Biological collections contain a storehouse of information that span considerable spatial and temporal scales. As a land-grant institution, Texas A&M University is committed to the preservation and enhancement of its existing herbaria as an integral component of the university's core mission. This project will consolidate three existing botany-based research collections on the College Station Campus of Texas A&M University. Each of these collections are committed to transferring research products to the general public through active service and extension programs, promoting collections based research in their respective fields, and preserving extant collections for future generations. The consolidation of these collections will assemble and preserve a diverse and comprehensive botanical collection of approximately 320,000 specimens and thereby facilitate improvements in education, outreach, and research efforts at multiple scales.
This consolidation project will provide numerous opportunities to recruit, educate, and employ graduate and undergraduate students from differing under-represented groups. Diverse user groups: student workers, adult learners, and disadvantaged students, will benefit from direct exposure to these unique resources and the knowledge base possessed by researchers working in these collections. Reaching beyond the local utilization of these collections, updated and expanded web content will provide a comprehensive and easily accessible resource for educators, researchers, law enforcement interests, and others worldwide.
