Format: ORAL

Elycia J. Wallis1, Katharina Nargar2, Shelley A. James3

1 Atlas of Living Australia, CSIRO, Melbourne, Australia 2 Australian Tropical Herbarium & National Research Collections Australia, CSIRO, Cairns, Australia 3 Western Australian Herbarium, Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, Kensington, Australia

Once thought of as static, collections are being reframed as resources whose potential goes beyond the physical entities held in herbaria. In Australia, novel projects are being undertaken in botanical collections, and the results can often be accessed through the Australasian Virtual Herbarium (AVH) and the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) (https://www.ala.org.au/).The collections, AVH and the ALA together represent critical infrastructure for understanding Australias biodiversity. Many novel projects utilise advanced computing power, cloud-based storage, and analysis tools. For example, digitisation projects have been completed by organisations including the National Herbarium of NSW and the Australian National Herbarium, one of the CSIRO National Research Collections. These projects aim to go way beyond previous efforts in terms of sheer numbers and the scale of the operation required to deliver the result. Another activity is AusTraits, which compiles data across over 30,000 species and hundreds of traits. Collected data can be accessed on ALA species pages. Of particular interest in Australia is Indigenous knowledge recorded on herbarium sheets; unique and valuable information. Building community and collaborations to bring Indigenous knowledge and western science closer together is an active challenge for those working in Australian botany.  The Atlas of Living Australia provides a conduit for new information to be published online and made accessible. The aggregated data then provide even more opportunities for new knowledge to be generated, with tools to view, download and visualise information. Areas of future development in the ALA include work in biosecurity, including weeds and plant pests; better data about interactions, such as between plants and pollinators; and inclusion of genomic data.  Much that is new can be generated from specimens that may be old.