This award will enhance the long-term safety and preservation of the priceless UCLA Donald R. Dickey Collection of Birds and Mammal collection. Specifically, funds will be used to purchase and install a space-saving compactor system and several new specimen cases in a renovated, larger space provided by the university. At present, specimens are stored in deteriorating 65+-year-old cases in a small, non-air-conditioned underground space. The space-saver will reduce space needed to house the collection by nearly fifty percent, thus permitting expansion of the collection, more workspace, and sufficient room to offer classes in museum science skills for the first time in decades. NSF funds will support both graduate students and undergraduate students to assist with the move and museum curation. The Donald R. Dickey Bird and Mammal Collection, containing approximately 64,000 specimens, is one of the largest maintained by a California university. Its geographic strengths include western North America and Middle America, with many specimens collected prior to 1950. Thus, the collection provides a critical record of animal distributions, genetic diversity, and morphology prior to post-World War II population expansion and habitat degradation. An important element of the intellectual merit of enhancing and preserving these collections relates to their role as an archive of baseline data on biodiversity and species distributions in the face of current climate change. In addition, the collection is used to expose students to tangible evidence of variation in nature, the relationship of animal form to function, and evolutionary relationships. Over 1600 undergraduates have contact through their coursework with some aspect of the collection each year, and some of these go on to complete independent studies or assist in collection management. Moreover, many UCLA graduate students and faculty, as well as visiting scientists, study material in the collections for their research.
NSF funds were used to greatly improve the housing and preservation of the UCLA Donald R. Dickey Bird and Mammal Collection. This collection contains approximately 64,000 specimens and is second only in size to UC Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. The collection’s geographic strengths include western North America and Middle America, much of this prior to 1950. Consequently, the Dickey Collection provides a critical record of animal distributions, genetic diversity, and morphology prior to post World War II population expansions and increasing rates of habitat degradation. As a result, the intellectual merit of enhancing and preserving these collections as archives of baseline data on biodiversity and species distributions in the face of current climate change is unquestionable. Until last year, the collection resided in deteriorating 65+-year-old cases in a suboptimal, non-air-conditioned underground space. The small size of the space required that specimen cabinets were stacked three-high, a situation that created warping of lower cabinets and made it difficult to access specimens for teaching or research. There was virtually no workspace and the dungeon-like, isolated nature of the space inhibited student activity in the collection. In 2012, new space became available for the collection in an historic building on campus that underwent a major retrofit, including electrical, plumbing, air-conditioning, and seismic upgrades. This new space represents a 50% increase over our current space and allowed for the installation of a space-saver system. The space-saver reduced the space needed to house the collection and permits expansion of the collection for the first time in decades, much more workspace, sufficient room to offer small classes in museum science skills, and allows us to begin integration of the extensive frozen tissue collection of the UCLA Conservation Genetics Research Center with the main collection. The most significant broader impact of the collection is in education and the exposure of students to tangible evidence of variation in nature, the relationship of animal form to function, and evolutionary relationships as revealed by shared characters. Over 1600 undergraduates have contact through their coursework with some aspect of the collection each year, and some of these go on to complete independent studies or assist in collection management. Moreover, many UCLA graduate students and faculty, as well as visiting scientists study material in the collections for their research. The new cabinets and space-saver system purchased with NSF funds ensure the safety and preservation of this invaluable natural history collection into the foreseeable future, and enhance its value for both research and teaching.
