New York State Museum

Research & Collections :: Research at the State Museum :: NYSM Biology Research Centers

The Biodiversity Research Institute (BRI)
Funded through the Environmental Protection Fund, the Institute includes a number of collaborators, such as the Department of Environmental Conservation, the Natural Heritage Program and the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Current projects focus on biodiversity stewardship, biodiversity education, and biodiversity research to assess environmental quality and change. Additionally, the BRI organizes a biennial scientific conference at the NY State Museum, the Northeast Natural History Conference.

The Laboratory for Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics
is a modern, multi-user molecular phylogenetics laboratory designed for use by Museum researchers interested in animal and plant evolution. The LCEG offers researchers the technology to directly assay genetic structure and diversity through DNA sequencing.

PLANTS & FUNGUS

The Bryology Laboratory
Plant systematics and floristics, especially of bryophytes and seed plants; Quaternary paleobotany and paleoecology (including palynology and studies of plant macrofossils, particularly as these relate to problems in the geography, ecology, and systematics of plants); the Tertiary and Quaternary history of the Bryophyta.

The New York Flora Association (NYFA)
All interested persons are invited to join the New York Flora Association, an organization dedicated to the promotion of field botany and greater understanding of the plants that grow in the wild in New York State.

VERTEBRATES

Ichthyology Laboratory
Research revolving around the ecology of freshwater fishes, but also including taxonomy, zoogeography and distribution, assemblage structure and conservation. Additional research involves freshwater decapods—crayfishes, crabs and shrimps.

Mammalogy Laboratory
Research within the lab examines ecological and evolutionary questions about mammals, typically with a focus on carnivores. Traditional data gathering techniques employed include animal trapping, snow tracking, specimen measurements, and tree climbing.

Ornithology Laboratory
Research in the lab focuses on historical questions concerning the biogeography and evolution birds. Research integrates the traditional fields of paleontology and genetics to understand patterns of bird diversification and extinction over the last few million years.

Vertebrate Paleontology Laboratory
This collection includes the vouchers for John Torrey's Flora of the State of New York (1843) and special collections that have been developed to support particular research programs and to assist in answering queries from outside the Museum.

INVERTEBRATES

The Cambridge Field Research Laboratory
Research conducted at the Field Lab is under the direction of Dr. Daniel P. Molloy and focuses on investigating the biology, ecology, taxonomy, and biological control of aquatic invertebrate pests. Research efforts have focused particularly on black flies (Simuliidae) and zebra mussels (Dreissenidae).

The International Research Consortium on Molluscan Symbionts
The consortium was formed to perform fundamental research on the biology, ecology, distribution, and systematics of organisms symbiotically associated with molluscs, including commensal, parasitic, and mutualistic species with emphasis on the endosymbionts of fresh and brackish water bivalves in North America and Europe.

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