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

化石告诉我们过去35亿年地球上的生命，但它们也可以帮助我们预测未来生命会发生什么，因为地球环境会继续变化。博物馆里收藏着世界各地研究人员使用的数百万块化石。每一组化石，无论大小，只要保存完好并有文献记录，都是至关重要的证据。爱荷华大学古生物库（UIPR）的植物化石收藏也不例外。自2005年以来，随着教师退休，分散的个别教师研究收藏已从UI生物系转移。这些集合现在被合并为一个单位，由UIPR管理。为了保存这些新藏品，标本将被组织在博物馆级的橱柜中，储存介质旨在减轻变质、害虫风险、高湿度和/或波动湿度。为了使这些藏品可用于研究和教育，将对标本的鉴定进行核实和更新，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收集管理方面的培训，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。学员将参与在线数据共享，并在项目工作人员的指导下在会议上发表论文。他们还将参与外展活动，协助开发教育资源，以收集为基础，吸引K-12学生和公众。该项目所针对的标本目前储存在远非理想的条件下，在对湿度敏感的化石的情况下，黄铁矿病正在积极恶化。为了阻止科学证据的流失，并使研究人员能够访问这些独特而不可替代的材料，这些藏品将按照现代标准和最佳实践在新的博物馆储存中进行实物保存，并在UIPR的指定藏品数据库中进行编目，并进行数字化（高分辨率摄影）。数据将通过诸如iDigBio、古生物数据库、GBIF和爱荷华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实践的研究。我们将开发和测试新的管理方法，以照顾黄铁矿材料和煤球醋酸酯剥皮。此外，我们将研究不明煤球的地球化学“指纹”。这些研究的结果将为古植物界使用的策略提供信息。自20世纪80年代以来，大部分藏品都无法进行研究。然而，通过这个项目，研究人员和教育工作者将可以获得这些藏品，包括Sternberg的白垩纪达科他地层藏品，这些藏品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；中西部煤球收集，提供了宾夕法尼亚植物群的独特记录，对古泥沼森林的古生态重建至关重要，并为丰富的系统发育假说提供了证据；宾夕法尼亚压缩植物群Pella Collection，由于其生物地理、地层和岩石学背景，具有重要的研究价值；以及麦克布莱德1893年的白垩纪苏铁类标本，这些标本来自南达科他州著名的明尼卡塔遗址。有关该收藏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/.