Botanical Research Institute of Texas

Atrium is an online biodiversity information system designed to support the research activities of the Andes to Amazon Botany Program at the Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT) and to make data available to collaborators and the general public. Atrium facilitates the collection, organization, and sharing of organismal and ecological information generated by the biologists, ecologists, geographers, students, and local field assistants working in this area. The concept for Atrium was developed by John Janovec, Amanda Neill, and Mathias Tobler as a means to accumulate, store, use, and disseminate data from AABP fieldwork and museum research. Jason Best, IT Manager for Atrium, works closely with this team to develop the interfaces and architecture of the site, and directs Atrium programmers Anton Webber and Sean Murphy. The development of the requirements and design of Atrium is funded by a grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, as part of a larger project under their initiatives to increase knowledge of the Andes-Amazon area and to develop and test new tools and technology to document, describe, and disseminate information about the species and ecosystems in the area. Atrium provides researchers with tools to collaborate worldwide in real-time. Atrium features a digital herbarium of over 11,000 plant collections representing approximately 4,000 species, with many tools for entry, organization, and analysis of collection data. Collaborators can view complete collection data and high resolution images (over 22,000 images are now available), print labels, and annotate collections (and produce annotation labels) remotely. Atrium hosts geospatial data connecting to the botanical dataset using Google for desktop and online mapping of collections. Atrium also hosts extensive bibliographic records pertaining to the biodiversity and conservation of southeastern Peru. The most recent development is the tool developed to produce color field guides and floras that can be designed and printed on-demand.

The link address is: http://www.brit.org/herbarium/databases/atrium/