The purpose of the research paper is to study the formation history of the collection of archaeological antiquities of the Church and Archaeological Museum at Kyiv Theological Academy, the ways of ...their acquisition by the Museum, the content of the archaeological collections, the personalities of the collectors, and the historical fate of the holdings.
Scientific novelty. The history of the formation and content of the collections of archaeological antiquities is separated from the general issue of the activities of the Church and Archaeological Society and the Museum at Kyiv Theological Academy.
Conclusions. The Church and Archaeological Museum at Kyiv Theological Academy, founded in 1872, was the largest and most significant in the territory of modern Ukraine in terms of the number, variety, and value of the objects stored. Despite its initial focus on collecting mainly church objects, during the existence of the Museum, its collection accumulated a lot of other archaeological and historical artifacts. Accumulation of antiquities in the Museum contributed to their preservation and scientific study.
Among the archaeological antiquities of the Museum were objects of the Stone, Copper, and Bronze Ages, ancient Egyptian, antique Greek and Rome, Greek colonies of the Northern Black Sea region, Hellenistic, Scythian, Sarmatian, Gothic, Slavic, Byzantine, Kyivan Rus, Lithuanian era, period of 1569-1795, and the items belonged to the Cossacks of the 18th century, etc.
Objects came from the territory of modern Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Russia, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Palestine, etc. Mainly, there were artifacts from excavations and accidental finds. Collections were given to the Museum by private individuals. Among them, the greatest contribution to the enriching of holdings belonged to Archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin), Bishop Porfyrii (Uspenskyi), M.O. Leopardov, V.Z. Zavitnevich, V.I. Hoshkevich, numerous donators from the clergy, teachers, and archeology enthusiasts. The greatest contribution to the preservation, research, scientific description, and publication of the Museum’s collections belonged to M.I. Petrov.
Disasters of the 20th century (two world wars, the revolutions of 1917, and the dominance of atheistic ideology in the USSR) negatively affected the preservation of the rich collections of the Church and Archaeological Museum at Kyiv Theological Academy. Many museum objects disappeared, were stolen, or were simply destroyed; the Museum itself also ceased to exist. However, part of the collections survived, and some items from them are still stored in some Kyiv museums.
Natural history collections play a crucial role in biodiversity research, and museum specimens are increasingly being incorporated into modern genetics‐based studies. Sequence capture methods have ...proven incredibly useful for phylogenomics, providing the additional ability to sequence historical museum specimens with highly degraded DNA, which until recently have been deemed less valuable for genetic work. The successful sequencing of ultraconserved elements (UCEs) from historical museum specimens has been demonstrated on multiple tissue types including dried bird skins, formalin‐fixed squamates and pinned insects. However, no study has thoroughly demonstrated this approach for historical ethanol‐preserved museum specimens. Alongside sequencing of “fresh” specimens preserved in >95% ethanol and stored at −80°C, we used extraction techniques specifically designed for degraded DNA coupled with sequence capture protocols to sequence UCEs from historical museum specimens preserved in 70%–80% ethanol and stored at room temperature, the standard for such ethanol‐preserved museum collections. Across 35 fresh and 15 historical museum samples of the arachnid order Opiliones, an average of 345 UCE loci were included in phylogenomic matrices, with museum samples ranging from six to 495 loci. We successfully demonstrate the inclusion of historical ethanol‐preserved museum specimens in modern sequence capture phylogenomic studies, show a high frequency of variant bases at the species and population levels, and from off‐target reads successfully recover multiple loci traditionally sequenced in multilocus studies including mitochondrial loci and nuclear rRNA loci. The methods detailed in this study will allow researchers to potentially acquire genetic data from millions of ethanol‐preserved museum specimens held in collections worldwide.
Chemical compounds such as arsenic, mercury and organochlorine pesticides have been extensively used as preventive and curative conservation treatments for cultural and biological collections to ...protect them from pest and mold infestations. Most of the aforementioned compounds have been classified as carcinogenic, mutagenic and teratogenic and represent a health risk for members of staff exposed to contaminated objects. The present study addresses the internal exposure of 28 museum employees in Museum für Naturkunde Berlin by measuring arsenic species and mercury in urine as well as hexachlorocyclohexane isomers (α-HCH, β-HCH, γ-HCH), hexachlorobenzene (HCB), dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (4,4′-DDT) and its main metabolite, dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (4,4′-DDE), and pentachlorophenol (PCP) in blood serum. This study was carried out in order to assess the internal exposure of Natural History Museum staff members to toxic metals and organochlorine pesticides.
During a working week, two blood samples and five urine samples were taken from each participant, involving 8 women and 20 men. Information about work activity and exposure related factors such as dust development through work, use of personal protective equipment, as well as a nutrition diary were obtained through a questionnaire. Information on fish and seafood intakes as well as amalgam fillings was also available. The results of the study showed that the museum staff members had quantified concentrations of arsenic (median of 6.4 μg/l; maximum of 339 μg/l), mercury (median of 0.20 μg/l; max of 2.6 μg/l), β-HCH (median of 0.12 μg/l; max of 0.39 μg/l) and 4,4′-DDT (median of 0.050 μg/l; max of 0.82 μg/l). Despite that all the concentrations were below the established reference values, multivariate regression models were able to show that museum staff members are currently exposed to the aforementioned compounds while handling museum objects. To validate our findings, further studies are required.
•Pesticides and toxic metals have been used as conservation treatments in Natural History Museums.•Museum staff is exposed to As, Hg, β-HCH and 4,4′-DDE while handling objects.•Arsenic and mercury concentrations were associated with skin contact to collection objects.•Dust exposure is associated with higher concentrations of β-HCH and mercury.•Use of gloves is protective for 4,4′-DDT exposure.
1. Body size is highly correlated with physiological traits, fitness, and trophic interactions. These traits are subject to change if there are widespread reductions of body size with warming ...temperatures, which is suggested as one of the ‘universal’ ecological responses to climate change. However, general patterns of body size response to temperature in insects have not yet emerged.
2. To address this knowledge gap, we paired the wing length (as a proxy for body size) of 5331 museum specimens of 14 species of British Odonata with historical temperature data. Three sets of analyses were performed: (i) a regression analysis to test for a relationship between wing length and mean seasonal temperature within species and subsequent comparisons across species and suborders; (ii) an investigation of whether the body size of species has an effect on sensitivity to warming temperature; and (iii) a linear‐mixed effects model to investigate factors that potentially affect temperature–size response.
3. The regression analysis indicated that wing length is negatively correlated with mean seasonal temperatures for Zygoptera, whereas Anisoptera showed no significant correlation with temperature.
4. There is a significant decline in wing length of all Zygoptera (but not Anisoptera) with collection date, suggesting that individuals emerging later in the season are smaller.
5. Life‐cycle type was not important for predicting wing length–temperature responses, whereas sex, species, and suborder were indicated as important factors affecting the magnitude of temperature–size responses in Odonata.
6. Overall, wing lengths of Zygoptera are more sensitive to temperature and collection date than Anisoptera.
Mean seasonal temperature was negatively correlated with body size of Zygoptera, whereas Anisoptera showed no significant correlation with temperature.
Grouped by sub‐order, wing length in Zygoptera decreases by an average of 1.10 mm per °C, whereas wing length of Anisoptera, as a whole, does not significantly change with temperature.
A significant decline in wing length of all Zygoptera (but not Anisoptera) with advancing collection date was found, suggesting that individuals emerging later in the season are smaller.
The rate and magnitude of contemporary changes in natural systems is unprecedented in the Earth's history. Studies of wild birds have been critically important in helping us understand and address ...these environmental changes. Avian collections provide a potentially unique perspective on change through time, but their role in environmental change research is limited by the availability of collections data. Here we describe how avian collections might be unlocked to enable environmental change research, and discuss the opportunities and constraints associated with this. We use the concept of the extended specimen to describe the types of data that could be unlocked from basic data for discoverability to enhanced data that might be directly applied to environmental change questions. We illustrate the type of environmental change research these data might support. We argue that data creation and access is currently limited by funding for digitization, a rather patchy understanding of the needs of the research community and less than adequate data‐sharing by institutions and researchers. We develop a blueprint for addressing these issues which includes (1) improvements in sharing the data we are already creating and (2) building a better case for digitization at scale. As one of the largest avian collections in the world, the Natural History Museum, UK, is committed to unlocking our collections, but we will need input and support from the avian research community to do so.
Global climate change impacts species and ecosystems in potentially harmful ways. For migratory bird species, earlier spring warm‐up could lead to a mismatch between nesting activities and food ...availability. CO2 provides a useful proxy for temperature and an environmental indicator of climate change when temperature data are not available for an entire time series.
Our objectives were to (a) examine nesting phenology over time; (b) determine how nesting phenology relates to changes in atmospheric CO2 concentration; and (c) demonstrate the usefulness of historical museum collections combined with modern observations for trend analyses.
We assessed changes in nesting dates of 72 bird species in the Upper Midwest of the United States by comparing contemporary lay dates with those obtained from archived, historical museum nest records over a 143‐year period (1872–2015).
Species‐specific changes in lay date per one unit change in the CO2 residual ranged from −0.75 (95% CI: −1.57 to −0.10) to 0.45 (95% CI: −0.29 to 1.43). Overall, lay dates advanced ~10 days over the 143‐year period. Resident, short‐distance migrants and long‐distance migrants lay dates advanced by ~15, 18 and 16 days on average respectively. Twenty‐four species (33.3%) significantly advanced, one (1.4%) significantly delayed and we failed to detect an advance or delay in lay date for 47 species (65.3%). Overall mean advance in first lay date (for the species that have significantly advanced laying date) was 25.1 days (min: 10.7, max: 49.9).
Our study highlights the scientific importance of both data gathering and archiving through time to understand phenological change. The detailed archived information reported by egg collectors provide the early data of our study. As with studies of egg‐shell thinning and pesticide exposure, our use of these data illustrates another scientific utility of egg collections that these pioneer naturalists never imagined. As museums archive historical data, these locations are also ideal candidates to store contemporary field data as it is collected. Together, such information will provide the ability to track, understand and perhaps predict responses to human‐driven environmental change.
The novel nature of this research comes from the incorporation of historical egg collections in natural history museums with contemporary nesting records to examine changes in bird nesting phenology over nearly 150 years.
Bronchocela celebensis Gray, 1845 is one of the rarest species of the genus, known only from less than 20 museum specimens collected from northern Sulawesi. It is often confused with its similar ...congener, B. cristatella, which occurs widely throughout the Indonesian Archipelago and Peninsular Malaysia, except on the Sulawesi mainland. Here, we examine the morphology of B. celebensis based on 46 museum specimens including freshly collected individuals, and redescribe the species based on the holotype (by monotypy). We studied the characters of B. celebensis with morphometric comparison to its allopatric congener B. cristatella from the adjacent islands of southern Sulawesi in Indonesia. Based on the current distribution pattern and the apparent threats, we update the conservation status of B. celebensis using the IUCN Red List Criteria and propose that it be considered as a Vulnerable (VU) species endemic to Sulawesi.
Advancements in phenology and changes in morphology, including body size reductions, are among the most commonly described responses to globally warming temperatures. Although these dynamics are ...routinely explored independently, the relationships among them and how their interactions facilitate or constrain adaptation to climate change are poorly understood.
In migratory species, advancing phenology may impose selection on morphological traits to increase migration speed. Advancing spring phenology might also expose species to cooler temperatures during the breeding season, potentially mitigating the effect of a warming global environment on body size.
We use a dataset of birds that died after colliding with buildings in Chicago, IL to test whether changes in migration phenology are related to documented declines in body size and increases in wing length in 52 North American migratory bird species between 1978 and 2016. For each species, we estimate temporal trends in morphology and changes in the timing of migration. We then test for associations between species‐specific rates of phenological and morphological changes while assessing the potential effects of migratory distance and breeding latitude.
We show that spring migration through Chicago has advanced while the timing of fall migration has broadened as a result of early fall migrants advancing their migrations and late migrants delaying their migrations. Within species, we found that longer wing length was linked to earlier spring migration within years. However, we found no evidence that rates of phenological change across years, or migratory distance and breeding latitude, are predictive of rates of concurrent changes in morphological traits.
These findings suggest that biotic responses to climate change are highly multidimensional and the extent to which those responses interact and influence adaptation to climate change requires careful examination.
This study represents a unique empirical assessment of a presumed connection between shifting phenology and morphology using >70,000 museum specimens of 52 species of migratory birds collected during 1978–2016. The authors discovery that these axes of adaptation are apparently decoupled has broad implications for predicting future responses to climate change.
Global plastic production has increased exponentially since the 1940s, resulting in the increased presence of anthropogenic debris in the environment. Recent studies have shown that birds incorporate ...anthropogenic debris into their nests, which can reduce nest ectoparasite loads. However, we know little about the long-term history of interactions among birds, anthropogenic debris, and ectoparasites. Our study took a unique approach to address this issue by determining the prevalence of anthropogenic debris and ectoparasitic nest flies (
Protocalliphora
and
Passeromyia
spp.) in 893 bird nests from 224 species between 1832 and 2018, which were sourced from Australian museum collections. The prevalence of anthropogenic material increased from approximately 4% in 1832 to almost 30% in 2018. This change was driven by an increase in the incorporation of synthetic rather than biodegradable anthropogenic debris (by 2018 ~ 25% of all nests contained synthetics), with the first synthetic item being found in a nest from 1956 in the city of Melbourne
.
Nest parasite prevalence increased over time but contrary to other studies, there was no relationship between habitat type or anthropogenic material and parasite presence. Our study is the first to use museum specimens to quantify temporal and spatial impacts of anthropogenic material on birds, the results of which justifies contemporary concerns regarding the ubiquitous nature of human impacts on terrestrial wildlife.
PDF
