Care of the Systematic Collections of the Rancho Santa Ana Herbarium

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This project provides partial support for maintenance and care of the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden and Pomona College herbarium (RSA-POM) collections. RSA-POM, a National Resource Collection, is an important reference collection for systematic botany research worldwide. Increased curatorial activity, including the transfer of 170,000 specimens from the Los Angeles County Museum, has resulted in a shortage of storage space for the growing collections. Use of the collections by researchers has also increased, placing greater demands on the time of curatorial and technical staff. NSF funds will be used to purchase and install 142 new and 120 existing herbarium cases on a movable-carriage compactor system. Housed on the herbarium's third floor, the system will provide a 46% increase in storage capacity over the existing cabinet arrangement, enough space for an additional 123,000 specimens. This will allow for nearly five year's growth at the current rate of 25,000 specimens annually. NSF funds will also be used to support two technicians to process new accessions, loans, exchanges, staff collections, and other curatorial activities. Special emphasis will be given to processing backlog collections and completing segregation of the type collection.