The collections provide a research infrastructure and memory of nature

Natural science collections are a valuable research infrastructure that is also used for teaching and exhibitions. The natural science collections act as both memory and archive, providing comparison material about changes in nature.

The collections offer material for research, teaching and raising awareness. Material collected over a long period of time can be used, for example, to study changes in distributions and plenitudes, especially by combining the collections of several museums and other research institutions. Numerous samples of one species enable the studying of intraspecific variation, a basic mechanism of evolution.

Researchers specialized in the classification of organisms use the museum collections for research in systematics and taxonomy as well as phylogenetic studies related to evolution of species. Collection items have also been used in isotope studies that clarify the migration of species. The collections are also valuable because they enable many directions of research that may not have been previously considered.

For example, mounted (taxidermy) vertebrates are helpful when learning and teaching species identification. The collections are also used in the exhibition activity of museums, such as when presenting dioramas on the species of a habitat.

Some of the collection data are accessible through open databases by limiting the search to the materials of the University of Jyväskylä.

Databases:

• www.laji.fi
• www.gbif.org