Fluid Collections

Statement of Purpose

These links and documents contain information about best practices for fluid collections relevant to natural history collections.

Importance of stable environment for long-term preservation

Unstable storage environment accelerates deterioration

-Warmer temperatures speed up deterioration processes

-An increase of 10°C doubles chemical reactions

-Extraction of lipids and proteins goes faster

-Cooler temperatures condense lipids and promote paraformaldehyde formation

-Fluctuations in the temperature and humidity of the storage environment stress specimens, containers and their seals. Relative humidity is temperature dependant, and even short exposures to relative humidity over 65% can trigger a mold outbreak.

Contributors

Jennifer Winifred Trimble

Source Material

Text sourced from Baseline Standards for Fluid Collections, workshop by Dirk Neumann & Julian Carter https://pfc2018.sciencesconf.org/data/program/Workshop_baseline_standards_fluid_collections_part2_Carter.pdf

References

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