RAPID: A regional plan to rescue the orphaned University of Louisiana Monroe Fish Collection

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An award is made to Tulane University for moving the University of Louisiana-Monroe (ULM) herbarium to BRIT. In March 2017, the University of Louisiana Monroe (ULM) announced that it could no longer keep its ichthyological (fish) and herpetological (amphibian and reptile) research collections, because the space the collections were being temporarily stored in was scheduled to be renovated for another purpose starting in early August 2017. The ULM fish collection, comprising roughly 85,000 lots (jars) representing over one million fish specimens, ranks among the largest fish collections in North America. This project will support the transfer of ownership of the entire ULM fish collection to the Tulane University Biodiversity Research Institute (TUBRI); parts of the collection will be transferred to other interested institutions in Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Texas. A commercial transportation company will pack and move the entire ULM fish collection to TUBRI. The ULM specimens document the natural heritage of Louisiana and surrounding regions and can provide valuable insight into understanding critical environmental issues affecting the region and the nation, including documenting invasive species, changes affecting water resources, wetlands loss, and ocean acidification.Roughly 13% of the jars of specimens in the ULM fish collection were donated to ULM by Louisiana Tech University in 1999, but were never cataloged in the ULM fish collection database. Data for these lots will be entered into the ULM database, specimen counts will be added to the database for jars missing this information, and curatorial needs of jars (added alcohol, replacement lids) will be met. Once all this work is completed, curators of fish collections at Louisiana State University, Southeastern Louisiana University, Arkansas State University, the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science and University of Texas, Austin, will be sent data for specimens from their states and other geographic areas, and the curators will be asked to approve material destined to be sent to them. The material will be re-boxed and packed by the project technician for transportation to each of these receiving collections. Any remaining material will be retained in the fish collection at TUBRI.