Academy establishes Asia Center to protect the environment

Dr. Jon Gelhaus, an Academy entomologist who has surveyed aquatic insects in Mongolia since 1996, also recently received a three-year, $740,000 NSF grant to inventory the freshwater insects of waterways in the Altai and the Hangai mountains of western and southcentral Mongolia, building on a previous NSF study he led on the Selenge River Basin in northcentral Mongolia. Studies of aquatic insect taxonomy and distribution provide important information for understanding insect communities, which are being threatened by mining, untreated wastes, over-grazing, fires and climate change. The baseline data will aid in future water quality monitoring programs within the Mongolian government. The project also involves American and European scientists working with Mongolian scientists and students on training programs and the development of scientific infrastructure. Academy partners include the Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology in Mongolia and the Mongolian Academy of Sciences.

Academy scientists in recent years also have conducted field surveys in Mongolia in search of Amur catfish and rotifers (microscopic aquatic invertebrates).

The Historical Collection

The Academy’s history in Asia reaches back to its founding in 1812. At the time, Philadelphia merchants accounted for fully one third of the trade between America and China, as well as a significant portion of the America-India trade. These Asian contacts provided the nascent institution with many opportunities to obtain natural history specimens for study and later for public display, specimens the Academy cares for to this day. The Academy’s world-renowned Ewell Sale Stewart Library holds many of the classic books on travel and exploration in that part of the world, as well as most of the important monographs on the flora and fauna of Asia. Two large expeditions to China and Tibet in the 1930s led by Brooke Dolan (and a later one to Tibet) resulted in all but one of the dioramas in the museum’s Asia Hall.

For more information on the Asia Center see http://www.ansp.org/research/asia/index.php

Founded in 1812, The Academy of Natural Sciences is the oldest natural science research museum in the Americas and is a world leader in biodiversity and environmental research. The mission of the Academy is the encouragement and cultivation of the sciences.

The Academy is located at 1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia and is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and weekends until 5 p.m. Admission is $10 for adults, $8 for children ages 3-12, seniors, students with college I.D. and military personnel, and free for children under 3. There is a $2 fee for “Butterflies!”