THE HERBARIUM OF MACROPHYTES OF THE A.O. KOVALEVSKY INSTITUTE OF BIOLOGY OF THE SOUTHERN SEAS OF RAS (SIBS), AND THE STAGES OF ITS FORMATION

Abstract

The paper presents the results of a retrospective analysis of the history of the formation of the macrophyte herbarium of Kovalevsky Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas of RAS (IBSS, Sevastopol, until 1963 – Sevastopol Biological Station, SBS). For the analysis, the electronic database of the herbarium, sources and archival materials published over a period of more than a hundred years, memoirs of the oldest employees of the SBS were used. Three stages of the herbarium fund formation were distinguished, its beginning dating back to 1878. The first herbarium specimens were collected and designed by S.M. Pereyaslavtseva, the first Russian female zoologist and the first head of the SBS. According to archival data, by the beginning of the World War II, the herbarium contained about 3 000 herbarium sheets; like all museum collections of the SBS, it burned down in 1942. The beginning of its restoration dates back to 1945, today it contains 30914 sheets of 715 species and 198 genera from 734 localities, it is included in the international herbarium database Index Herbariorum (its acronym is SIBS). The paper summarizes the data on collection sites in the Atlantic, Arctic, Pacific, Indian and Southern Oceans. The historical collections of famous algologists N.V. Morozova-Vodyanitskaya (collection from 1920 to 1931) and A.A. Kalugina-Gutnik (from 1960 to 1991), and of a collector of the Karadag Biological Station G.M. Stanilovsky (from 1924 to 1946) are characterized; they account for 71% of the total volume of the fund. It is shown that the key macroalgae of the Black Sea are represented by collections for more than half a century from the same locality (Phyllophora crispa (Hudson) P.S. Dixon, Ericaria crinita (Duby) Molinari et Guiry, Gongolaria barbata (Stackhouse) Kuntze, Ulva rigida C. Agardh, etc.). There are unique macroalgae specimens from the underwater uplifts of the Mediterranean Sea, 14 islands and atolls of the Seychelles archipelago, the islands of Antarctica, of the seagrasses of the Indian Ocean, whose localities are not found in the herbaria of the world. To expand access to the herbarium fund, it is necessary to export data to the global bank and the global biodiversity information system (GBIF). On the basis of the studies performed, a rationale was prepared of naming the herbarium of macrophytes of world ocean IBSS after A.A. Kalugina-Gutnik (1929–1994), taking into account her significant contribution to the preservation of scientific heritage and traditions, and the creation of the collection fund.