Collection Data

Page Contents: Section | Significance | Background | Location & Dates | Taxonomic Contents | Documentation | Description of Collection | Collection Inventory | Collection Assets

Guana Island Collection 1997–2001

Section Responsible for Processing

MBC

Significance

The marine invertebrate survey of Guana Island, British Virgin Islands, Caribbean was a three year NSF and Falconwood Corporation funded project. The goals of the project were to document and photograph small, cryptic invertebrates, emphasizing crustaceans, polychaete worms, echinoderms, and selected molluscan groups.
http://www.nhm.org/guana/bvi-invt/home.htm

Background

PIs were Todd L. Zimmerman and Joel W. Martin. Other key participants included Kirk Fitzhugh, Gordon Hendler, Todd Haney, Rick Ware, Don Cadien, and Leslie Harris.

Collection Location and Dates

Leslie Harris did a reconnaissance field trip in 1997, followed by a second trip in 1998 which included Todd Zimmerman, Don Cadien, and Rick Ware. Intertidal to subtidal (SCUBA) collections were made in a broad variety of habitats beginning in summer of 1999. Two additional collecting trips were undertaken during the summers of 2000 and 2001.

Taxonomic Contents

Although emphasis was on polychaetes, crustaceans, echinoderms, and mollusks, all other benthic invertebrates groups, e.g., nemerteans, nematodes, sipunculids, pycnogonids, plathyhelminths, cnidarians, and poriferans, were sampled as well.

Documentation

Todd Zimmerman supplied original field data (File Maker, MS WORD and MS EXCEL files) summer 2006. These were migrated from .fp5 to .fp7 by R. Wetzer, but are otherwise unaltered and are posted on this website (see Images).

In addition to the 1999-2001 NSF-funded collections, Leslie Harris collected at 16 Guana Island sites in 1997. One to 6 bags of unsorted material and some separately vialed invertebrates were returned to NHMLAC from each site. Upon return to NHMLAC, L. Harris transferred unsorted samples to museum glassware. Specimens in individual plastic vials, still need to be transferred. Complete label data still needs to be associated with specimens. L. Harris has all collection data for these specimens (not included here). Specimens are stored in the polychaete collection room.

During the 1998 field season Leslie Harris, Todd Zimmerman, Don Cadien, and Rick Ware collected Guana Island. L. Harris collected and has specimen data for 15 sites. 86 unsorted invertebrate specimen lots plus some small specimens (mostly polychaete worms) contained in plastic screw top vials were returned to NHMLAC. Unsorted samples have been transferred to museum glassware resulting in 127 specimen lots labelled only with L. Harris collection numbers. Plastic vialed specimens await transfer to glass vials. All specimens are in the polychaete collection room. Specimen data for this material is available from L. Harris (not included here). T. Zimmerman collected separate samples and kept separate data records. It is unclear whether specimens were included in the loan returned to NHMLAC Summer 2006. T. Zimmerman’s FileMaker databases describes 21 specimen lots collected between 19-28 July 1998.

During the NSF-funded years 1999-2001, L. Harris claims 580 stations were collected. T. Zimmerman’s FileMaker database has 515 entries which have locality data. For field seasons in 1999 and 2000, station records in T. Zimmerman database were expanded to 3,084 specimen lots (L. Harris, 4/2007). T. Zimmerman’s database has 30 entries for 3-28 July 2001 (BVI-01-005 to BVI-01-091b).

Description of Collection

In addition to habitat specific sampling in all three years, the collection consists of invertebrates retrieved in year 3 (2001) from subtidal artifical reefs deployed one year earlier (2000). Approximately 45 lots were sorted either to phylum or to order.

Collection Inventory

Total number of lots: 423 jars + 516 plastic vials = ~939 lots

Number of lots with scrubbies from A.R.M.s: 63 lots
(one scrubby per lot)

Number of lots with air condition filters from A.R.M.s :
4 – 32 oz. jars
4 – 1 gal. jars

Number of lots with sediment/rubble debris to sort:
21 various types of jars
6 – 1 gal. jars

Number of lots with invertebrates: 280 lots

Number of plastic vials that need to be transferred to glassware:
Vials from Crustacea (presently in MBPC collection)
58, 2 ml plastic vials alpheid shrimp
38, 2 ml plastic vials with non-alpheid shrimp crustaceans

Vials with polychaete worms (in Leslie’s office area – presently in trailer)
~420, 2 ml plastic vials

Number of scrubbies sorted to phyla = 45 lots (1 scrubby in each)

Approximately 1,000 polychaete lots were processed between October 2007 and January 2008. Another ~2,000 lots of crustaceans, mollusks, echinoderms, and other taxa were processed and labeled between July 2007 to January 2008.

Collection Assets

Date View or Retrieve File Information
12/09/2008 View [76.0 kB] Specimens in vials, photo by Todd Haney or Todd Zimmerman.
12/09/2008 View [330.9 kB] Vials in bag, photo by Todd Haney.
12/09/2008 View [84.6 kB] Photo of ARMS by Rick Ware.
12/09/2008 View [707.3 kB] Photo of Jody Martin packing samples by Todd Haney.
12/09/2008 View [485.6 kB] Samples ready for shipping, photo by Todd Haney.
12/09/2008 View [511.2 kB] Unsorted scrubby, photo by Leslie Harris.
03/15/2007 Retrieve [300.0 kB] 2 of 6 associated Guana Island databases (Carib Hierarchy.fp7) received from Todd Zimmerman, Summer 2006.
03/15/2007 Retrieve [800.0 kB] 3 of 6 associated Guana Island databases (Carib Station Data.fp7) received from Todd Zimmerman, Summer 2006.
03/15/2007 Retrieve [136.0 kB] 4 of 6 associated Guana Island databases (Carib Loan Info.fp7) received from Todd Zimmerman, Summer 2006.
03/15/2007 Retrieve [1064.0 kB] 5 of 6 associated Guana Island databases (Carib Specimens.fp7) received from Todd Zimmerman, Summer 2006.
03/15/2007 Retrieve [72.0 kB] 6 of 6 associated Guana Island databases (Guana crustacean for loan.fp7) received from Todd Zimmerman, Summer 2006.
03/15/2007 Retrieve [44.5 kB] “famsbiotamodified.doc,” Guana Island database associated files received from Todd Zimmerman, Summer 2006.
03/15/2007 Retrieve [75.0 kB] “famsbiotawork.doc,” Guana Island database associated files received from Todd Zimmerman, Summer 2006.
03/15/2007 Retrieve [15.0 kB] “WickstenShrimpIds.xls,” Guana Island database associated files received from Todd Zimmerman, Summer 2006.
03/15/2007 Retrieve [256.0 kB] 1 of 6 associated Guana Island databases (CaribTaxa.fp7) received from Todd Zimmerman, Summer 2006.
03/07/2007 View [1007.3 kB] Photo 1 of 3 of Artificial Reef Matrix structure (A.R.M.)
03/07/2007 View [2516.2 kB] Photo 2 of 3 of Artificial Reef Matrix structure (A.R.M.)
03/07/2007 View [996.8 kB] Photo 3 of 3 of Artificial Reef Matrix structure (A.R.M.)
// View [216.9 kB]  

Curatorial Status (Click to view)