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生命将发生什么，因为地球环境继续变化。博物馆拥有数以百万计的化石，供全世界的研究人员使用。每一个单独的化石集合，无论大小，都是至关重要的证据，前提是它得到了良好的维护和记录。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，随着教职员工的退休，分散的教职员工个人研究收藏被从伊利诺伊大学生物系转移过来。这些收藏品现在被合并为一个单位，由公共政策研究所照管。为了保存这些新藏品，标本将被组织在博物馆级的橱柜中，存放在旨在减轻变质、虫害风险以及高湿度和/或波动湿度的存储介质中。为了使这些收藏品可供研究和教育使用，将核实和更新标本标识，对标本进行编目和拍照，并在网上提供数字化信息。地球和环境科学本科生、博物馆研究实习生和麦克奈尔学者将接受收藏管理方面的培训，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。受训人员将参与在线共享数据，并在项目工作人员的指导下在会议上提交论文。他们还将参与外展活动，在收集的基础上协助开发教育资源，以吸引K-12学生和公众参与。该项目的目标标本目前保存在远不理想的条件下，就湿度敏感化石而言，随着黄铁矿疾病的发生，它们正在迅速变质。为了阻止这种科学证据的丧失，并使这一独特和不可替代的材料能够进行研究，将按照现代标准和最佳做法，在博物馆的新储藏室进行实物保存，对藏品进行保护和恢复活力，将其编入研究所的指定藏品数据库，并进行数字化(高清晰度摄影)。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。在保护和保存这些藏品的过程中，将进行两项旨在改进策展和管理做法的研究。我们将开发和测试新的护理黄铁矿材料和煤球醋酸酯果皮的方法。此外，我们还将调查未原产地煤球的地球化学性质“指纹”。这些研究的结果将为古植物界所采用的策略提供参考。自20世纪80年代以来，这些藏品中的大部分一直无法进行研究。然而，通过该项目，研究人员和教育工作者将能够获得这些收藏，其中包括：Sternberg的白垩纪达科他组收藏，这对于了解被子植物的早期进化及其在陆地生态系统变化结构中的作用至关重要；中西部的煤球收藏，提供了宾夕法尼亚州植物群的独特记录，对于古代泥炭森林的古生态重建至关重要，并推动了一系列丰富的系统发育假说；Pella收藏，由于其生物地理、地层和岩石背景，具有重要的研究价值；以及MacBride的1893年从南达科他州著名的明尼阿赫塔遗址发现的白垩纪苏铁虫收藏。有关该藏品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/.