CSBR Ownership Transfer: Saving an ecologically data-rich collection: adding the Geological Survey of Alabama Fish Collection to The University of Alabama Ichthyological Collection

阿拉巴马大学塔斯卡卢萨分校获得阿拉巴马地质调查局 (GSA) 鱼类收藏的奖励。 该馆藏包含来自全州的超过 450,000 份淡水鱼类标本，为这些物种在田纳西州和莫比尔河流域的出现、分布和生态提供了无与伦比的记录，将被转移到阿拉巴马大学鱼类学馆藏 (UAIC)。 此次转移将确保 UAIC 的采集安全，并确保这些珍贵标本的长期护理，并通过 UAIC 门户网站 (specifyweb.as.ua.edu) 和项目合作伙伴（GBIF、FishNet2、VertNet 和 iDigBio）提供更多对标本和相关生态数据的访问。 GSA 收集的密集采样工作使其对研究界特别重要，包括其在学生培训和研究中的使用。该项目将 GSA 鱼类收藏的所有权转让给 UAIC，为大量淡水鱼类和相关生态数据提供即时的管理干预，否则科学界将丢失这些数据。 将这些标本添加到 UAIC 中，无论是在标本数量还是相关收藏和生态数据对研究界的价值方面，都增强和补充了 UAIC 中现有的材料。 GSA 收集代表了整个阿拉巴马州和周围流域的密集采样，并有可能为系统学、生物地理学、分类学、生活史和生态研究提供信息。 与大部分标本相关的环境数据提供了时间序列信息，可供保护生物学家、生态学家和土地管理者使用，以记录阿拉巴马州淡水水生生态系统的人类影响和环境变化。 GSA 收藏还大大增加了 UAIC 对阿拉巴马州特有的受威胁和濒危物种的持有量，并通过提供对这些有价值标本的电子访问来促进对这些分类群的未来研究。 通过整合这些集合并通过几个生物多样性信息门户提供相关现场数据的访问，记录阿拉巴马州和美国东南部淡水鱼类生物多样性的宝贵资源可用于培训和研究。

An award is made to the University of Alabama - Tuscaloosa to acquire the fish collection of the Geological Survey of Alabama (GSA). This collection of over 450,000 specimens of freshwater fishes from throughout the State, provides an unparalleled record of the occurrence, distribution, and ecology of these species in the Tennessee and Mobile River basins, will be transferred to the University of Alabama Ichthyological Collection (UAIC). The transfer will secure the collection at UAIC and ensure the long-term care of these valuable specimens, as well as providing increased access to the specimens and associated ecological data through the UAIC web portal (specifyweb.as.ua.edu) and those of project partners (GBIF, FishNet2, VertNet, and iDigBio). The intensive sampling effort that resulted in the GSA collection makes it of particular importance to the research community including its use in student training and research. This project transfers ownership of the GSA fish collection into UAIC, providing immediate curatorial intervention to a very large collection of freshwater fishes and associated ecological data that would otherwise be lost to the scientific community. Addition of these specimens into UAIC augments and supplements the material currently in UAIC in both the number of specimens and the value of the associated collection and ecological data to the research community. The GSA collection represents intensive sampling throughout Alabama and surrounding drainages and potentially informs systematics, biogeography, taxonomy, life-history, and ecological studies. The environmental data associated with a large portion of the specimens provide time-series information usable by conservation biologists, ecologists and land managers to document human impacts and environmental changes across freshwater aquatic ecosystems in Alabama. The GSA collection also greatly increases UAIC's holdings of threatened and endangered species endemic to Alabama, and facilitates future research on these taxa by providing electronic access to these valuable specimens. By uniting these collections and providing access to associated field data through several biodiversity information portals an invaluable resource documenting freshwater fish biodiversity in Alabama and the southeastern United States is made available for training and research.