Lichens Flora of Nepal at National Herbarium and Plant Laboratories (KATH)
Citation
KATH (National Herbarium and Plant Laboratories) (2021). Lichens Flora of Nepal at National Herbarium and Plant Laboratories (KATH). Version 1.2. Department of Plant Resources, MoFE, Government of Nepal. Occurrence dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/v4bntu accessed via GBIF.org on 2022-08-16.Description
This occurrence database contains records of the lichens based on the herbarium specimens deposited at the National Herbarium and Plant Laboratories (KATH), Godawari, Lalitpur, Nepal. Established in 1961, it is the largest and Government's owned Herbarium with about 165,000 specimens. The cryptogams section in this KATH focuses on the collection, identification and documentation of lower group of plants: Algae, Fungi and Lichens collected from different parts of Nepal. This database is a part of a project funded by the Biodiversity Information Fund for Asia (BIFA; project no. BIFA5_023 to Shiva Devkota) program of Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) supported by the Ministry of Environment, Government of Japan and co-funding came from the Himalayan Climate & Science Institute (HCSI), ForestAction Nepal and Global Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies (GIIS).Purpose
Digitization has been a fast-growing process mostly in academic institutions for the preservation and dissemination of knowledge. In the global north, collections deposited in the libraries, natural history museums, and herbaria have been more or less digitized than in the global south. Therefore, for the conservation of the biological diversity and associated knowledge, documentation, digitization and analysis of the specimens of the global south are crucial. Lichens in the other hand is already the understudied and underprivileged group and demands further research and extension. This digitization project aims to fulfil that gap and contribute to the records of GBIF by digitizing lichens herbarium collections deposited in different herbaria in Nepal. The data produced after digitization will serve as the foundation of mycological knowledge of Nepal quantifying their availability at different deposition centres with every ancillary detail. Digitization of available lichens is also important for the lichenologists working at different institutions to understand their ecology, distribution, phenology and possible multidisciplinary research plans and; high school and university students to share and understand about such fungal groups. Furthermore, as Nepal is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change, existing knowledge on lichens is crucial to understand the impacts of climate change on the less explored taxonomic group.Sampling Description
Study Extent
The occurrence records of the lichens of Nepal housed at National Herbarium and Plant Laboratories (KATH), Godawari, Lalitpur, Nepal.Sampling
The occurrence records of the lichens of Nepal housed at National Herbarium and Plant Laboratories (KATH), Nepal. Most of the specimens were collected and deposited by native and foreign lichenologists.Quality Control
• Experts consultation (for taxonomic determination/confirmation and data geo-references), and the taxonomic verification using the Index Fungorum (http://www.indexfungorum.org/Names/Names.asp) • Data cleaning using OpenRefine (https://openrefine.org/), • Data validation using GBIF data validator (https://www.gbif.org/tools/data-validator), • Data management in Darwin Core Standard Format using reference guide (https://dwc.tdwg.org/terms/), • Missing coordinate and geographic outliers check of the locations (https://www.google.com/earth/)Method steps
- • Pre-digitization curation and staging • Image capture and processing • Electronic data capture • Georeferencing • Data publication
Taxonomic Coverages
Geographic Coverages
Nepal in South Asia
Bibliographic Citations
Contacts
KATH (National Herbarium and Plant Laboratories)originator
position: Research Officer
KATH (National Herbarium and Plant Laboratories)
Godawari
Lalitpur
Bagmati
NP
Telephone: 977 15174349
email: info@kath.gov.np
homepage: http://kath.gov.np/
metadata author
position: Research Officer
National Herbarium and Plant Laboratories, Department of Plant Resources
Godawari
Lalitpur
Bagmati
NP
Telephone: 977 15174349
email: info@kath.gov.np
homepage: http://kath.gov.np/
Sameer Bajracharya
user
email: sameer.bajracharya@icimod.org
KATH (National Herbarium and Plant Laboratories)
administrative point of contact
position: Research Officer
KATH (National Herbarium and Plant Laboratories)
Godawari
Lalitpur
Bagmati
NP
Telephone: 977 15174349
email: info@kath.gov.np
homepage: http://kath.gov.np/