CSBR: Increased capacity for research and student engagement at the Frost Entomological Museum

自然历史藏品记录了世界的多样性，并支持科学界对不断变化的生态系统动态的理解。面对世界范围内昆虫多样性的下降，昆虫学收藏保存、数字化和向更广泛的社区传播标本数据比以往任何时候都更加重要。宾夕法尼亚州立大学的弗罗斯特昆虫学博物馆收藏了130多万份昆虫标本，涵盖了昆虫的多样性。通过卫星收集传粉媒介，特别是蜜蜂（超过125,000个标本），以及最近在宾夕法尼亚州立大学成立的昆虫生物多样性中心（IBC）的研究活动，这一收集将进一步增加。通过这笔拨款提供的基础设施将弗罗斯特的储存能力提高了50%，可以对这些藏品进行管理，并作为一个储存库，以扩大对昆虫多样性的了解。该奖项还提供资源，将大量蚜虫收藏（约224,000个标本，49,000张幻灯片）数字化，其中包含有关这些昆虫的植物宿主的重要数据，以及水生昆虫（约15,000个小瓶中的100,000个标本），这是栖息地健康的指标。这些改进将有助于解决本地传粉媒介减少、流行病学、全球气候变化及其对物种分布和入侵物种的影响、生态位限制、指示物种和昆虫进化史的研究。该项目还将产生有助于正在进行的濒危昆虫研究的数据，并将填补现有数据集中关键的分类、地理和时间空白。弗罗斯特博物馆将安装一个高密度压实机存储系统，以便容纳新排的固定昆虫柜。这些橱柜将容纳大约1600个抽屉的扩展空间。该存储的一部分将通过合并以前存放在宾夕法尼亚州立大学水果研究和推广中心的传粉者收集和宾夕法尼亚州立大学传粉者研究中心产生的标本来利用。蚜虫标本由载玻片标本组成，将在平板扫描仪上成像，然后转移到新的定制载玻片柜中。切片扫描将被转录到弗罗斯特博物馆的数据库中，并与iDigBio和全球生物多样性信息设施（GBIF）共享数据。水生昆虫收集同样将被成像并重新安置在新的、扩大的乙醇储存中。这些图像将被转录，地理参考，并与上述存储库共享数据，使公众可以访问它们。一名研究生和至少两名本科生将接受馆藏护理、管理和数字化方面的培训。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Natural history collections record the world’s diversity through time and support the scientific community’s understanding of changing ecosystem dynamics. In the face of declining insect biodiversity worldwide, it is more important now than ever for entomology collections to preserve, digitize, and disseminate specimen data to the broader community. The Frost Entomological Museum at Penn State cares for more than 1.3 million specimens that span the diversity of insects. This collection stands to grow further, through the incorporation of satellite collections of pollinators, especially bees (more than 125,000 specimens), and through the activities of the Insect Biodiversity Center (IBC), a recently established research initiative at Penn State. The infrastructure provided through this grant increases the storage capacity of the Frost by 50%, allowing for the curation of these collections and to serve as a repository for scaled up efforts to understand insect diversity through time. The award also provides the resources to digitize the substantial aphid collection (approximately 224,000 specimens on 49,000 slides), which holds important data regarding these insects’ plant hosts, and aquatic insects (approximately 100,000 specimens in 15,000 vials), which are indicators of habitat health. These improvements will facilitate research that addresses native pollinator decline, epidemiology, global climate change and its impact on species distributions and invasive species, niche restrictions, indicator species, and the evolutionary history of insects. The project will also generate data that contribute to ongoing research on imperiled insects and will fill critical taxonomic, geographical, and temporal gaps in existing datasets.A high-density compactor storage system will be installed in the Frost Museum in order to accommodate new rows of cabinets for pinned insects. These cabinets will accommodate approximately 1,600 drawers of expanded space. A portion of this storage will be utilized by incorporating the pollinator collection previously housed at Penn State’s Fruit Research and Extension Center and specimens generated by Penn State’s Center for Pollinator Research. The aphid collection, which consists of slide-mounted specimens, will be imaged on a flatbed scanner and then moved to new custom-built slide cabinets. The slide scans will be transcribed in the Frost Museum database, georeferenced, and the data shared with iDigBio and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). The aquatic insect collection likewise will be imaged and rehoused in new, expanded ethanol storage. The lot images will be transcribed, georeferenced, and the data shared with the above repositories, making them accessible to the public. A graduate student and at least two undergraduates will receive training in collections care, management, and digitization.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.