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WVU Herbarium to go on the World Wide Web

Morgantown, WV, October 11, 2006: The West Virginia University Herbarium, the largest collection of preserved plant specimens in the state, will be part of a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded project to create an online plant collections network.

The SouthEast Regional Network of Expertise and Collections (SERNEC) is a five-year, $498,000 project that will enable botanists-among others-to access pressed plant collections (herbaria) and information within a 15-state region. The NSF-supported Research Coordination Network is part of a global effort to make biological information easily available for students, teachers and researchers.

The herbaria in the Southeast U.S. contain several million dried plant specimens from around the world. These collections represent historical records of how plants are distributed on earth. They can help identify species and geographical areas that need to be conserved, and the potential impacts of habitat disturbance and global climate change on flora, the plant life of a particular region. The SERNEC project is also intended to increase public awareness of the social impact of plants.

Dr. Donna Ford-Werntz, associate clinical professor of biology in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences at WVU, represents West Virginia on the SERNEC Steering Committee. This group includes a member from each participating state and works to coordinate the 150 herbarium facilities in the region.

She earned her Ph.D. from the Washington University, St. Louis in 1992. Her research interests are in the flora of West Virginia, plant collections management, and systematics of Chilean purslane plants. Her current projects involve the West Virginia Flora Atlas which is in press, computer software for plant identification, native species for highway re-vegetation, and a New River Gorge plant collections database.

The National Science Foundation is an independent U.S. government agency that supports fundamental research, and strives to fund specific research proposals that have been judged the most promising by a rigorous and objective merit-review system.

For more information, please contact Dr. Donna Ford-Werntz at dford2@wvu.edu.

W-V-U

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	NEWS WVU Herbarium to go on the World Wide Web Morgantown, WV, October 11, 2006: The West Virginia University Herbarium, the largest collection of preserved plant specimens in the state, will be part of a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded project to create an online plant collections network. The SouthEast Regional Network of Expertise and Collections (SERNEC) is a five-year, $498,000 project that will enable botanists-among others-to access pressed plant collections (herbaria) and information within a 15-state region. The NSF-supported Research Coordination Network is part of a global effort to make biological information easily available for students, teachers and researchers. The herbaria in the Southeast U.S. contain several million dried plant specimens from around the world. These collections represent historical records of how plants are distributed on earth. They can help identify species and geographical areas that need to be conserved, and the potential impacts of habitat disturbance and global climate change on flora, the plant life of a particular region. The SERNEC project is also intended to increase public awareness of the social impact of plants. Dr. Donna Ford-Werntz, associate clinical professor of biology in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences at WVU, represents West Virginia on the SERNEC Steering Committee. This group includes a member from each participating state and works to coordinate the 150 herbarium facilities in the region. She earned her Ph.D. from the Washington University, St. Louis in 1992. Her research interests are in the flora of West Virginia, plant collections management, and systematics of Chilean purslane plants. Her current projects involve the West Virginia Flora Atlas which is in press, computer software for plant identification, native species for highway re-vegetation, and a New River Gorge plant collections database. The National Science Foundation is an independent U.S. government agency that supports fundamental research, and strives to fund specific research proposals that have been judged the most promising by a rigorous and objective merit-review system. For more information, please contact Dr. Donna Ford-Werntz at dford2@wvu.edu. W-V-U