Monitoring Collection

• material is protected from drying: specimen tubes are stored in sealed, stacked plastic containers;
• for convenience in fulfilling standard requests, material is stored taxonomically, with big containers sorted by family and small containers sorted by species and seas, such that each small container contains specimens of one species from one sea;
• each sample number is associated with a unique container number in the database (storage address);
• internal, alcohol-resistant labels are created automatically, printed on a thermal transfer Datamax printer, and contain complete information about their sample, including sample number, barcode, taxonomic positioning, collection data, and so on;
• Specify taxonomy features store information on synonymy and multiple identifications;
• documents about material intake and release are automatically created in Specify;
• Specify can store any types of files associated with museum specimens, like photos, videos, documents, or others.

Since 2014, the LLC “MRC LMSU” carries out engineering and environmental studies on the shelves of Russia’s seas. This work includes macrozoobenthos sample selection, its short-term storage, and primary taxonomic identification, after which the material is no longer relevant to the project and is either placed in long-term storage or discarded.

However, this material remains important for the scientific community, and could be instrumental for a number of ecological, faunal, and taxonomic studies—as it is often collected in difficult-to-access and under-researched areas, these collections are single events which could become the bases for studying the biodiversity of these regions. Not only can this material be used as a source for a number of new studies, access to it would ensure that the ecological studies in which it was collected are verifiable. It also creates the opportunity for comparing results over the years, which is a necessary element for the long-term study of marine bottom communities.

Material collection and scientific research in ecologically monitored regions are particularly relevant for fulfilling Russia’s responsibilities under the Convention on Biological Diversity (opened for signature in Rio de Janeiro on June 5th, 1992) as they fall under the objectives of article 7 (“Identification and Monitoring”, points 7a and 7b) and can supplement fulfilling the objectives of articles 12 and 15 (“Research and Training” and “Access to Genetic Resources”). Scientific research on such collection material is a crucial and irreplaceable instrument for gathering and systematising data on marine biodiversity, which is in turn an objective of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (Goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources).

Conserving this zoological material is therefore an important endeavour that will also be of use for many present and future projects.

However, the state of the material upon project completion makes scientific work with it difficult: it is not fully labelled, not organised or taxonomically sorted, and does not have an organised and convenient catalogue. Moreso, procedures which would prevent material drying are not sufficiently carried out, making it eventually unusable.

To improve this situation, collaborative projects between MRC LMSU and MSU’s biology department have been implemented since 2019 with the goal to partially restore the “unneeded” material that has accumulated over many years by organising it into a formalised, official zoological collection using modern methods. As part of these projects, a material storage system was planned and developed, a storage and work space for the collection was organised in the Lomonosov building of MSU, and regular transfers to MSU’s biology department are carried out, with material being provided for scientific and educational work upon request.