A.K. Skvortsov's contribution to the advancement of herbarium collection: Central Siberian Botanical Garden, Siberian Branch RAS

A.K. Skvortsov is renowned among botanists both in this country and abroad as a high-ranking specialist in plant systematics, the study of floras, and plant introduction and acclimation. Scientific interests and professional activities of A.K. Skvortsov included the flora of Eastern Europe; systematics of the genera Salix L., Betula L., Populus L., and Epilobium Dill. ex L.; general problems of the evolutionary theory, intraspecific variability, and microevolution. A.K. Skvortsov made a large contribution to the development of herbarium collections. Within the span of 65 years (1938–2002) he was collecting during expeditions and field trips across Russia, Europe, North America, India, and China, his collections amounting to more than 50 thousand sheets. From 1966, Skvortsov curated the herbarium collection at the Main Botanic Garden RAN (MHA). Here his personal herbarium collection is preserved along with his specimens from temperate European Russia and Lower Volga and separate collections of willows, poplars, and birches. The book by Skvortsov Herbarium methods and techniques. A manual (1977) has served a handbook for a few generations of botanists. A.K. Skvortsov defined the role of herbaria in the contemporary science as follows: “Full and reliable data on dynamics of the flora in any concrete country during a certain time period can be provided only by the herbarium collection. Versatile application potential, multi-functionality is an essential, immensely important quality of a herbarium specimen. With the advancement of science, it is possible to extract more and more information from the same herbarium specimen. Hence a herbarium specimen is a primary, authentic document that cannot be substituted by any secondary, derived kind of documentation (Skvortsov 1977: 4). Specimens exchange is an old tradition of botanical institutions. In his description of the Herbarium of the Main Botanical Garden in Moscow (2005), Skvortsov listed the major external sources of its enhancement, which included the Central Siberian Botanical Garden, Siberian Branch RAN (CSBG SB RAN) in Novosibirsk, from where MHA had received more than 13 thousand specimens collected in different parts of Siberia. At the same time, the Central Siberian Botanical Garden was receiving material from the Moscow Main Botanical Garden in exchange. The herbarium collections of the CSBG SB RAN (NS and NSK) currently amount to about 680 thousand specimens of vascular plants. Of these, 37 500 have been scanned with ObjectScan 1600 (Microtek) scanners, in accordance with the international standards: optical resolution of 600 dpi, scans accompanied with the color guide and linear scale ruler, barcoded, and preserved within the online Virtual Herbarium at the open-access site of the CSBG SB RAN (http://herb.csbg.nsc.ru:8081). Information extracted from herbarium labels and scans of herbarium specimens are also published as seven datasets on the GBIF (Global Botanical Information Facility) Portal (gbif.org). Among the scanned specimens, there are collections by A.K. Skvortsov from Volgograd, Belgorod, Bryansk, Smolensk, Oryol, Moscow, Sverdlovsk, and Amur regions as well as Crimea and Karachay-Cherkess Republic, Estonia, Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Sweden, India – a total of 450 sheets received through the exchange between the MHA and NS/NSK. A.K. Skvortsov made an invaluable contribution to the herbarium business development