2026 Digital Data: Enabling Science Through Integrated Biodiversity Data - Day 3, Alpine Plant Atlas

Introducing the North American Alpine Plant Conservation Atlas Alpine plant species are particularly vulnerable to changing environmental conditions. Temperature fluctuations are projected to be most severe at high elevations and species will be displaced to higher elevations, or highly restricted microsites, until there is nowhere left in which to migrate. In August 2024, Denver Botanic Gardens received a grant (MA-255890-OMS-24) from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to "advance the North American Botanic Garden Strategy for Alpine Plant Conservation". The Alpine Strategy is a document that was published in 2020 by the Gardens and Betty Ford Alpine Gardens to serve as a blueprint for protecting alpine plants and ecosystems in North America. A component of the grant was to build a website and database to house and maintain a working checklist of all plant species found in the alpine ecosystems of North America. This new tool, the "North American Alpine Plant Conservation Altas", integrates taxonomic, conservation, and occurrence data from a variety of sources and presents them together as a searchable resource for scientists and the public to learn more about alpine plants and their conservation. Speaker: Rick Levy, Scientific Data Manager (Denver Botanic Gardens) Co-authors: Jen Toews (Denver Botanic Gardens0 Alex Seglias (Denver Botanic Gardens) Emily Griffoul (Betty Ford Alpine Gardens) Jennifer Neale (Denver Botanic Gardens)