Julián Aguirre-Santoro, Ph.D.
Assistant Curator
Herbarium
Research Interests
• Bromeliaceae family
• Neotropical flora
• Plant Systematics
Matt Austin, Ph.D.
Curator of Biodiversity Data
Herbarium
Research Interests
• Artificial intelligence for herbarium curation
• Global change biology
• Biodiversity conservation
Exploring Functional Traits of Bromeliads through Herbarium Specimens. Aguirre-Santoro is an Assistant Curator in the Herbarium and evolutionary biologist interested in the family Bromeliaceae (pineapple family). Austin is a Bioinformatics Curator in the Herbarium interested in the use of artificial intelligence to optimize curation of herbarium specimens. The use of herbarium specimens to generate large datasets of functional traits is becoming possible thanks to advances in automated tools and AI (Meeus, 2018). These datasets will be critical for the understanding of plant ecology, responses to global change, taxonomy, and evolutionary patterns (Heberling, 2022; Davis, 2023). Given the novelty of these tools, pilot projects are needed to explore the practical challenges of collecting these data and using them for training AI models (e.g Perez et al., 2020). This project will evaluate the potential of herbarium specimens in the Bromeliaceae collection at the Missouri Botanical Garden for providing functional trait data that can be used to train an AI model for rapid trait quantification. It will focus on the Cryptanthoid Complex and the genus Pitcairnia, two lineages that show adaptations to contrasting biomes and environmental conditions across the American tropics (Schütz et al., 2016; Leme et al., 2017), to assess how easily traits can be extracted from specimen images. During the REU program, the student will gain hands-on experience with herbarium specimens, learn about plant adaptations and natural history, and build skills in data preparation for AI model training. This experience will help the student understand the value of herbarium collections in advancing plant science and addressing biodiversity issues. It is possible for the student participating in this project to receive co-authorship on a publication resulting from this work.
References
• Davis, C. C. (2023). The herbarium of the future. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 38(5), 412-423.
• Heberling, J. M. (2022). Herbaria as big data sources of plant traits. International Journal of Plant Sciences, 183(2), 87-118.
• Leme, E. M., Heller, S., Zizka, G., & Halbritter, H. (2017). New circumscription of Cryptanthus and new cryptanthoid genera and subgenera (Bromeliaceae: Bromelioideae) based on neglected morphological traits and molecular phylogeny. Phytotaxa, 318(1), 1-88.
• Meeus, S. (2018). Herbaria as functional trait databases. Biodiversity Information Science and Standards.
• Perez, T. M., Rodriguez, J., & Mason Heberling, J. (2020). Herbarium‐based measurements reliably estimate three functional traits. American Journal of Botany, -107(10), 1457-1464.