User:Sankurie Pye

My specialist area is the care and development of the Invertebrate Biology Collections, with specific responsibility for the molluscan and brachiopod collections. My current work projects are centered on making our collections more accessible to all; I manage a team of volunteers entering data from specimens directly into the Museum database (Axiell), in the meantime I also cleanse and reformat larger historical datasets held in MS Excel prior to upload to Axiell, ensuring that where possible the data conforms to Darwin Core standards. I am also responsible for the inclusion of National Museums Scotland Mollusc type specimens into The Mollusca type of Britain Database, which is a union database for the UK https://gbmolluscatypes.ac.uk/specimens?-action=search&Keywords=Scotland This includes working with the specimen data and data imaging and is ongoing.

My research is specimen based and has included the distribution and taxonomy of brackish water Hydrobiid snails in Britain and the distribution of molluscan faunas around Britain. I am also passionate about raising the profile of marine issues and introducing Ocean Literacy to non-specialist audiences through museum collections. I was Chair of the Local Organising Committee for SPNHC 2022, postponed from 2020). Through the years in post at the museum I have led various projects in the museum for example, two collection moves (Mollusca and then the Polychaetes) to a different site, and another managing the workflow from specimen preparation (taxidermy), through fumigation to exhibition for the Natural Sciences permanent galleries.

Publications list:

Brackenreed-Johnston, G.H., Duncombe_Smith, S.W., Hicks, D.M., Pears, S.A., Tamkin, A., Worsfold, T.M., Pye, S.E., Ware, F.J. & Whyte, K.F., in prep, APEM Limited Uist Lagoons Survey 2016, Scottish Natural Heritage Commissioned Report No. t.b.c.

Howson, C.M., Chambers, S.J., Pye, S.E. & Ware, F.W. 2014. Uist Lagoons Survey. Scottish Natural Heritage Commissioned Report No. 787.

Chevalier, M., Pye, S., Porter, J., & Chambers, S. 2014. Hydrobiidae on North Uist. Scottish Natural Heritage Commissioned Report No. 559. Johnson, Mark P., Pye, Sankurie E. and Allcock, A. Louise. 2008. Dispersal mode and assessments of recovery on the shores of Gruinard, the ‘anthrax island’. Biodiversity and Conservation 17 (4): 721-732.

Johnson, Mark P., Allcock, A. Louise, Pye, Sankurie E., Chambers, Susan and Fitton, D. M. 2001. The effects of dispersal mode on the spatial distribution patterns of intertidal molluscs. Journal of Animal Ecology 70 (4): 641-649. Swinney, Geoffrey N., Holmes, M., Blackadder, J. S. and Pye, Sankurie E.1999. A long-finned specimen of Beryx decadactylus caught in the North-eastern Atlantic of Rockall. Journal of Fish Biology 54 (1): 208-