RAPID: Preparing the USM/GCRL Museum Invertebrate Holdings Data For Physical and Electronic Access by the Scientific Community in the Aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

南密西西比大学墨西哥湾沿岸研究实验室（GCRL）博物馆收藏了大量来自墨西哥湾北方的海洋无脊椎动物。该系列主要是从目前受到深水地平线石油泄漏影响或威胁的海湾地区收集的标本。这些收藏品是与泄漏后将进行的环境影响研究有关的参考材料。博物馆中的许多标本都是历史收藏品（在一段时间内从同一地点重复收集），这对评估石油泄漏的影响很有用。该项目的目标是准备GCRL博物馆收藏的来自墨西哥湾北方关键地区的无脊椎动物，供科学界使用。这将需要对藏品的数据进行编目，核实身份，将数据输入博物馆数据库，并使该数据库可在GCRL博物馆网站上搜索。此外，最近从受影响的海岸栖息地采集的撞击前样本将被处理并纳入GCRL博物馆收藏。这项工作将需要一年的时间来完成，并由四名资深科学家，两名研究生和两名兼职本科生工人进行。完成后，科学界可以通过电子方式访问GCRL博物馆无脊椎动物藏品中与该项目有关的所有数据，所有标本批次都可供感兴趣的用户团体借阅。归档的无脊椎动物标本和收藏品以及与其获取有关的生态数据沿着是科学家研究石油对北方海湾海岸线栖息地影响所需的宝贵资源。墨西哥科学家、资源管理人员和其他感兴趣的各方将能够搜索我们的资产，并了解哪些无脊椎动物出现在暴露于石油的关键地区。科学家们掌握了有关一个地区历史上特有的物种和群落的基线知识，就可以评估一个关键的海岸线栖息地何时或是否已经恢复。参加该项目的学生将学习博物馆策展技术，并接受分类学培训，以正确识别海洋无脊椎动物。此外，将鼓励学生参与者开展与生物多样性研究有关的项目，重点是这场环境灾难可能对受影响海岸生境的动物群完整性产生的急性和慢性影响。

The University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast Research Laboratory (GCRL) Museum houses a large collection of preserved marine invertebrates from the northern Gulf of Mexico. This collection is dominated by specimens collected from regions of the Gulf that are presently impacted or threatened by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. These collections represent reference material relevant to environmental impact studies that will be conducted in the aftermath of the spill. Many of the specimen lots in the museum represent historical collections (repeated collections made from the same location over a period of time) that will be useful for assessing oil spill impact. The goal of this project is to prepare the GCRL Museum invertebrate holdings from key areas of the northern Gulf of Mexico for access by the scientific community. This will entail cataloging data from collection lots, verifying identifications, entering the data into the museum database, and making that database searchable on the GCRL Museum web site. In addition, recent pre-impact samples from affected shoreline habitats will be processed and incorporated into the GCRL Museum collection. This work will take one year to complete, and be conducted by four senior scientists, two graduate students and two part time undergraduate workers. Upon completion, all data from the GCRL Museum invertebrate holdings pertaining to this project will be electronically accessible by the scientific community and all specimen lots will be available for loan to interested user groups.Archived invertebrate specimens and collections along with the ecological data pertaining to their acquisition are valuable resources that scientists need in order to study effects of oil on shoreline habitats of the northern Gulf of Mexico. Scientists, resource managers, and other interested parties will be able to search our holdings and learn which invertebrates occur in key areas that have since been exposed to oil. Equipped with baseline knowledge about species and communities that historically characterize an area, scientists can assess when or if a key shoreline habitat has recovered. Students participating in this project will learn museum curatorial techniques and be trained in taxonomy for proper identification of marine invertebrates. Further, the student participants will be encouraged to pursue projects relating to the study of biodiversity with emphasis on the acute and chronic effects that this environmental catastrophe may have had on the faunal integrity of affected shoreline habitats.