CSBR: Natural History: Critical Upgrades, Expansion, and Reorganization of the Wisconsin State Herbarium (WIS)

University Of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison WI

Investigators

Abstract

With a collection of more than 1.2 million preserved plant specimens, the Wisconsin State Herbarium (WIS) at the UW-Madison ranks among the top 1% of the world's largest and most active herbaria. It is the third largest public university herbarium in the Americas, and is used extensively by a diverse clientele, including citizens engaged in ecological restoration, state biologists, researchers, professors, as well as students who are conducting independent research or enrolled in any of the nine different university courses that incorporate the herbarium's collection into teaching. Recently, WIS was listed as one of 14 herbaria in the world whose online specimen data has been consulted at least 20 times in studies documenting environmental change; it is a world class resource. As its holdings have grown, the herbarium reached its carrying capacity decades ago, and its facilities are now overcrowded, inadequate for maintaining curatorial standards of specimen storage, and unable to provide full public access. For example, the mechanized compactor holding 476 cabinets of flowering plants has failed and cannot be repaired. Critical upgrades will take place on both floors of the herbarium; its 30-year old motorized compactor system on the main floor will be modified into a new, more reliable manual system, and a new high-density mobile storage system and associated cabinets will be installed in the herbarium's newly acquired second floor. These improvements will allow for consolidation of collections scattered throughout the building, proper safekeeping and expansion, especially among its exceptional algae, fungi, lichens, and mosses. A reorganization of the entire herbarium collection will follow this expansion, including adoption of a contemporary phylogenetic system of plant classification, which is now taught in all formal university courses on campus. The acquisition of new real estate on the Madison campus coincides with the purchase of a collection of ca. 60,000 lichen specimens that complement existing holdings. In addition, WIS is involved in a number of current regional, national, and international collection digitization activities, and is the lead institution for two NSF-funded Thematic Collections Networks. All data resulting from this project will be posted online (http://herbarium.wisc.edu/databases.htm) and shared with iDigBio (https://www.idigbio.org/), ensuring accessibility to researchers and educators. Finally, in order to highlight unparalleled natural history museum resources to senior citizens and pre-college teens, WIS will develop a two-day botany "major" during UW-Madison's summer Grandparent's University week. Additional information about WIS and its outreach activities is available at http://herbarium.wisc.edu/.