SGER: Salvage of Valdez Bird Specimens

该SGER将支持从阿拉斯加威廉王子湾埃克森瓦尔迪兹号石油泄漏事故中回收的大约3000具珍贵鸟类尸体的紧急打捞工作。自1989年以来，这些鸟被储存在四个巨大的冷冻车里，一直被美国阿拉斯加地方法院作为法律诉讼的证据，但现在计划在1992年9月30日或之前销毁。拯救瓦尔迪兹鸟类的两个基本原因是：(1)补充世界上的稀有标本；(2)为鸟类生物学的重要研究提供珍贵资料。瓦尔迪兹的海鸟代表了春季的样本，而博物馆里的大多数海鸟都是夏季/秋季的。此外，瓦尔迪兹收藏的11种海鸟在世界收藏中只有不到100具骨骼，其中4种被列为濒危或受威胁物种。PI将打捞的其他物种不能再大量收集以研究形态变化。通过打捞收集的研究项目包括研究和识别新物种（红面鸬鹚和远洋鸬鹚），海鸟蜕皮的生态学，西海岸冬季和早春海鸟的起源（繁殖群体），以及海鸟的生长模式。这些具体的研究将是跨学科的，涉及生态学、分子和形态系统学、种群生物学和生理生态学，并将使人们更好地了解鸟类系统学、繁殖生态学和保护生物学。

This SGER will support the urgent salvage of approximately 3000 rare and valuable bird carcasses recovered from the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska. The birds, stored in four enormous freezer vans, have been held as evidence in legal proceedings by the U.S. District Court for Alaska since 1989, but are now scheduled to be destroyed on or before September 30, 1992. Two basic reasons to salvage the Valdez birds are: (1) to complement the world's holdings of rare specimens; and (2) to provide rare material for important research on avian biology. The Valdez seabirds represent a Spring sampling, whereas most seabird holdings in museums are Summer/Fall. Further, 11 species of seabirds in the Valdez collection are represented by fewer than 100 skeletons in the world's collections, and four of the species are listed as either endangered or threatened. Other species that the PI will salvage can no longer be collected in large numbers to study morphological variation. Research projects made possible by the salvage collection include the study and recognition of new species (Red-faced and Pelagic Cormorants), the ecology of seabird molt, the origin (which breeding colony) of winter and early spring seabirds along the western coast, and growth patterns in seabirds. These specific studies will be cross-disciplinary, involving ecology, molecular and morphological systematics, population biology, and physiological ecology, and will enable a better understanding of avian systematics, breeding ecology and conservation biology.