Improving Access to the Botanical Collection at the San Diego Natural History Museum through Improved Housing and Curation

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A grant has been awarded to the San Diego Natural History Museum (SDNHM) under the direction of Drs. J. Rebman and P. Cato. The project, entitled "Improving access to the SDNHM botanical collection" will address overcrowding of specimens, access, and future growth of the collection at the SDNHM Herbarium. Dominated by specimens from southern California, Baja California and related areas, the SDNHM Herbarium now contains approximately150,000 specimens of vascular and nonvascular plants. This collection is invaluable for research on the diversity of the California Floristic Province, one of the world's 25 biodiversity hotspots. Within the last five years collection growth and research activity have increased steadily in the herbarium and cases are now at capacity. Committed to biodiversity and natural history research and documentation of the flora in southern California and the Baja California region, the SDNHM Herbarium activities are centered around the use of collected specimens for systematics, floristics, conservation, and biodiversity research. The current project being funded will enhance access to the botanical specimens in the SDNHM Herbarium through increased storage space and improved curation of its collections. Specifically, the grant will enable the purchase of many new herbarium cabinets and supplies in order to alleviate severe overcrowding and make the collection more accessible and better curated. This endeavor will require the hire of a temporary Collection Assistant to assist in curation, moving, pest management and organizing the collection. Once crowding is relieved, and the botanical collection at SDNHM is better housed and curated, access will be significantly improved for researchers, students, biological consultants, and the public onsite. This project will aid SDNHM with its commitment to activities centered on collected specimens for use in systematics, floristics, conservation, and biodiversity research in the southern California and Baja California local region. The herbarium expansion project will also help to facilitate the initiation of the San Diego County Plant Atlas Project (SDCPAP) that is being organized by the SDNHM Botany Department. The SDCPAP proposes to document the botanical diversity of the county by recruiting "parabotanists" (non-professional botanists who will be trained in the survey, inventory, and ethical collection of proper plant specimens) to collect plant specimens from a grid system covering the entire county. This is especially important because San Diego County has the highest botanical diversity of any county in the contiguous United States, but that diversity has not yet been thoroughly recorded. A concerted effort by the SDCPAP to document the occurrence and geographic location of local plant species with vouchered specimens to be deposited in the SDNHM Herbarium will provide valuable scientific information that is being lost as our County becomes increasingly developed and also educate the public on the biological importance of our region.