Scientific collection

A scientific collection is a collection of items that are preserved, catalogued, and managed for the purpose of scientific study.[1]

Scientific collections dealing specifically with organisms plants, fungi, animals, insects and their remains, may also be called natural history collections or biological collections.[2] The latter may contain either living stocks or preserved repositories of biodiversity specimens and materials.[3]

Scientific collections hold a tangible portion of the cumulative evidence base in such fields as biology (especially taxonomy and evolutionary biology), geology, and archaeology.[1] They may be stored and managed by governments, educational institutions (e.g. colleges and universities), private organizations (including museums), or individuals.

Prominent uses of scientific collections include the systematic description and identification of biological species, the study and prediction of long-term historical trends (including impacts of climate change), the dating and analysis of historical objects (e.g. via wood samples and ice cores with annual rings), and the maintenance of teaching resources.[1][4]

Preparation of a plant for a Herbarium
Ornithological collection at the Museum of Comparative Zoology of Natural history of Harvard Museum of Natural History. Museum collections are tremendous repositories of specimens and data of many sorts, including phenotypes, tissue samples, vocal recordings, geographic distributions, parasites, and diet.
View in a Seedbank at the Western Regional Plant Introduction Station
  1. ^ a b c National Science and Technology Council, Committee on Science, Interagency Working Group on Scientific Collections (2009). Scientific Collections: Mission-Critical Infrastructure of Federal Science Agencies (PDF). Washington, DC: Office of Science and Technology Policy.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ Schindel, David E.; Cook, Joseph A. (2018-07-16). "The next generation of natural history collections". PLOS Biology. 16 (7): e2006125. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.2006125. ISSN 1545-7885. PMC 6062129. PMID 30011273.
  3. ^ The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. "Biological Collections – Division on Earth and Life Studies". Retrieved 2019-11-12.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ Cook, Joseph A.; Edwards, Scott V.; Lacey, Eileen A.; Guralnick, Robert P.; Soltis, Pamela S.; Soltis, Douglas E.; Welch, Corey K.; Bell, Kayce C.; Galbreath, Kurt E.; Himes, Christopher; Allen, Julie M. (2014-08-01). "Natural History Collections as Emerging Resources for Innovative Education". BioScience. 64 (8): 725–734. doi:10.1093/biosci/biu096. ISSN 0006-3568.