Collaborative Research - CBSR: Natural History: The Preservation, Digitizing, and Data Basing of the Tardigrade Collection at Bohart Museum, UC Davis.

Fresno City College, Fresno CA

Investigators

Abstract

Tardigrades, or water bears, are microscopic animals that live in the ocean and on land in aquatic or otherwise wet places. Currently there are about 1,150 described species, with new ones being discovered annually. They have sausage-shaped bodies, with 8 legs ending in long claws. Water bears are unique because they can enter a state of 'suspended life' called cryptobiosis as their habitat dries out. In this stage, they can tolerate extreme conditions of cold, heat, vacuum, and pressure. Water bears may remain in this condition for many years until moisture returns allowing them to continue on with their lives. For a long time few scientists studied tardigrades because they were thought to have little economic or health value that were important to humans. However, their ability to suspend life is now being studied as a way to extend the 'shelf life' of organs harvested for transplant. It has also been discovered that in this suspended state water bears may be dispersed by wind carrying plant disease-causing bacteria, and that as a result they may be responsible for the spread of some crop diseases. The medical and industrial applications of this biology plus the disease issues make it critical to understand the global distribution of water bear species and to develop an up-to-date taxonomic framework to facilitate this work. Water bear research necessarily starts with museum collections. The largest North American collection is housed in the Bohart Museum of Entomology. Most of this 35,000 slide collection was acquired in the 1960-70s, and was prepared according to the best practices of the time. Unfortunately, best practices of the time meant using non-archival mounting media, which degrades over time. As a result the specimens are rapidly deteriorating. In addition, the taxonomy of the specimens has not been updated since the 1970's and they have not been databased. To address these issues, this project seeks to stabilize, repair and restore the specimens mounting them in archival quality media, image each specimen and upload the images and associated metadata on-line and integrate all data with iDigBio. The project will also train undergraduates at Fresno City College and UC Davis in the processes of preparation, repair, documentation, and data entry of large-scale collections. Initially, type and voucher specimens will be remounted - after the process has been perfected with duplicate specimens of non-type material - following lessons learned during a similar project on another group of arthropods, parasitoid wasps. Following this initial phase all other non-type specimens will be addressed. All data resulting from this project will be posted on line at the Bohart Museum website, http://bohart.ucdavis.edu/ and shared with IDigBio, https://www.idigbio.org/, ensuring accessibility to researchers and educators. Additional information about the Bohart Museum and its outreach activities is available at http://bohart.ucdavis.edu/.