Compactorization of the Specimens and Library of the UC Davis Herbarium

University Of California-Davis, Davis CA

Investigators

Abstract

The UC Davis Herbarium is a reference collection of over 240,000 dried and pressed plant specimens and an associated botanical library that is used by faculty in over 20 campus departments for their research in the diverse fields of genomics, plant biology, entomology, ecology, conservation, veterinary medicine, and agriculture. The current were outgrown by the early 1970s, at which time specimen cabinets were stacked on top of each other to a height of eleven feet. In the 1980s when no further cabinets could be stacked in the main collections area, cases were placed in the hall. Since that time, many more cases and freezers have been added to the hallway to accommodate incoming specimens. In addition, the lack of temperature control results in temperatures close to ninety degrees within the collection area for at least one time period per year. This makes it impossible to completely control the population of herbarium beetles in the main collections, and the larvae rapidly eat the flowers and leaves off the dried specimens. To remedy these problems, space has been allocated for the herbarium on the first floor of the Life Sciences Laboratory Building. The new herbarium facility will be temperature controlled and insect-free. As space is extremely limited and expensive on the UC Davis campus, the herbarium cases in the new collections area and the herbarium library will need to be installed on a movable aisle storage system. The specimens of herbaria are an historic record of where and when plants have grown in all parts of the world, and as such are repositories of tremendous biological information including the current locations of invasive weeds and the former locations of extinct species. In addition, the UC Davis Herbarium houses unique collections of California vernal pool plants, wine grape varieties, grasses, and oaks which should be preserved for future generations. UC Davis trains hundreds of scientists in diverse fields every year. Many of those scientists make their way to the herbarium for help with plant inquiries. Herbarium staff routinely do plant identifications for both university affiliates and the general public, including federal and state agencies, and such a service is impossible without reference specimens. As herbarium specimens can be used for both sight identification of plants and a source of genetic material for evolutionary studies, it is critical that these specimens be rehoused in a safe and functional facility in insect-free cases.