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A Brief History of the NSF Polar Program Cooperative Agreement with NMNH, SI.
The Smithsonian Oceanographic Sorting Center (SOSC), from 1963 to 1992, received and sorted more than 20,000 samples of benthic invertebrates, plankton, algae and fish collected by researchers associated with the United States Antarctic Program (USAP). Sorted specimens were sent to taxonomic specialists worldwide for study and identification. Hundreds of thousands of specimens, including newly identified types, were deposited at the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH). The SOSC was dissolved, in 1992, and merged into the relevant NMNH scientific departments, with administrative responsibility for the USAP collection assigned to the Department of Invertebrate Zoology. The Department, in 1995, entered into a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation (NSF) Office of Polar Programs to provide support for the cataloging and management of the USAP collections housed at NMNH. NSF-sponsored investigators working in polar regions continue to deposit specimens and associated data at the NMNH. Future large collections will be acquired from NSF-sponsored Long Term Environmental Research (LTER) projects that are ongoing in the Antarctic region. For a more in-depth look at the history of the USAP program at NMNH, read "The NMNH: an NSF Center of Excellence in Polar Research" in the online Antarctic Journal of the United States, 1997 (Vol. 32, no. 3).
USAP Online Database Search Page: Access USNM Inventory of Uncataloged Antarctic Specimens, USNM Polar Invertebrate Specimen Catalog, or USNM Polar Station Database
NMNH Department of Invertebrate Zoology Request for Proposals for Research Based on Collections of Polar Marine Invertebrates
Marine Invertebrate Specimen Processing Procedures: Methods of Fixation and Preservation
Policies for Research in the Antarctic Region
For more information contact: moser.william@nmnh.si.edu