and
recovered (cut 60-70 yrs. ago) 3200ft- match with soil type, etc.
IV. Concerns
A. Foothills Parkway is in or out?
B. Questionnaire to fill out
1. Missing- sorting of mass collections to tell how it will work
2. Sent back by Feb. 1
C. Distribution