UAM Herbarium (ALA), Cryptogam Collection (Arctos)

Occurrence Specimen
Latest version published by University of Alaska Museum of the North on Sep 27, 2025 University of Alaska Museum of the North
Home:
http://www.uaf.edu/museum/collections/herb/
Publication date:
September 27, 2025
License:
CC-BY 4.0

Download the latest version of this resource data as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A) or the resource metadata as EML or RTF:

Data as a DwC-A file download 62,375 records in English (16 MB) - Update frequency: unknown
Metadata as an EML file download in English (12 KB)
Metadata as an RTF file download in English (8 KB)

Description

The Herbarium (ALA) at the University of Alaska Museum is the major regional herbarium in Alaska and part of a network of similar collections with an interest in the origin and evolution of the circumpolar flora. ALA contains more than 260,000 specimens of vascular and non-vascular plants. Data for the Vascular Plant and Cryptogam collections are managed separately in Arctos. Most lichen collections in the ALA date from the early post WWII period, after the Alcan (now Alaska Highway) was completed, including specimens from John Thomson’s first of two Alaska expeditions in 1958 on the Arctic Slope as well as his 1967 expedition along the Alaska Highway. The contributions of three other people, H. Persson and W. C. Steere (bryophytes) and H. Krog (lichens), further strengthened the foundation for ALA’s cryptogamic collections. Barbara Murray’s collecting started in the 1970s just after the discovery of oil at Prudhoe Bay on the arctic coast of Alaska. Use of helicopters became frequent and as a result Murray has collected large number of specimens at over 250 Alaskan localities. The ALA cryptogamic collection has recently been supported by two NSF grants (NSF- 1023407: Toward Documenting Biodiversity Change in Arctic Lichens: Databasing the Principal Collections, Establishing a Baseline, and Developing a Virtual Flora (with University of Wisconsin) and NSF NSF-1115056: TCN Collaborative Research: North American Lichens and Bryophytes: Sensitive Indicators of Environmental Quality and Change) to help with digitization of specimen data and taking care of large backlogs of specimens. The majority of the cryptogam collections are from Alaska, while numerous collections are also from Russia, Fennoscandia, Canada and the lower 48 United States.

Data Records

The data in this occurrence resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 62,375 records.

1 extension data tables also exist. An extension record supplies extra information about a core record. The number of records in each extension data table is illustrated below.

Occurrence (core)
62375
Multimedia 
118029

This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.

Versions

The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.

How to cite

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

Herbarium (ALA), University of Alaska Museum, University of Alaska Fairbanks

Rights

Researchers should respect the following rights statement:

The publisher and rights holder of this work is University of Alaska Museum of the North. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) License.

GBIF Registration

This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: 39f7ffd7-9416-4efb-934a-c81f116893fc.  University of Alaska Museum of the North publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by GBIF-US.

Keywords

Occurrence; Specimen; Occurrence

Contacts

Steffi Ickert-Bond
  • Metadata Provider ●
  • Originator ●
  • Point Of Contact
  • Curator of the Herbarium (ALA)
University of Alaska Museum
  • 907 Yukon Drive
99775-6960 Fairbanks
AK
US
  • (907) 474-6277
David Bloom
  • Programmer
  • VertNet Coordinator
Dusty McDonald
  • Point Of Contact
  • Arctos Database Programmer
University of Alaska Museum
Jordan Metzgar
  • Point Of Contact
  • Collection Manager, Herbarium
University of Alaska Museum
  • 907 Yukon Drive
99775-6960 Fairbanks
AK
US
  • (907) 474-7109
Alan Batten
  • Point Of Contact
  • Research Associate, Herbarium
University of Alaska Museum
  • 907 Yukon Drive
99775-6960 Fairbanks
AK
US
  • (907) 474-7109

Geographic Coverage

The UAM Herbarium (ALA) Cryptogam Collection is global, with strongest holdings from Alaska. There is also good representation from Russia, Fennoscandia, Canada, and the lower 48 United States.

Bounding Coordinates South West [-90, -180], North East [90, 180]

Taxonomic Coverage

No Description available

Temporal Coverage

Living Time Period 1842 to present

Additional Metadata

Alternative Identifiers 39f7ffd7-9416-4efb-934a-c81f116893fc
https://ipt.vertnet.org/resource?r=uamb_herb_cryptogam