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For more information contact: Dr. Gerhard Pohle ARC Curator of Invertebrates, Huntsman Associate Director and Senior Research Scientist ARC Overview Lou Van Guelpen ARC Curator of Fishes and Collections Manager The Atlantic Reference Centre (ARC)—based in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada—is a research museum for Canadian Atlantic marine life and a centre for biodiversity information and applied environmental research. In 1984, the Huntsman Marine Science Centre and Fisheries and Ocean Canada (DFO) created the ARC to archive samples of Canadian Atlantic marine life collected by research surveys and as a source of taxonomic information. Operationally, DFO provides facilities and partial funding—while the Huntsman provides staffing, additional program funding, and program administration. Together the ARC and DFO collaborate on marine biodiversity research and planning. Atlantic Reference Centre Huntsman Marine Science Centre 1 Lower Campus Road St. Andrews, New Brunswick Canada E5B 2L7 Phone: Fax: email: Website: 506.529.1203 506.529.1212 [email protected] huntsmanmarine.ca/arc.shtml Where to find us: The ARC is a primary resource supporting Huntsman and DFO scientific objectives. ARC services include sample processing and specimen identification, information, advice, and research for government, universities, museums, private institutions, industry and the public. In addition, ARC scientists train students, technicians and researchers on the identification and curation of aquatic organisms, and offer a course on the analysis of biological diversity and community structure. Testimonials to the ARC Collections Dr. Iain Suthers, The University of New South Wales: “The ARC is a magnificent resource that is unsurpassed for eastern Canada… I found the database supporting the samples to be excellent… ARC facilities are also world-class.” Dr. Andrew Cooper, DFO, St. Andrews: “The Atlantic Reference Centre is a distinct and important facility in Atlantic Canada. Their expertise and the collections that are carefully housed within this facility provide a valued service to the DFO and its research in marine taxonomy and biodiversity conservation.” Deborah Blood, U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service, Seattle: “ARC loans of Triglops larvae provided sufficient diversity to expand my research from a Pacific northwest focus to include most North American Triglops species.” Courtesy Google Maps The ARC is housed in a 400-square-metre facility. There are nearly 140,000 lots of specimens in the collection, from marine algae to large fishes; specimens are available on loan and for visiting users. Huntsman Marine Science Centre A facility for marine biodiversity. ARC St. Andrews Biological Station The ARC Museum Resources Collecting efforts by DFO and many other institutions and individuals since the 1920s, and by Canadian ichthyologists Wilfred Templeman and W. B. Scott from the 1940s to 1970s, have made the ARC Canada’s preeminent research museum for Atlantic biota. Other ARC Collaborations The ARC and DFO Partnership The ARC offers scientific expertise to DFO on taxonomy, biodiversity, literature, field sampling, sample processing, and specimen identification and preservation. (www.barcoding.si.edu/); a CMB project in collaboration with Dalhousie University Scope: Developing DNA barcodes as a taxonomic tool for the 832 species of Canadian Atlantic fishes for online distribution via FishBOL and GenBank The ARC’s growing collections now house 140,000 catalogued and computerized lots of Canadian Atlantic specimens. There is especially strong taxonomic and geographic representation in many groups: polychaetes, molluscs, shallow-water and deep-sea crustaceans, fish parasites, freshwater insects, marine fish eggs and larvae (the largest North American collection according to a survey of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists), and deep-sea mid-water and bottom fishes. The ARC also assists DFO with sample processing and specimen identification (e.g. northeast Newfoundland shelf zooplankton, 1994 – present; Scotian Shelf Ichthyoplankton Program, 1977 – 1982; Bay of Fundy Larval Herring Program, 1978 – 1999). This wealth of taxonomic, geographic, and historic collections of Canadian Atlantic biota presents unique and exciting research opportunities in taxonomy, biology, ecology, early life history, biodiversity, biodiversity informatics, biogeography, and community structure of marine organisms. NaGISA (Natural Geography In Shore Areas) An investigation on coastal benthic community structure The ARC is the Atlantic Office of this global Census of Marine Life (CoML) program (www.nagisa.coml.org/ north_atlantic.htm) Scope: A review and case study of structural and functional changes circumstantially linked to intensive marine finfish aquaculture Scope: a census and monitoring of species in nearshore habitats of Atlantic Canada and western Africa Ocean Biogeographic Information System Researchers and educators may access ARC specimens by loan or visit. Information on ARC specimens is available online through the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (www.iobis.org). Visiting researchers are welcome at the ARC. Short and long term visits are encouraged for graduate and postdoctoral students, university and government researchers, and for sabbaticals. Excellent laboratory space and facilities are provided. In addition, accommodation, research vessels, and field equipment are available for rent. Applicants for ARC internships and summer student positions are encouraged as funding opportunities arise. Together, ARC and DFO researchers collaborate on projects related to the wealth of biological diversity in Canada’s Atlantic waters. Major projects include: Regional marine species registers A CMB and CoML Gulf of Maine Area Program project Scope: A compilation of comprehensive species lists, or registers, for regions of the northwest North Atlantic Ocean (www.marinebiodiversity.ca/nonNARMS/) with a goal to develop national standards for DFO taxonomy Benthic macrofaunal changes from fish mariculture The Gulf of Maine Biodiversity Discovery Corridor A program of the Centre of Marine Biodiversity (CMB) (www.marinebiodiversity.ca/cmb) and CoML’s Gulf of Maine Area Program (www.usm.maine.edu/gulfofmaine-census/) Scope: community structure in shelf and deep-sea benthic habitats; biodiversity literature for Discovery Corridor waters and knowledge gaps; archiving of specimens in the ARC DNA “barcoding” of Canadian Atlantic fishes A Fish Barcode of Life (FishBOL) program of the Consortium for the Barcode of Life initiative A global alliance of the CoML program (www.iobis.org/) Scope: standardizing and sharing online marine biogeographic data of multiple partners to enable large scale integrative analyses Gulf of Maine Ocean Data Partnership Gulf of Maine ocean data providers (www.gomodp.org/) Scope: standardizing and sharing online oceanographic data of multiple partners to enable Gulf-wide integrated investigations The ARC also serves various Canadian and US federal and provincial/state departments and agencies, universities, NGOs, industry, and the public. Recent examples include: Processing of plankton samples from the Arctic and Antarctic oceans Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Developing protocols for monitoring the environment under deep-water salmon aquaculture sites using a Remotely Operated Vehicle Industrial Research Assistance Program, NB Environmental Trust Fund, and Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment Assessment of Head Harbour Passage, NB to determine the optimal site for in-stream tidal electrical power generation NB Dept. of Energy Characterization of the biodiversity and environment of the lower Bay of Fundy toward a strategic environmental assessment for in-stream tidal electrical power generation NB Dept. of Energy /Jacques Whitford Processing of plankton and sediment samples for all life stages of soft-shelled clam in waters off Point Lepreau, NB Eastern Charlotte Waterways Processing of plankton samples from coastal Maine waters for fish egg and larvae Maine Dept. of Marine Resources.