Collections
Landcare Research is the custodian of a number of nationally significant biological and resource collections.
Main uses of collections:
- Taxonomic research — describing and recording new Zealand's native and introduced biodiversity,
- Type specimens — vitally important records anchoring formal descriptions to a designated specimen(s) of flora, fauna or fungal species,
- Voucher specimens — permanent records validating the occurrence of a species at a particular locality and time, substantiating records of pests and pathogens on a host,
- Biosecurity decisions — describing and cataloguing information on weed, pest, pathogen and plant health risks to new Zealand's export/import trade, primary industries, urban environments, and natural ecosystems,
- Supporting overseas trade and access to overseas markets,
- Conservation and ecology — documenting and understanding biodiversity, relationships between organisms, and the ecosystem services that our biota provides,
- Biogeorgraphy — understanding the current and past distribution of flora, fauna and fungal species.