Why a Digital Herbarium?The “COI - Phycological Digital Collection” will document mainly the Iberian algae flora, and from all over the world.
Iberian Peninsula and Azores are regions of great botanical and ecological interest. It is well known to botanists as a phytogeographic boundary between the cold water flora typical of more northerly regions, and the flora of warmer waters to the south.
The herbarium collection, dating back to the 1850s, documents this important and diverse flora. Placing specimen images and data into a fully searchable, web-accessible database will:
·Facilitate the study of floristic and environmental changes over time, including changes in geographic range of species.
. Make the collection available to researchers throughout the world.
·Bring together information on the diversity of algal species and their distributions along the European coast of North Atlantic.
·Contribute towards preservation of this unique historic collection.