Incorporation of MBARI and University of Victoria Deep-Sea Animal Collections into the Benthic Invertebrate Collection at Scripps Institution of Oceanography
This project transfers the ownership of two deep-sea animal collections to the Benthic Invertebrate Collection at Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO-BIC). The valuable collections were made over decades by two eminent deep-sea biologists, Verena Tunnicliffe at the University of Victoria and Robert Vrijenhoek at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI). The Tunnicliffe and Vrijenhoek collections will be catalogued into the SIO-BIC online database and made available for loan to the scientific community. The project will continue to build SIO-BIC as a hub for eastern Pacific reference collections from reducing deep-sea ecosystems (hydrothermal vents, methane seeps and whale falls).
The project is supported by the National Science Foundation’s Collections in Support of Biological Research (CSBR) Program.
The Tunnicliffe Collection, largely from hydrothermal vents, holds more than 6,900 lots of formalin- and ethanol-fixed animals collected from the northeast Pacific (Juan de Fuca and Explorer Ridges), the Edison Seamount near Papua New Guinea, and the Mariana Back-Arc of the western Pacific.
The Vrijenhoek Collection, consisting of more than 4,000 lots, contains frozen material at -80 °C as well as formalin- and ethanol-fixed samples, collected from locations including Monterey Bay, the East Pacific Rise, Juan de Fuca and Gorda Ridges, Guaymas Basin, the Fiji and Lau Back-Arc Basins, and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Frozen material will also be distributed to the Smithsonian's Global Genomic Initiative.
With Dr. Vrijenhoek now retired and Dr. Tunnicliffe expecting to retire in the near future, their collections will now find a permanent home at SIO-BIC. Support from NSF CSBR has been critical for this transfer, as these collections were at risk of being lost without a long-term repository at their home institutions.
These valuable collections, made over decades from remote deep-sea sites that are very difficult and expensive to access, represent a major scientific resource for the deep-sea biology community. This project will make them more easily available for research, education, and outreach worldwide.
The Tunnicliffe and Vrijenhoek Collections are a major resource for the study of future change, systematics, population genetics, and ecological assemblages in reducing environments. The collections extend back in time for decades, providing important baseline data to study the biodiversity of these deep, remote, and unique ecosystems.
The goals of this project include:
1) Integrate and catalog the Tunnicliffe and Vrijenhoek Collections into SIO-BIC
2) Database the newly acquired specimens, including images and DNA sequences
3) Make these collections available for loan, following current SIO-BIC policy
SIO-BIC has already accumulated valuable collections from the eastern Pacific region from many expeditions involving SIO scientists and students. This project will allow SIO-BIC to grow as a central specimen repository of deep-sea research, with a focus on the eastern Pacific. SIO-BIC’s ongoing work in supporting research, education, and outreach will allow the Tunnicliffe and Vrijenhoek material to reach a broad audience and to enhance biodiversity awareness. The enhanced database will contribute to the understanding of deep-sea ecosystems and will be used as a teaching tool at SIO and beyond. Outreach to the general public, including younger generations, will be achieved through a five-day teacher-training workshop on hydrothermal vents and methane seeps.
New material is actively being catalogued and made available on the SIO-BIC online database.
- View catalogued material from the Verena Tunnicliffe Collection (VTC): https://sioapps.ucsd.edu/collections/bi/search/?q=VTC
The Robert Vrijenhoek Collection is expected to arrive at SIO-BIC after February 2018, and frozen material from this collection will also be distributed to the Smithsonian's Global Genomic Initiative.
View a map of collection localities from:
- The Verena Tunnicliffe Collection (map in progress; currently a demonstration version)
Data for the Robert Vrijenhoek Collection is expected to arrive at SIO-BIC after February 2018.
This project is an ongoing collaborative effort, combining scientific guidance, careful planning, and detailed curatorial work across three institutions.
Greg Rouse, Professor and Curator
Charlotte Seid, Collection Manager
Amanda Gannon, Undergraduate Laboratory Assistant (July 2017 – present)
Martin Heithe, Undergraduate Laboratory Assistant (July 2017 – present)
Christine Olds, Undergraduate Laboratory Assistant (April 2017 – present)
Kaila Pearson, Undergraduate Laboratory Assistant (April 2017 – May 2017)
Katelin Pedersen, Undergraduate Laboratory Assistant (July 2017 – present)
University of Victoria
Verena Tunnicliffe, Professor and Collection Curator
Nick Brown, Laboratory Manager
Jonathan Rose, Laboratory Manager
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Robert Vrijenhoek, Senior Adjunct/Evolutionary Biologist and Collection Curator
Kristine Walz, Research Assistant
* January 2018: The MBARI team begins preparing and subsampling frozen material for shipping to SIO-BIC.
* November 2017: Facilities improvements are made at SIO-BIC: emergency power is available for freezers, renovations are completed for the freezer storage room, mold remediation is conducted in the library/office room, and ventilation and alarm repairs are completed in the wet laboratory.
* August 3-4, 2017: Additional material from the Tunnicliffe Collection arrives at SIO-BIC. This material includes samples from the western Pacific: Edison Seamount (near Papua New Guinea), New Hebrides Arc (off Vanuatu), and Tonga-Kermadec Arc (off Tonga).
* July 10-20, 2017: UCSD undergraduate students Amanda Gannon, Martin Heithe, and Katelin Pedersen are hired at SIO-BIC to rehouse, relabel, and catalog material from the Tunnicliffe Collection.
* May 2017: UCSD undergraduate student Kaila Pearson concludes her work on the Tunnicliffe Collection and completes her degree.
* April 3, 2017: UCSD undergraduate students Christine Olds and Kaila Pearson are hired at SIO-BIC to rehouse, relabel, and catalog material from the Tunnicliffe Collection.
* February - May 2017: The four SIO Oceanographic Collections discuss pipelines and details of data-sharing with iDigBio. SIO-BIC provides a preliminary dataset (revisions and further discussions in progress).
* January 9, 2017: Material from the Tunnicliffe Collection, northeastern Pacific holdings (Juan de Fuca and Explorer Ridges) arrives at SIO-BIC. Collection Manager Charlotte Seid begins employment at SIO-BIC.