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Natural history museum data on Canadian Arctic marine benthos

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Abstract

Natural history museum’s collection data remain an underutilized resource that can help answer important questions, such as those related to the understanding of the spatial patterns of Arctic marine diversity. The present study compiles historical museum records from the Canadian Museum of Nature (6,002 records) and from the US National Museum of Natural History – Smithsonian Institution (240 records) on marine benthic taxa collected in the Canadian Arctic. This information is used to explore museum collection history and to examine the geographic distribution of collection records within five regions of the Canadian Arctic. The present museum datasets together cover a total of 774 taxa collected over 100 years with most of the specimens being collected between the 1920s and 1980s in the Hudson Bay Complex and Eastern Arctic regions. To better represent the overall Canadian Arctic diversity of marine benthos in museum collections, future specimen acquisition efforts could be directed towards certain taxonomic groups (e.g., polychaetes) and regions (e.g., Arctic Basin). Museum records significantly complement published reviews on benthic diversity and are critical for generating a comprehensive and accurate baseline status on benthic species distribution and diversity across the Canadian Arctic regions. We therefore stress the urgency for natural history museums holding Arctic marine benthic data to make their collection data accessible and informative.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all collectors, vessel officers and crew, scientists and technicians for their work over more than 100 years that enable the Canadian Museum of Nature and the US National Museum of Natural History – Smithsonian Institution to acquire specimens from the Canadian Arctic. Special thanks go to S. Mannseichner and N. Seyoum from Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada) for their GIS work and support that contributed greatly to this paper. This project was funded through the W. Garfield Weston Postdoctoral Fellow in Arctic Research received by VR and through research funds to JMG from the Canadian Museum of Nature. We are grateful to A. Aitken and an anonymous reviewer for constructive comments.

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Correspondence to Virginie Roy.

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Communicated by J. M. Weslawski

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Table S1

Faunal inventory of the 774 Canadian Arctic marine benthic taxa from the two museum datasets, the Canadian Museum of Nature (Canada) and the National Museum of Natural History (USA). The database of Canadian Arctic marine benthic taxa from the Canadian Museum of Nature (Canada) and National Museum of Natural History - Smithsonian Institution (USA) is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.5886/nb9hje. (XLSX 42 kb)

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Roy, V., Gagnon, JM. Natural history museum data on Canadian Arctic marine benthos. Mar Biodiv 48, 1357–1367 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-016-0610-2

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