In KamSU. Vitus Bering will appear digital herbarium

2024: Digital Herbarium begins

At Kamchatka State University named after Vitus Bering began large-scale work on the creation of the Digital Herbarium. The depository has already replenished 100 samples of 75 species of vascular plants in Kamchatka. Each "exhibit" is scanned on a special herbarium scanner and is equipped with a unique identification number. The university announced this on July 26, 2024.

source = Vitus Bering KamSU Press Service

The digitized collection of Kamchatka flora was started by samples collected by specialists from the Laboratory of Anthropogenic Dynamics of Ecosystems of KaMSU named after Vitus Bering.

Times are coming, biological science is actively developing, but the herbarium, as before, bears the faithful service to botanists. Unlike in the old days, when you could only get acquainted with herbarium material at the place of its storage, they are now available digitally. This became possible thanks to the use of a scanner with high resolution - in the framework of cooperation with the Polar-Alpine Botanical Garden-Institute named after N.A. Aurorin of the Kola Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, - explained the head of the laboratory Daria Panicheva.

source = Vitus Bering KamSU Press Service

The herbarium scanner has a resolution of more than 500 dpi and has a very high level of color reproduction. Each of one hundred samples belonging to 75 species of vascular plants of Kamchatka is equipped with a unique identification number (barcode).

The image collection contains both fairly widespread species in Kamchatka and rare protected as well as rare alien species. Based on the processing of scientific collections collected in previous years, we managed not only to clarify the distribution of a number of species in the region, but also to identify new ones for the Kamchatka Territory, said project manager Mikhail Kozhin.

The active introduction of digital technologies into botany, including the creation of the Digital Herbarium of KamSU named after Vitus Bering, will allow at a qualitatively new level to conduct research on the geography and diversity of the flora of vascular plants - one of the key components of the unique nature of Kamchatka.