CSBR Ownership Transfer: Saving an ecologically data-rich collection: adding the Geological Survey of Alabama Fish Collection to The University of Alabama Ichthyological Collection

University Of Alabama Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa AL

Investigators

Abstract

An award is made to the University of Alabama - Tuscaloosa to acquire the fish collection of the Geological Survey of Alabama (GSA). This collection of over 450,000 specimens of freshwater fishes from throughout the State, provides an unparalleled record of the occurrence, distribution, and ecology of these species in the Tennessee and Mobile River basins, will be transferred to the University of Alabama Ichthyological Collection (UAIC). The transfer will secure the collection at UAIC and ensure the long-term care of these valuable specimens, as well as providing increased access to the specimens and associated ecological data through the UAIC web portal (specifyweb.as.ua.edu) and those of project partners (GBIF, FishNet2, VertNet, and iDigBio). The intensive sampling effort that resulted in the GSA collection makes it of particular importance to the research community including its use in student training and research. This project transfers ownership of the GSA fish collection into UAIC, providing immediate curatorial intervention to a very large collection of freshwater fishes and associated ecological data that would otherwise be lost to the scientific community. Addition of these specimens into UAIC augments and supplements the material currently in UAIC in both the number of specimens and the value of the associated collection and ecological data to the research community. The GSA collection represents intensive sampling throughout Alabama and surrounding drainages and potentially informs systematics, biogeography, taxonomy, life-history, and ecological studies. The environmental data associated with a large portion of the specimens provide time-series information usable by conservation biologists, ecologists and land managers to document human impacts and environmental changes across freshwater aquatic ecosystems in Alabama. The GSA collection also greatly increases UAIC's holdings of threatened and endangered species endemic to Alabama, and facilitates future research on these taxa by providing electronic access to these valuable specimens. By uniting these collections and providing access to associated field data through several biodiversity information portals an invaluable resource documenting freshwater fish biodiversity in Alabama and the southeastern United States is made available for training and research.