Support for the Bird Division Collections at The University of Michigan Museum of Zoology

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PROJECT ABSTRACT A grant has been awarded to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor under the direction of Dr. D. Mindell to support the research and teaching collections in the Museum of Zoology Bird Division (UMMZ-BD). The UMMZ-BD avian research collections include over 203,500 specimens, divided among six preparation types (skins, skeletons, fluids, eggs, nests, and frozen tissues). The study skin collection alone includes about 171,600 specimens. The UMMZ-BD is one of the two or three largest and most comprehensive collections to be associated with a major research university having an active and productive graduate student training program in systematic biology and biodiversity. The ornithological collections are notable for their excellent taxonomic and geographic coverage, including many uncommon species from relatively remote areas of the world, for the large number of geographic series for many species, and for its 316 holotypes (individual specimens used to describe new species). The objectives are (1) to purchase new specimen cases to replace old ones, constructed during the 1920s through the 1940s, which do not provide sufficient protection from insects, and (2) to employ a Curatorial Assistant to help move and transfer specimens to the new cases. New, taller cases with additional drawers, will also make more efficient use of existing space in the Ruthven Museums Building on central campus at the University of Michigan. This will help to alleviate current crowding of specimens in drawers and facilitate future growth of the collections. The university will purchase approximately 137 new double cases with drawers and 79 new single cases with drawers along with the necessary acid-free blotting paper and trays for the drawers. A Curatorial Assistant will be hired for 14 months to assist in transferring specimens from the old to the new cases. A staging area in the Ruthven Museums Building will be used to move out old cases and receive shipments of new cases on an incremental basis. Funds provided by the National Science Foundation will be augmented by significant matching funds from the University of Michigan, including support toward the purchase of new cases and for physical facilities improvement (air conditioning) in the UMMZ-BD. The potential impact of the project on advancing knowledge and science may be described as follows. Maintaining the extensive UMMZ-BD avian collections and making them broadly available to the scientific, educational, and resource management communities and to the public will enhance future research and teaching in the areas of avian systematics (molecular and morphological), evolution, as well as ecology and conservation for all scientists and students, nationally and internationally, interested in these aspects of biodiversity research. Collections maintenance is also vital in fulfilling the UMMZ-BD's research and teaching missions.