CSBR: Natural History: Securing and Digitizing Data for Parasite Biodiversity Specimens in the Manter Laboratory

该项目的目标是使数据与H.W.曼特实验室（HWML）更容易提供给科学界，以及促进其标本的长期安全和保护。这些重要的收藏有助于美国科学家预测新出现的疾病，了解全球环境变化，并使科学家和政策制定者能够应对这些对国家安全的威胁。由顶级研究科学家捐赠，四个寄生虫集合正在整合到HWML中。 这些包含了关于寄生虫及其宿主生物多样性的重要知识，这项工作将使HWML能够对大量多年来一直未编目（和未知）的标本进行数据库，保护和修复。麦克唐纳收集包括蠕虫从迁徙水鸟的北美中部飞行路线;威尔逊收集包含已确定和未确定的体外寄生虫收集世界各地;哈吉斯海洋扁形动物收集从南极洲，墨西哥湾，和南部海洋标本;和Telford hemoparasite载玻片收集从世界各地的爬行动物寄生虫。该项目的主要目标包括将一个现有但过时的数据库PARASITE转换成一个现代的关系数据库系统（Arctos，一个自然历史和生物多样性收藏品的多用户在线数据库），该系统将成为HWML的主要数据库，使世界各地的科学家能够查询收藏品的数字图像和数据。Arctos将允许用户同时针对脊椎动物宿主集合和这些宿主的寄生虫--这是目前在PARASITE中不可用的能力。这种关系查询是必不可少的，使一个完整的图片主机/寄生虫生物多样性的研究科学家在许多不同的领域工作。在数字化工作的协调下，四个关键寄生虫收藏中的所有标本都是HWML中未编目标本的最后剩余积压部分，将被修复，或标记为将来修复，并转移到永久安全的物理存储中。 该项目产生的所有数据将在网上公布（http：//hwml.unl.edu/），并与iDigBio分享（https：//www.idigbio.org/），确保研究人员和教育工作者能够获得。

The goal of this project is to make data associated with the H.W. Manter Laboratory (HWML) more readily available to the scientific community, as well as to facilitate long-term security and conservation of its specimens. These important collections contribute to the ability of scientists in the USA to predict emerging diseases, understand global environmental changes, and enable responses to these threats to the national security by scientists and policymakers. Donated by top-ranked research scientists, four collections of parasites are being integrated into the HWML. These contain important knowledge of the biodiversity of parasites and their hosts, and this work will allow the HWML to database, conserve, and repair a large number of specimens that have remained un-catalogued (and unknown) for many years. The McDonald collection incorporates helminths from migratory waterfowl of the central North American flyway; the Wilson collection contains both identified and unidentified ectoparasites collected worldwide; the Hargis marine platyhelminth collection holds specimens from the Antarctic, Gulf of Mexico, and southern oceans; and the Telford hemoparasite slide collection holds parasites collected from reptiles worldwide. The primary objectives of this project include converting an existing but outdated database, PARASITE, into a modern relational database system (Arctos, a multiuser online database for natural history and biodiversity collections), which will then be the HWML's main database, enabling scientists world-wide to query the collections for both digital images and data. Arctos will permit users to simultaneously target both vertebrate host collections and the parasites of these hosts - a capability currently unavailable in PARASITE. Such relational queries are essential to enable a complete picture of host/parasite biodiversity to research scientists working in many different fields. In coordination with the digitization effort, all specimens in four key parasite collections which are the last remaining backlogged sections of uncataloged specimens in the HWML will be repaired, or marked for future repair, and transfered into permanent-secure physical storage. All data resulting from this project will be posted online (http://hwml.unl.edu/) and shared with iDigBio (https://www.idigbio.org/), ensuring accessibility to researchers and educators.