Awareness and use of biodiversity collections by fish biologists

A survey of 280 fish biologists from a diverse pool of disciplines was conducted in order to assess the use made of biodiversity collections and how collections can better collect, curate and share the data they have. From the responses, data for how fish biologists use collections, what data they find the most useful, what factors influence the decisions to use collections, how they access the data and explore why some fish biologists make the decision to not use biodiversity collections is collated and reported. The results of which could be used to formulate sustainability plans for collections administrators and staff who curate fish biodiversity collections, while also highlighting the diversity of data and uses to researchers.     

新世纪的中国昆虫系统学

对未来我国昆虫系统学在能力建设、物种编目、理论研究、技术创新和国际合作等方面提出一系列建议。在昆虫系统学能力建设方面,政府和科学家应该在生物分类学能力评估、基础硬件建设、各级生物标本馆中建立伙伴关系（包括标本采集、标本馆管理、 科学研究、 知识共享和标本与资料交换）等方面重点开展工作。在物种编目方面,我国的昆虫物种编目有赖于各级政府和机构继续关注标本的收集和保藏,继续启动一些考察项目,以满足发现和认识昆虫物种的实际需求。在物种水平上研究以往昆虫系统学家的工作,进行地区性和世界性的昆虫类群的订正更是非常必要的。在理论研究方面,我国昆虫系统应该在下列方面积极探索：物种概念、进化理论、比较生物学理论和高级分类系统研究。在技术创新方面,我国的昆虫系统学家应该在数据库与网络技术应用、图形图像处理技术、专家鉴定系统技术、分类性状分析技术、分子生物学技术、系统发育推断程序、信息统一管理技术和知识传播技术等方面进行深入研究,以满足昆虫系统学的发展需求。在国际合作方面,要进一步推动我国昆虫系统学研究机构加入生物分类学全球战略联盟、加入各种相关国际相关组织,要促进物种信息管理系统的建立与共享,要推动研究项目国际化。     

Avian egg collections: museum collection bias driven by shape and size

Avian eggs exhibit substantial intra- and interspecific variation in shape, size and colour. Considerable efforts have been made to better understand the evolutionary drivers behind such variation, often using museum egg collections. Usually it is assumed that museum collections accurately represent the variation seen in natural populations, but this may not be the case if there is collection bias. Collection bias may lead to the over-representation of certain egg traits in collections, due to the aesthetic (or other) preferences of collectors. The aim of this study is to begin to look for the occurrence of potential collection bias in museum egg collections by comparing three shape indices (pointedness/asymmetry, elongation and polar asymmetry) and egg volume between subsets of eggs in museum collections with those of recently sampled eggs in the field for three different bird species: common guillemot Uria aalge, razorbill Alca torda and northern fulmar Fulmarus glacialis. We found no evidence of collection bias in our sampled razorbill and northern fulmar museum collection eggs, but some evidence for a bias in sampled museum collection eggs of common guillemots. Since the guillemot's egg differs from most bird eggs in being pyriform, we suggest that collection bias by historic egg collectors may be more prevalent in species with extreme egg traits. Researchers using museum egg collections to examine questions relating to egg shape should be aware of collection bias risks and consider how to minimise the effect of these possible biases on accumulated datasets.     

Rationalising germplasm collections: a case study for wheat

In total 70 genebank accessions comprising 50 hexaploid, 12 tetraploid and 8 diploid wheats of the Gatersleben collection were selected based on the screening of the passport data for identical cultivar names or accession numbers of the donor genebanks. Twelve potential duplicate groups consisting of three to nine accessions with identical names/numbers were selected and analysed with DNA markers (microsatellites). A bootstrap approach based on re-sampling of both microsatellite markers and alleles within marker loci was used to test for homogeneity. Although several homogeneous groups were identified it became clear that cultivar name identity alone did not allow the determination of duplicates. A combination of SSR-analysis followed by the bootstrap method and database survey considering the botanical classification and other data (origin, growth habit and donor) available is recommended in order to determine duplicates. A procedure for the identification of duplicates and their further handling in ex situ genebanks is discussed.     

Systematics,biological knowledge and environmental conservation

Systematics and taxonomy are essential: they respectively elucidate life's history, and organize and verify biological knowledge. This knowledge is built of interrelated concepts which are ultimately accounted for by biological specimens. Such knowledge is essential to decide how much and what biodiversity survives human onslaughts. The preservation of specimens in natural history collections is the essential part of the process which builds and maintains biological knowledge. These collections and the human expertise essential to interpret specimens are the taxonomic resources which maintain accurate and verifiable concepts of biological entities. Present and future knowledge of the complexities and diversity of the biosphere depends on the integrity of taxonomic resources, vet widespread ignorance and disregard for their fundamental value has created a global crisis. Preservation of specimens in natural history collections is chronically neglected and support to study and manage collections is very insufficient. The knowledge held by experienced taxonomists is not being passed on to younger recruits. Neglect of collections has destroyed countless specimens and threatens millions more. These threats to taxonomic resources not only impinge on systematics but all biology: this tragedy jeopardizes the integrity of biological knowledge. The consequences for environmental conservation and therefore humanity are also of dire severity and the biodiversity crisis adds unprecedented weight to the barely recognized crisis in taxonomy and systematics.Where correspondence should