RAPID: Securing the LUMCON natural history collection, a vital Gulf Coast resource

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The Gulf of Mexico supports a wide array of habitats, from wetlands to reefs that maintain high levels of biodiversity, estimated at over 15,000 species; with up to 20% unknown to science. The lack of biodiversity knowledge is significant in the context of this region with frequent hurricanes and human influences, like oil spills, that can impact and often interrupt valuable ecosystem services, including fisheries. Since its founding in 1980, Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON) has built a marine biodiversity collection over well over 15,000 specimens representing over 500 species. This valuable research and education resource is of value for assessing impacts to the Gulf of Mexico including coastal loss, hurricanes, and oil spills. It represents a substantial set of marine and coastal collections, especially for invertebrates, for the Louisiana coast. The Louisiana portion of the Gulf coast is unique. It is affected by the Mississippi River outflow, extensive wetland systems, the Dead Zone, and human influences due to the higher concentrations of oil and gas refineries and wells. It is also a region affected by severe storms, including hurricanes. And due to building damage during Hurricane Ida, the collections at LUMCON are at risk. This proposal seeks to secure LUMCON’s natural history collections for future research and education. Specifically, the project will secure curatorial staff to aid in conservatory efforts, relocate and secure LUMCON’s natural history collections in a new location, and assess the condition of the current collection and develop and implement a cataloging system to facilitate and inform the strategy for growing the collection. In addition, the project will create a paid minority summer internship program based on collections research. The student will train on collections-based research and learn museum collections methods.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.