Alexander Abair

About Me

I am a botanist, photographer, and information–ecosystem researcher contributing large-scale documentation of North American biodiversity to Wikimedia Commons. My work focuses mainly on the mint family (Lamiaceae) and other botanically significant groups across the United States and Canada. I am committed to expanding open-access visual records for biodiversity, taxonomy, and environmental research.

I have academic and professional experience in:

Plant systematics and taxonomy
Phylotranscriptomics and molecular biology
Herbarium curation, digitization workflows, and specimen imaging
Botanical field photography and macro documentation
Ecological monitoring and rare plant surveys
NEPA/NHPA/ESA compliance work for the U.S. National Park Service
Digital archiving, metadata organization, and knowledge-system design

My uploads include diagnostic field photographs, macro images of reproductive and vegetative structures, and documentation of intraspecific variation. I aim to create high-quality visual archives that support global research, conservation, and public understanding of plant diversity.

Contributions

I am currently importing my photographs from iNaturalist into Wikimedia Commons, ensuring accurate taxonomy and contextual metadata. My goals include:

Expanding species-level coverage of understudied North American taxa
Improving representation of morphological variation within species
Supporting Wikimedia projects with reliable scientific imagery
Building an accessible public archive of natural history photography

I welcome collaboration with editors, curators, and researchers interested in plant identification, structured data additions (SDC), and enhancing Wikimedia’s biodiversity resources.

Interests

Plant evolution, phylogenetics, and comparative morphology
Information systems, metadata structures, and human–machine interaction
Scientific and artistic photography
Open data, public knowledge, and collaborative digital archives

Licensing

All my uploads are released under Creative Commons licenses to support open scientific communication and reuse.

Links

My Commons uploads: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:ListFiles/Alexander_Abair
My iNaturalist profile: https://www.inaturalist.org/people/alex_abair