CSBR: Natural History Collections: Critical renovation and revitalization of the University of Iowa Fossil Plant Collection

化石告诉我们过去35亿年来地球上的生命，但它们也可以帮助我们预测未来的生命会发生什么，因为地球环境不断变化。博物馆收藏了世界各地研究人员使用的数百万化石。每一个单独的化石收藏，无论其大小，都是一个重要的证据，只要它得到良好的维护和记录。爱荷华州大学古生物学知识库（UIPR）的植物化石收藏也不例外。自2005年以来，分散的个人教师研究收藏已从UI生物系教师退休转移。这些收藏品现在被合并为一个单一的单位，由UIPR管理。为了保存这一新的收藏，标本将被组织在博物馆级的橱柜中的存储介质，旨在减轻恶化，害虫的风险，以及高和/或波动的湿度。为了使收藏品能够用于研究和教育，将核实和更新标本的身份，对标本进行编目和拍照，并在网上提供数字化信息。 地球与环境科学本科生、博物馆研究实习生和麦克奈尔学者将接受藏品管理培训，并将研究确定标本采集地点的新技术。所有培训工作都将针对STEM中代表性不足的群体的学生。受训人员将参加在线数据共享，并将在项目工作人员的指导下在会议上提交论文。他们还将参与外联活动，协助开发基于收集的教育资源，吸引K-12学生和公众参与。该项目所针对的标本目前储存在远不理想的条件下，并且对于湿度敏感的化石，正在因黄铁矿病而积极恶化。为了阻止科学证据的流失，并使研究能够获得这种独特和不可替代的材料，这些藏品将根据现代标准和最佳实践，通过在新的博物馆存储中进行物理保护来保护和恢复活力，在UIPR的Specify Collections数据库中进行编目，并进行数字化（高分辨率摄影）。数据将通过iDigBio、古生物学数据库、GBIF和爱荷华州数字图书馆等倡议与在线资源共享。在保护和保存藏品的过程中，将进行两项旨在改善策展和管理做法的研究。我们将开发和测试新的治疗方法，用于治疗黄铁矿化材料和煤球醋酸盐皮。此外，我们将调查地球化学的“指纹”的无来源的煤球。这些研究的结果将为古植物学界所采用的策略提供信息。自20世纪80年代以来，大部分藏品都无法进行研究。然而，通过这一项目，研究人员和教育工作者将能够获得收藏品，包括斯滕贝格的白垩纪达科他地层收藏品，这对了解被子植物的早期进化及其在陆地生态系统结构变化中的作用至关重要;中西部煤炭收集，提供了一个独特的记录宾夕法尼亚州植物区系的关键古沼泽森林的古生态重建和燃料丰富的一系列系统发育假设; Pella Collection，一个宾夕法尼亚州的压缩植物群，由于其地理、地层和石印背景而具有重要的研究价值;以及Macbride的1893年白垩纪苏铁类植物群，来自南达科他州著名的Minnekahta遗址。有关该系列及其推广计划的更多信息，请访问http://geoscience.clas.uiowa.edu/paleo/。

Fossils tell us about life on Earth over the past 3.5 billion years, but they can also help us predict what will happen to life in the future, as the Earth's environment continues to change. Museums hold millions of fossils used by researchers worldwide. Each individual collection of fossils, regardless of its size, is a vital piece of evidence, providing it is well maintained and documented. The fossil plant collection at the University of Iowa Paleontology Repository (UIPR) is no exception. Since 2005, scattered individual faculty research collections have been transferred from the UI Biology Department as faculty retire. These collections are now consolidated as a single unit under UIPR care. To preserve this new collection, specimens will be organized in museum-grade cabinets in storage media designed to mitigate deterioration, risks from pests, and high and/or fluctuating humidity. To make the collection accessible for research and education, specimen identifications will be verified and updated, specimens will be cataloged and photographed, and the digitized information made available on-line. Earth and Environmental Science undergraduate students, Museum Studies interns, and McNair Scholars will receive training in collection management and will investigate new techniques for determining the locality from which specimens were collected. All training efforts will target students from groups underrepresented in STEM. Trainees will participate in sharing data on-line and will present papers at conferences under the mentorship of project staff. They will also participate in the outreach activities by assisting with the development of educational resources, based on the collection, to engage K-12 students and the public.The specimens targeted by this project are currently stored in far from ideal conditions and, in the case of humidity-sensitive fossils, are actively deteriorating with pyrite disease. To halt this loss of scientific evidence and enable research access of this unique and irreplaceable material, the collection will be secured and rejuvenated by physical preservation in new museum storage according to modern standards and best practices, catalogued in the UIPR's Specify Collections Database, and digitized (high resolution photography). Data will be shared with on-line resources through initiatives such as iDigBio, the Paleobiology Database, GBIF, and the Iowa Digital Library. In the process of securing and preserving the collection, two research studies aimed at improving curatorial and management practices will be conducted. We will develop and test new curation methods for the care of pyritized material and coal ball acetate peels. In addition, we will investigate the geochemical "fingerprinting" of unprovenanced coal balls. The results of these studies will inform strategies used by the paleobotanical community. Much of the collection has been inaccessible to research since the 1980s. However, through this project collections will be made accessible to researchers and educators, including Sternberg's Cretaceous Dakota Formation Collection, critical to understanding the early evolution of angiosperms and their role in the changing structure of terrestrial ecosystems; Midwest coal ball collections, providing a unique record of Pennsylvanian floras critical for paleoecological reconstructions of ancient mire forests and fueling a rich array of phylogenetic hypotheses; the Pella Collection, a Pennsylvanian compression flora of significant research value due to its biogeographic, stratigraphic and lithographic context; and Macbride's 1893 Cretaceous Cycadeoid Collection, from the famous Minnekahta site, South Dakota. More information about the collection and its outreach program is available at http://geoscience.clas.uiowa.edu/paleo/.