University of Tartu, Natural History Museum and Botanical Garden
(+372) 737 6076 (NHM)
(+372) 737 6180 (BG)
Urmas Kõljalg, director, taxonomy and biological informatics, +372 53412823, urmas.koljalg@ut.ee
Kadri Põldmaa, researcher, taxonomy and molecular phylogeny, +372 7376173, kadri.poldmaa@ut.ee
Urmas Kõljalg, Phones: +372 737 6235, +372 5341 2823, E-mail: urmas.koljalg@ut.ee
University of Tartu Natural History Museum and Botanical Garden:
- Botanical Garden
- Geological museum
- Zoological museum
- Botanical and mycological museum
- Department of exhibitions and environmental education
- Research group for biological informatics and digital archives
| Permanent (P) | Non – Permanent (NP) | |
|---|---|---|
| a) TOTAL scientific staff | 7 | 0 |
| b) Scientific staff linked to Collections | 5 | 0 |
| c) Post-docs / PhD students | 0 | 0 |
| d) Others (Associates, etc.) | 0 | 0 |
| TOTAL (a+b+c+d) | 12 | 0 |
| Permanent (P) | Non – Permanent (NP) | |
|---|---|---|
| e) Exhibitions | 11 | 0 |
| f) Collection Managers / technicians | 25 | 0 |
| g) Others | 4 | 0 |
| TOTAL (e+f+g) | 40 |
According to the university internal rules PhD students are enrolled in the institutes. Even when museum staff is supervising students.
- Sterile laboratory for fungal culture collections (cultivation, etc.) shared with Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu.
- Molecular lab is used and developed together with the Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu
- Biological informatics lab (includes three major servers with storage system which serve as a digital archive in national and international level, part of the major Estonian research infrastructure NATARC (http://natarc.ut.ee ).
Work with local endangered species, work with locally bred ornamentals (national program). The Botanical Garden of the University of Tartu has, since 2002, actively participated in Estonian National Programme “Collection and Conservation of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture”, financed by the Ministry of Agriculture of Estonia. The main tasks of the Botanical Garden within the activities of the conservation of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture is to find out, collect and conserve local cultivars of ornamentals and the species of medical and aromatic plants.
Taxonomy and systematics of plants, animals and fungi, their ecology, distribution and protection in Estonia and globally. Preserving and managing specimens, fruit bodies and living cultures collected from Estonia and worldwide. Developing an online, open data platform of biodiversity data management services and analytical tools.
Developing digital repositories for the biological and associated data. Major product is PlutoF cloud system (http://plutof.ut.ee) which provides free online service for the managing, sharing and publishing biological databases. Currently it has more than 1700 users from more than 40 countries.
| Typology | Primary types | Individual specimens/objects | % registered cards | % recorded cards in database | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.1 | Palaeontology | 651 | 88000 | 36 | |
| 1.2 | Mineralogy | 20000 | 56 | ||
| 1.3 | Geology | 17000 | 59 |
| Typology | Primary types | Individual specimens/objects | % registered cards | % recorded cards in database | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.1 | Botany | 51 | 296566 | 19 | |
| 2.2 | Mycology | 101 | 100000 | 75 | |
| 2.3 | Zoology | 200 | 262715 | 75 |
Collection of drawings (<100) and fungal models (>100) made by Nikolai Witkowsky at the beginning of 20th century (Botanical and Mycological Museum).
Geological Museum: ~ 6000 glass negatives from 1920-1944, ~2000 photos from the same time.
The size of Botanical Garden collection is 10 001 species and cultivars (60% of them species, 40% cultivars) in 20 distinct departments (4 of them different greenhouses + nursery). Botanical and Mycological Museum: Collection of fungal cultures (>1800 cultures).
No
Web pages (http://www.natmuseum.ut.ee, http://www.ut.ee/botaed),
Facebook pages (https://www.facebook.com/natmuseum, https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tartu-%C3%9Clikooli-Botaanikaaed/10701234...),
projects web pages (http://natarc.ut.ee/, http://foodweb.ut.ee, http://loodusheli.ee/, etc.)
scientific data bases (http://elurikkus.ut.ee/, http://geokogud.info/, https://plutof.ut.ee/, http://datacite.ut.ee/)
public news list, press releases, public events, Intranet of UT.
CETAF communication: Urmas Kõljalg, +372 53412823, urmas.koljalg@ut.ee Press: Kaja Karo +372 5053468, kaja.karo@ut.ee
Natural History Museum: 85 000
Botanical Garden: 125 000 (12 800 with tickets)
available at http://natarc.ut.ee/en/statistika.php
Both the NHM and BG have non-formal educational study programmes for children, youth and adult age groups (in total about 40 programmes) with topics ranging from the development of Earth to practical gardening and pets. Main study fields include biodiversity, geology, zoology and ecology. In addition various workshops, semianrs and fields trips for the general publics or schools are regularly organized. Partners include local and national environment educational centres, universities, schools and NGOs.
Besides coordinating several doctoral studies on University of Tartu students, NHM is organizing study and post-conference programmes for UT and its institutes events and visiting groups.
Environmental educational programs for schools (http://www.natmuseum.ut.ee/en/nature-education).
Reet Mägi, Phone: +372 737 6073, +372 504 0826, E-mail: reet.magi@ut.ee
Systematic research
DNA barcoding
Biological informatics
DNA barcoding of fungi, incl. lichenized fungi (partly started)
Digital repositories of biological data
Curation and management of collections (DissCo partnership)