- Email: [email protected]
The Danish environmental specimen bank — status of establishment
The Science of the Total Environment, 139/140 (1993) 61-68 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., Amsterdam
61
The Danish Environmental Specimen B a n k - status of establishment Mette Erecius Poulsen and Gunnar Pritzl National Environmental Research Institute, Frederiksborgvej 399, P.O. Box 358, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark ABSTRACT In 1988 the Ministry of Environment, Denmark appointed a committee with the purpose of investigating the need for and the requirements of a Danish Environmental Specimen Bank. The purpose of the Danish Specimen Bank will be to collect and store samples from the Danish environment in order to make retrospective studies. The sampling strategy is to select various biotopes and from each biotope to sample at least one species of plant, one species of invertebrate and one species of vertebrate. Six basic types including all fourteen subdivisions of biotopes were selected. Seven species of plants, four species of invertebrates and eleven species of vertebrates were selected. The number of biotic samples in all will be 119 every second year. No abiotic sampling strategy has yet been selected. Samples will be stored in containers cooled with liquid nitrogen, to preserve them for at least 50-100 years. The capital investment and the annual operating cost for the Danish Specimen Bank are estimated to 2 500 000 DKr. (350 000 $US) and 550 000 DKr. (70 000 SUS), respectively.
Key words: environment; retrospective; future; environmental specimen bank; strategy; costs
THE DANISH ENVIRONMENTAL SPECIMEN BANK
Committee mandate In 1988 the Danish Ministry of Environment appointed a committee with the purpose of investigating the need for, and the requirements of, a Danish Environmental Specimen Bank. The committee has now completed its task and published a report [1], which will form the basis for establishing a Danish Environmental Specimen bank. Due to the question of capital investment the final decision still remains to be made. The committee was entrusted with the task of formulating a specimen bank program with two conditions: (1) the bank must meet the requirement of an advanced scientific level and (2) the establishing and operating costs of the bank must be at the lowest possible level.
62
M.E. POULSEN A N D G. PRITZL
Purpose of the Danish Environmental Specimen Bank The committee first set out to describe the purpose of the specimen bank. Without ties to ongoing monitoring programs, the committee attempted to predict what the requirements of a specimen bank would be 50 or 100 years from today, realizing, of course, that one cannot reliably figure out what environmental problems 100 years from now will be. Will they be the same as those we are facing now - - pollution with heavy metals or organic substances, eutrophication, or will the authorities responsible have reduced these problems to a minimum by legislation on the use of these chemicals and the advancement of cleaner technology? Will we be facing problems from the release of genetically manipulated organisms? Or wilt we be facing changes in the level or type of natural substances (e.g. stress proteins or other bioindicators which can be used as a measurement for changes in the over all processes in ecosystems) as a result of climate changes or other stress factors? It was therefore decided by the committee to establish the specimen bank with as broad a perspective as possible with as few limits as possible given the economic and political framework in Denmark. The purpose of the Danish Environmental Specimen Bank is described as follows: to collect and store samples from the natural environment, in order to make it possible to perform retrospective studies of: (1) the trends in the impact of anthropogenic substances, (2) the trends in the occurrence of natural substances, (3) the presence of hitherto unknown pollutants, and (4) genetic deviations. The committee also discussed whether samples of human tissues should be included in the program. The conclusion was that humans are not suitable for measuring the impact or change of the natural state, because man is influenced by many sources, for instance food, drugs and the work environment, which are not directly related to the external environment. Furthermore, the Ministry of Health is currently considering the establishment of a human specimen bank [2]. If such a bank is established, cooperation will be valuable to both banks. As the finances are limited, the bank will, as an overall rule, only store samples collected within the specimen bank program: these will be the only samples with definitive descriptions of collection from the moment they are taken until their deposit in the appropriate repository. PROGRAM
Sampling strategy To achieve the goal of establishing a broad-range specimen bank, the committee devised the following strategy that focuses on a number of biotopes and the species present in those biotopes.
DANISH E N V I R O N M E N T A L SPECIMEN BANK - - STATUS OF ESTABLISHMENT
63
Selection of sampling area Denmark consists of six basic types of biotopes: open uncultivated land, open cultivated land, forests, cities, fresh waters, and sea water. For geographical and biological reasons, we have subdivided these six biotopes in fourteen more specific biotopes, which cover the major diversities.
Open uncultivated land Open cultivated land Forests Fresh waters Cities Sea waters
Commons Heath lands Arable land Small habitats in arable land, e.g. small ponds or quichsets Deciduous forests Coniferous forests Eutrophic lakes and moors Oligotrophic lakes Industrial city Rural city Open Baltic Sea waters Open Kattegat waters Shallow interior Danish waters, Liml~orden Shallow interior Danish waters, Roskilde Fjord Wadden Sea
A number of each type of biotope was selected due to the geographic variation in Denmark. The western part of Denmark has sandy lime-deficient soils, Atlantic climate, mainly arable land and the effect of sea salinity is high. The central part of the country has calcareous loam soils, a more continental dry climate, a high degree of urbanization and the influence of sea salinity is low. The eastern part (the island Bornholm) mostly consists of granite rocks, has practically no industry and a very low sea salinity. In all 29 different locations were chosen, all were natural ecological units situated in areas with no point source pollution. Figure 1 shows a map of Denmark indicating the 29 sampling areas.
Selection of specimen At every chosen biotope, plants, invertebrates and vertebrates are collected. The samples consisted o f common Danish species, which are found in abundant quantities. The organisms are selected from among the species whose ecological conditions are well known, trying to cover as many trophic levels as possible. Furthermore, only species of a certain volume are chosen, making it possible to store samples consisting of whole specimens. To obtain the best basis for correlated investigation, for instance, between open cultivated and uncultivated land and to optimize the highly cautious work
64
M.E. POULSEN AND G. PR|TZL
~IZ' .,,__f.~.
W,
15".~___
Fig. 1. The 29 Danish sampling areas. Open uncultivated land (O), forest (W),fresh water ( • ), open cultivated land (O), city (0, and sea water ( v ).
with sampling procedures, as few species are selected as backup. For instance, earthworm will be sampled in those biotopes where the earthworm is present. The program therefore consist of 22 species, seven species of plant, species of invertebrate and 11 species of vertebrates. All together 119 different samples will be collected. Each sample will amount to 250-500 g and consist of 10-20 sub-samples, giving some possibilities of measuring the variation between individuals within the sample. Table 1 shows a survey of the biotopes and the species. Table 2 lists the names of the specimens in English and Latin. To fulfill the need for minimizing the annual costs (and to economise on the storage capacity) three approaches were considered: (1) collection of a given sample every second year, instead of every year or twice a year, (2) cutting down the number of species or types of biotopes, and (3) cutting down the number of sampling areas. The first alternative was adopted because, although this measure will reduce the value of the bank in the short term, a reduction in the problem caused by only collecting a given sample every second year is achieved, by splitting up the sampling areas in two clusters
DANISH
ENVIRONMENTAL
SPECIMEN
BANK
--
65
STATUSOF ESTABLISHMENT
TABLE 1 Survey over selected biotopes, number of biotopes due to geographic variation and selected biotopes Type of biotype
Number
Plant
Invertebrate
Vertebrate
Fresh waters Eutrophic lakes and moors
2
Sphagnum
Dragon fly larva
Oligotrophic lakes Sea waters Open Baltic Sea
2
Sphagnum
Dragon fly larva
Perch Water vole Red warbler Perch
1
Bladder wrack
Common mussel
Open Kattegat
1
Bladder wrack
Common mussel
Limfjorden
1
Common mussel
Roskilde Fjord
1
Wadden Sea
1
Bladder wrack Grass wrack Bladder wrack Grass wrack Bladder wrack Grass wrack
3
Couch grass
Earthworm
3
Lichen
Ground beetle
4
Couch grass
Earthworm
4
Couch grass
Earthworm
2
Beech leaves
Earthworm
2
Lichen Pine needles
Earthworm
2
Lichen Couch grass
Earthworm
Open uncultivated land Commons
Heath lands Open cultivated land Arable lands
Small habitats in arable land Forests Deciduous
Coniferous
Cities
Common mussel Common mussel
Flounder Young herring gull Razorbill egg Flounder Young herring gull Black guillemot egg Flounder Young herring gull Flounder Young herring gull Flounder Young herring gull Field vole Kestrel Field vole Kestrel Field vole Young rook Great titmouse
Long-tailed field-mouse Great titmouse Long-tailed field-mouse Great titmouse Great titmouse
with a maximum of attachments. Furthermore this reduction on a long term perspective will be of a lesser statistical importance. The same considerations are the basis for the thinning-out program.
Storage Storage facilities Due to the degradation, especially of the natural substances, it is very im-
66
M.E. POULSEN A N D G. P R I T Z L
TABLE 2 Survey over the selected specimens. English and Latin names.
Plants Couch grass Lichen Sphagnum Bladder wrack Grass wrack Beech leaves Pine needles Invertebrates Earthworm Ground beetle Dragon fly larva Commen mussel Vertebrates Field vole Long-tailed field mouse Water vole Kestrel Young rook Great titmouse Red warbler Young herring gull Razorbill egg Black guillemot egg Flounder Perch
Agrapyron repens Cladonia sp. Sphagnum sp. Fucus vesiculosus Zostera marina Fagus silvaticus Pinus sylvestris Lumbricus terrestris Broscus cephalotes Aeschna sp. Mytilus edulis Microtus agrestis Sylvaemus sylvaticus Arvicola amphibius Falco tinnunculus Corvus frugilegus Parus major Acrophalus scirpaceus Larus argetatus Alca torda Uria grylle Platighthys flesus Perca fluviatilis
portant that the samples are frozen as quickly as possible. This requires that the samples are frozen in the field. The samples will be stored in vessels or Teflon bags. As a general rule the samples will be frozen as found in the environment (e.g. whole animal, no homogenisation, etc.). A rapid freezing technique is of great value in order to minimize the damage caused by crystallisation of the water-content of cells; accordingly the samples are frozen in small quantities in liquid nitrogen and then stored at the same temperature. As part of the Danish National Environmental Research Institute the specimen bank adheres to strict GLP and QA/QC.
Laboratory facilities In the new building of The National Environmental Research Institute, which was finished in October 1991, two rooms of 30 and 24 m 2, are reserved for the specimen bank with the equipment allocated as shown in Fig. 2.
DANISH ENVIRONMENTAL SPECIMEN BANK
© © 0
0 © 0 Storage 24
m2
room,
67
STATUS OF ESTABLISHMENT
IV
II
III
V
II
Sample .. preparatlon
J
room, V
30
ma
Iv Ilvl
V
Fig. 2. Laboratory facilities. (I) Containers with liquid nitrogen, inside volume 1 m 3. (II) Exhausters, 1.8 m x 0.6 m and 1.2 m x 0.6 m. (III) Large laminar air flow bench, 2.5 m x 1.0 m. (IV) Normal size laminar airflow bench, 1.3 m x 0.6 m. (V) Laboratory furniture, tables, cabinets etc.
Economy The capital investment is calculated to be 2 500 000 DKr. (350 000 $US). The investment includes ventilation, electric installation, plumbing work, one liquid nitrogen container with control system, one large laminar air flow bench, one normal size laminar air flow bench, two exhausters, computer and laboratory furniture. The annual operating costs for sampling and storage are estimated to be 550 000 DKr. (70 000 $US). This fairly low cost is achieved due to an already existing network of skilled sampling officers in the ministry (Agency of Nature Conservation and Forest) and because no analytical costs are included. THE FUTURE AND ONGOING COOPERATIONS
The Nordic Council has encouraged the Nordic countries to coordinate their activities and a committee has made a report in which the possibilities are appointed [3]. Denmark participates in this cooperation. Greenland Home Rule has through The Danish Polar Center investigated
68
M.E. POULSEN A N D G. PRITZL
the possibilities for establishing a specimen bank. The purpose is to establish an ad-hoc bank for spare samples collected in connection with specific scientific studies in the Arctic. Collecting samples in the Arctic is expensive and difficult so an ad-hoc bank would make the samples accessible for further studies. There is already 18 m 3 of different samples in several institutes involved in Arctic investigations. The largest quantity is stored at Greenland Environmental Research Institute, but also Danish Universities have samples from the Arctic stored. The samples represent more than 20 000 individuals and 150 different species [4]. Besides this activity, a specimen bank joint venture between Denmark and Greenland may be established in the future. If this happens, samples from the Arctic will be stored under the same conditions as the Danish samples, but due to the special circumstances of collecting samples in the Arctic, it is impossible to collect samples in the same manner and quantity as in Denmark. Therefore a cooperation between Denmark and Greenland will be two separate activities within the same organisation due to the differences in the sampling strategy. One of the major tasks for the environmental specimen bank in the future will be to make ties to environmental specimen banks of other nations and in cooperation with these establish an international forum for exchange of information and samples. The Danish Environmental Specimen Bank will contribute to this work with its best effort. REFERENCES 1 M.E. Poulsen and G. Pritzl, Danmarks MiljCprCwebank.DMU-rapport nr. 51. ISBN 877772-064-4, DMU, Copenhagen, 1992, p. 38. 2 Sundhedsrninisteriet,Sundhedsministeriets Milj~anedicinskeForskningscenter-en status. ISBN 87-503-8956-4, Scantryk, Copenhagen, 1991, p. 45. 3 B. Giege, M. Korhonen, T. Odsj6, G.M. Paulsen & M.E. Poulsen, Samordning av milj6provbanksverksamheten i Norden. Nordisk Ministerrad, NMR, 1991, p. 87. 4 Dansk Polarcenter, Rapport om oprettelse af en biologisk/human vaevsprCwebank for grCnlandsk matriale. Dansk Polarcenter, Copenhagen, 1991, p. 35.
61
The Danish Environmental Specimen B a n k - status of establishment Mette Erecius Poulsen and Gunnar Pritzl National Environmental Research Institute, Frederiksborgvej 399, P.O. Box 358, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark ABSTRACT In 1988 the Ministry of Environment, Denmark appointed a committee with the purpose of investigating the need for and the requirements of a Danish Environmental Specimen Bank. The purpose of the Danish Specimen Bank will be to collect and store samples from the Danish environment in order to make retrospective studies. The sampling strategy is to select various biotopes and from each biotope to sample at least one species of plant, one species of invertebrate and one species of vertebrate. Six basic types including all fourteen subdivisions of biotopes were selected. Seven species of plants, four species of invertebrates and eleven species of vertebrates were selected. The number of biotic samples in all will be 119 every second year. No abiotic sampling strategy has yet been selected. Samples will be stored in containers cooled with liquid nitrogen, to preserve them for at least 50-100 years. The capital investment and the annual operating cost for the Danish Specimen Bank are estimated to 2 500 000 DKr. (350 000 $US) and 550 000 DKr. (70 000 SUS), respectively.
Key words: environment; retrospective; future; environmental specimen bank; strategy; costs
THE DANISH ENVIRONMENTAL SPECIMEN BANK
Committee mandate In 1988 the Danish Ministry of Environment appointed a committee with the purpose of investigating the need for, and the requirements of, a Danish Environmental Specimen Bank. The committee has now completed its task and published a report [1], which will form the basis for establishing a Danish Environmental Specimen bank. Due to the question of capital investment the final decision still remains to be made. The committee was entrusted with the task of formulating a specimen bank program with two conditions: (1) the bank must meet the requirement of an advanced scientific level and (2) the establishing and operating costs of the bank must be at the lowest possible level.
62
M.E. POULSEN A N D G. PRITZL
Purpose of the Danish Environmental Specimen Bank The committee first set out to describe the purpose of the specimen bank. Without ties to ongoing monitoring programs, the committee attempted to predict what the requirements of a specimen bank would be 50 or 100 years from today, realizing, of course, that one cannot reliably figure out what environmental problems 100 years from now will be. Will they be the same as those we are facing now - - pollution with heavy metals or organic substances, eutrophication, or will the authorities responsible have reduced these problems to a minimum by legislation on the use of these chemicals and the advancement of cleaner technology? Will we be facing problems from the release of genetically manipulated organisms? Or wilt we be facing changes in the level or type of natural substances (e.g. stress proteins or other bioindicators which can be used as a measurement for changes in the over all processes in ecosystems) as a result of climate changes or other stress factors? It was therefore decided by the committee to establish the specimen bank with as broad a perspective as possible with as few limits as possible given the economic and political framework in Denmark. The purpose of the Danish Environmental Specimen Bank is described as follows: to collect and store samples from the natural environment, in order to make it possible to perform retrospective studies of: (1) the trends in the impact of anthropogenic substances, (2) the trends in the occurrence of natural substances, (3) the presence of hitherto unknown pollutants, and (4) genetic deviations. The committee also discussed whether samples of human tissues should be included in the program. The conclusion was that humans are not suitable for measuring the impact or change of the natural state, because man is influenced by many sources, for instance food, drugs and the work environment, which are not directly related to the external environment. Furthermore, the Ministry of Health is currently considering the establishment of a human specimen bank [2]. If such a bank is established, cooperation will be valuable to both banks. As the finances are limited, the bank will, as an overall rule, only store samples collected within the specimen bank program: these will be the only samples with definitive descriptions of collection from the moment they are taken until their deposit in the appropriate repository. PROGRAM
Sampling strategy To achieve the goal of establishing a broad-range specimen bank, the committee devised the following strategy that focuses on a number of biotopes and the species present in those biotopes.
DANISH E N V I R O N M E N T A L SPECIMEN BANK - - STATUS OF ESTABLISHMENT
63
Selection of sampling area Denmark consists of six basic types of biotopes: open uncultivated land, open cultivated land, forests, cities, fresh waters, and sea water. For geographical and biological reasons, we have subdivided these six biotopes in fourteen more specific biotopes, which cover the major diversities.
Open uncultivated land Open cultivated land Forests Fresh waters Cities Sea waters
Commons Heath lands Arable land Small habitats in arable land, e.g. small ponds or quichsets Deciduous forests Coniferous forests Eutrophic lakes and moors Oligotrophic lakes Industrial city Rural city Open Baltic Sea waters Open Kattegat waters Shallow interior Danish waters, Liml~orden Shallow interior Danish waters, Roskilde Fjord Wadden Sea
A number of each type of biotope was selected due to the geographic variation in Denmark. The western part of Denmark has sandy lime-deficient soils, Atlantic climate, mainly arable land and the effect of sea salinity is high. The central part of the country has calcareous loam soils, a more continental dry climate, a high degree of urbanization and the influence of sea salinity is low. The eastern part (the island Bornholm) mostly consists of granite rocks, has practically no industry and a very low sea salinity. In all 29 different locations were chosen, all were natural ecological units situated in areas with no point source pollution. Figure 1 shows a map of Denmark indicating the 29 sampling areas.
Selection of specimen At every chosen biotope, plants, invertebrates and vertebrates are collected. The samples consisted o f common Danish species, which are found in abundant quantities. The organisms are selected from among the species whose ecological conditions are well known, trying to cover as many trophic levels as possible. Furthermore, only species of a certain volume are chosen, making it possible to store samples consisting of whole specimens. To obtain the best basis for correlated investigation, for instance, between open cultivated and uncultivated land and to optimize the highly cautious work
64
M.E. POULSEN AND G. PR|TZL
~IZ' .,,__f.~.
W,
15".~___
Fig. 1. The 29 Danish sampling areas. Open uncultivated land (O), forest (W),fresh water ( • ), open cultivated land (O), city (0, and sea water ( v ).
with sampling procedures, as few species are selected as backup. For instance, earthworm will be sampled in those biotopes where the earthworm is present. The program therefore consist of 22 species, seven species of plant, species of invertebrate and 11 species of vertebrates. All together 119 different samples will be collected. Each sample will amount to 250-500 g and consist of 10-20 sub-samples, giving some possibilities of measuring the variation between individuals within the sample. Table 1 shows a survey of the biotopes and the species. Table 2 lists the names of the specimens in English and Latin. To fulfill the need for minimizing the annual costs (and to economise on the storage capacity) three approaches were considered: (1) collection of a given sample every second year, instead of every year or twice a year, (2) cutting down the number of species or types of biotopes, and (3) cutting down the number of sampling areas. The first alternative was adopted because, although this measure will reduce the value of the bank in the short term, a reduction in the problem caused by only collecting a given sample every second year is achieved, by splitting up the sampling areas in two clusters
DANISH
ENVIRONMENTAL
SPECIMEN
BANK
--
65
STATUSOF ESTABLISHMENT
TABLE 1 Survey over selected biotopes, number of biotopes due to geographic variation and selected biotopes Type of biotype
Number
Plant
Invertebrate
Vertebrate
Fresh waters Eutrophic lakes and moors
2
Sphagnum
Dragon fly larva
Oligotrophic lakes Sea waters Open Baltic Sea
2
Sphagnum
Dragon fly larva
Perch Water vole Red warbler Perch
1
Bladder wrack
Common mussel
Open Kattegat
1
Bladder wrack
Common mussel
Limfjorden
1
Common mussel
Roskilde Fjord
1
Wadden Sea
1
Bladder wrack Grass wrack Bladder wrack Grass wrack Bladder wrack Grass wrack
3
Couch grass
Earthworm
3
Lichen
Ground beetle
4
Couch grass
Earthworm
4
Couch grass
Earthworm
2
Beech leaves
Earthworm
2
Lichen Pine needles
Earthworm
2
Lichen Couch grass
Earthworm
Open uncultivated land Commons
Heath lands Open cultivated land Arable lands
Small habitats in arable land Forests Deciduous
Coniferous
Cities
Common mussel Common mussel
Flounder Young herring gull Razorbill egg Flounder Young herring gull Black guillemot egg Flounder Young herring gull Flounder Young herring gull Flounder Young herring gull Field vole Kestrel Field vole Kestrel Field vole Young rook Great titmouse
Long-tailed field-mouse Great titmouse Long-tailed field-mouse Great titmouse Great titmouse
with a maximum of attachments. Furthermore this reduction on a long term perspective will be of a lesser statistical importance. The same considerations are the basis for the thinning-out program.
Storage Storage facilities Due to the degradation, especially of the natural substances, it is very im-
66
M.E. POULSEN A N D G. P R I T Z L
TABLE 2 Survey over the selected specimens. English and Latin names.
Plants Couch grass Lichen Sphagnum Bladder wrack Grass wrack Beech leaves Pine needles Invertebrates Earthworm Ground beetle Dragon fly larva Commen mussel Vertebrates Field vole Long-tailed field mouse Water vole Kestrel Young rook Great titmouse Red warbler Young herring gull Razorbill egg Black guillemot egg Flounder Perch
Agrapyron repens Cladonia sp. Sphagnum sp. Fucus vesiculosus Zostera marina Fagus silvaticus Pinus sylvestris Lumbricus terrestris Broscus cephalotes Aeschna sp. Mytilus edulis Microtus agrestis Sylvaemus sylvaticus Arvicola amphibius Falco tinnunculus Corvus frugilegus Parus major Acrophalus scirpaceus Larus argetatus Alca torda Uria grylle Platighthys flesus Perca fluviatilis
portant that the samples are frozen as quickly as possible. This requires that the samples are frozen in the field. The samples will be stored in vessels or Teflon bags. As a general rule the samples will be frozen as found in the environment (e.g. whole animal, no homogenisation, etc.). A rapid freezing technique is of great value in order to minimize the damage caused by crystallisation of the water-content of cells; accordingly the samples are frozen in small quantities in liquid nitrogen and then stored at the same temperature. As part of the Danish National Environmental Research Institute the specimen bank adheres to strict GLP and QA/QC.
Laboratory facilities In the new building of The National Environmental Research Institute, which was finished in October 1991, two rooms of 30 and 24 m 2, are reserved for the specimen bank with the equipment allocated as shown in Fig. 2.
DANISH ENVIRONMENTAL SPECIMEN BANK
© © 0
0 © 0 Storage 24
m2
room,
67
STATUS OF ESTABLISHMENT
IV
II
III
V
II
Sample .. preparatlon
J
room, V
30
ma
Iv Ilvl
V
Fig. 2. Laboratory facilities. (I) Containers with liquid nitrogen, inside volume 1 m 3. (II) Exhausters, 1.8 m x 0.6 m and 1.2 m x 0.6 m. (III) Large laminar air flow bench, 2.5 m x 1.0 m. (IV) Normal size laminar airflow bench, 1.3 m x 0.6 m. (V) Laboratory furniture, tables, cabinets etc.
Economy The capital investment is calculated to be 2 500 000 DKr. (350 000 $US). The investment includes ventilation, electric installation, plumbing work, one liquid nitrogen container with control system, one large laminar air flow bench, one normal size laminar air flow bench, two exhausters, computer and laboratory furniture. The annual operating costs for sampling and storage are estimated to be 550 000 DKr. (70 000 $US). This fairly low cost is achieved due to an already existing network of skilled sampling officers in the ministry (Agency of Nature Conservation and Forest) and because no analytical costs are included. THE FUTURE AND ONGOING COOPERATIONS
The Nordic Council has encouraged the Nordic countries to coordinate their activities and a committee has made a report in which the possibilities are appointed [3]. Denmark participates in this cooperation. Greenland Home Rule has through The Danish Polar Center investigated
68
M.E. POULSEN A N D G. PRITZL
the possibilities for establishing a specimen bank. The purpose is to establish an ad-hoc bank for spare samples collected in connection with specific scientific studies in the Arctic. Collecting samples in the Arctic is expensive and difficult so an ad-hoc bank would make the samples accessible for further studies. There is already 18 m 3 of different samples in several institutes involved in Arctic investigations. The largest quantity is stored at Greenland Environmental Research Institute, but also Danish Universities have samples from the Arctic stored. The samples represent more than 20 000 individuals and 150 different species [4]. Besides this activity, a specimen bank joint venture between Denmark and Greenland may be established in the future. If this happens, samples from the Arctic will be stored under the same conditions as the Danish samples, but due to the special circumstances of collecting samples in the Arctic, it is impossible to collect samples in the same manner and quantity as in Denmark. Therefore a cooperation between Denmark and Greenland will be two separate activities within the same organisation due to the differences in the sampling strategy. One of the major tasks for the environmental specimen bank in the future will be to make ties to environmental specimen banks of other nations and in cooperation with these establish an international forum for exchange of information and samples. The Danish Environmental Specimen Bank will contribute to this work with its best effort. REFERENCES 1 M.E. Poulsen and G. Pritzl, Danmarks MiljCprCwebank.DMU-rapport nr. 51. ISBN 877772-064-4, DMU, Copenhagen, 1992, p. 38. 2 Sundhedsrninisteriet,Sundhedsministeriets Milj~anedicinskeForskningscenter-en status. ISBN 87-503-8956-4, Scantryk, Copenhagen, 1991, p. 45. 3 B. Giege, M. Korhonen, T. Odsj6, G.M. Paulsen & M.E. Poulsen, Samordning av milj6provbanksverksamheten i Norden. Nordisk Ministerrad, NMR, 1991, p. 87. 4 Dansk Polarcenter, Rapport om oprettelse af en biologisk/human vaevsprCwebank for grCnlandsk matriale. Dansk Polarcenter, Copenhagen, 1991, p. 35.