Several collections at the Naturéum (Cantonal Museum of Natural Sciences) were able to boost their digitization and conservation processes thanks to a national initiative from the Swiss Network of Natural History Collections (SwissCollNet). Their sustainability, but also their accessibility for the general public and the scientific community, are reinforced.
“The Naturéum received an envelope of around one million francs as part of this initiative. Thanks to this budget we were able to hire additional staff, which allowed us to triple the speed of seizures between 2021 and 2024”, explained the director of the Naturéum, Nadir Alvarez, Tuesday to Keystone-ATS. The funded projects affected botanical, geological and zoological collections.
On the botanical side, efforts focused on the collection of brambles of the Rubus genus. They “made it possible to review 6,910 specimens, accompanied by 11,492 herbarium photographs and 7,330 macrophotographs, contributing to better identification of species and the conservation of these specimens for future generations,” writes the institution in a press release.
Species still unknown
Preservation and digitization work on mineralogical collections made it possible to identify 211 mineral specimens among 331 specimens studied. This opens the way “to the upcoming description of new mineral species still unknown to science”, welcomes the Naturéum.
Reconditioning efforts were also carried out to ensure the long-term preservation of the mineralogical collections. The paleontological collections also benefited from funding which made it possible to process 1757 types of fossils. No less than 8,993 specimens were photographed, while 75 were completely digitized in 3D.
More than 100,000 insects digitized
Finally, in the zoology department, work focused on ephemeral insects and plecoptera. The entire collections, namely 62,000 and 40,053 occurrences respectively, have been digitized and repackaged. Furthermore, the entire Forel collection of ants, i.e. 8868 specimens, has been digitized.
Although it represents an immense amount of work, the digitalization of collections has the advantage of preserving information on the specimens, even if they were to disappear in a fire, for example. It also makes it possible to better share information with the public and the international scientific community, underlined Mr. Alvarez.
In total, around ten million francs were available for projects as part of the national initiative led by SwissCollNet.
This article was automatically published. Source: ats
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