The document discusses the role of natural history collections at the Canadian Museum of Nature in documenting biological and geological diversity in the Arctic. It describes the museum's large Arctic collections, which include over 260,000 specimens collected during early Arctic expeditions. The collections provide data for research in fields like Arctic botany, zoology, and paleontology. Efforts are underway to digitize the collections and make records available online through databases, but many specimens remain undigitized. The museum aims to crowdsource digitization and work with other Arctic institutions to better document and share Arctic biodiversity data.

1. Centre for Arctic
Knowledge and Exploration
The role of natural history collections data in documenting
the biological and geological diversity of the Arctic,
with examples from the Canadian Museum of Nature
Jeffery M. Saarela & Shannon Ascensio

2. Anceta Wis CC BY-SA 2.5 via Wikipedia Amanda CC BY-SA 2.5 via Wikipedia
Stephantom CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikipedia

3. Image: RealGrouchy, Public Domain

4. PLoS Biol 11(1): e1001466. CC BY 2.5 François Génier © Canadian Museum of Nature
Collections are the Core
Specimens have many uses and are irreplaceable

5. Sokoloff
Natural Heritage Campus
o >10 million specimens
o 3.2 million catalogable specimens
o 260,000 Arctic specimens

6. Early Exploration of the Canadian Arctic
Sir William Parry Expedition – 1819-1820
Image: R. Higgitt, Herbarium, Royal Botanical Garden,
Edinburgh
John Franklin's overland expeditions
Images: National Maritime Museum,
Greenwich, London
1819-1822
1825-1827

7. CMC
Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913–1918
Canadian Museum of History
Khidas 2015, Arctic
King eiders

8. Centre for Arctic Knowledge and Exploration
collections-based research
Arctic Botany Arctic Mineralogy Arctic Phycology Arctic Zoology
Arctic
Palaeobiology

9. Eocene Epoch
55-33 Mya
Today
MarianneDouglas©MarianneDouglas
Image: Bob Hynes © Smithsonian Institution
AnsgarWalkCCBY-SA2.5viaWikipedia
Fossil forest - Axel Heiberg Island
ca. 45 Mya
Arctic Palaeontology

10. Images:
Roger Bull © Canadian Museum of Nature
Ted Daeschler © T. Daeschler/VIREO
Eduard Sola CC BY-SA
Kennonv CC BY-SA 3.0
Tiktaalik roseae
375 Mya fossil fish with a mix of fish & amphibian traits

11. ~3.5 Mya
Rybcynski et al. 2013, Nature Communications
Image: Algkav and Dr. Blofeld
based on original by Yug, CC BY-SA 3.0Images: Martin Lipman © Martin Lipman
Image: Julius Csotonyi © Julius Csotonyi
Giant Ancient Camel
Tibia fragments

12. Donald McAllister (1934-2001)
Arctic Fishes
Arctic Marine Fishes of Canada
…a new book coming 2016
Lake Trout

13. CMN bird
specimens
from Foxe
Basin
Holotype:
Arctic
peregrine
falcon
(CMNAV 46581)
Arctic Birds
Bird nest
collection

14. Martin Lipman © Canadian Museum of Nature
Large Skeleton Collection
Mitochondrial DNA diversity in bowhead
whales of the Central Canadian Arctic
McLeod et al. 2012, Marine Mammal Science 28:E426

15. Arctic Plants & Algae
Moonwort (Botrychium tunux)
National Herbarium of Canada (CAN)
Joe Holmes © Canadian Museum of Nature

16. Googl
Databased CAN and DAO
northern specimens

17. Collections have collection information

18. Darwin Core: A standard for sharing data about biodiversity
Wieczorek J, Bloom D, Guralnick R, Blum S, Döring M, et al. (2012) Darwin Core: An Evolving Community-Developed Biodiversity Data Standard.
PLoS ONE 7(1): e29715. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0029715
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0029715

19. Darwin Core Categories:
Simple Darwin Core is comprised of seven categories of
terms (green)
Wieczorek J, Bloom D, Guralnick R, Blum S, Döring M, et al. (2012) Darwin Core: An Evolving Community-Developed Biodiversity Data Standard.
PLoS ONE 7(1): e29715. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0029715
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0029715

21. www.collections.
nature.ca
CMN
Collections
Online
154K of 260K
Arctic specimens
online

22. collections.nature.ca

23. Canadensys – network of Canadian collections
2,900,783 records (showing 2,205,724 georeferenced)

24. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) –
half a billion specimens and observation records

25. GBIF – Specimens and Observations

26. GBIF – Observations

27. GBIF – Specimens

28. Challenges
Complete digitization @ CMN
• ca. 260K Arctic/Northern specimens
• ca. 154K of our specimens from north of
60 digitized and freely accessible online
• >100K specimens are NOT yet digitized
Complete high-resolution imaging
• Only a very small fraction of the Arctic
collection is currently imaged
Examples:
• just 15 of >17,000 Nunavut bird records
imaged (<0.1%)
• of >25K vascular plant specimens from
Nunavut, only 3000 (12%) imaged
• no Arctic zoology (fish, invertebrate,
crustacean, insect, mammal) are imaged

30. European collections rising to the challenge
Large-scale data capture & digitisation in France, Netherlands &
Finland
Slide courtesy V. Smith, CC BY-NC-SA

31. Crowdsourcing

32. Arctic Natural History Museums Alliance
“National natural-history museums need to step up and
actively share our knowledge of the Arctic regions and to be
more ambitious in our sharing of that knowledge with
scientific colleagues, public-policy decision-makers and the
general public.”
-- Meg Beckel, CEO, Canadian Museum of Nature
• Canadian Museum of Nature
• National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
• Swedish Museum of Natural History
• Natural History Museum, University of Oslo
• Finnish Museum of Natural History
• Icelandic Institute of Natural History
• Natural History Museum of Denmark
• Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences

33. The Future of the Arctic
Specimens are critical to document change
Specimens
Museums
Researchers

34. Before they’re gone...
Eskimo Curlew
Photo: D. Bleitz, Galveston Island, 1962
Great Auk
1 of ca. 78 known skins
Photo: M. Pennington, CC BY-SA 2.0
Labrador Duck
only 55 specimens
Photo: R. Somma, CC BY-SA 2.0