The biological collections of the Paraclet Domaine: a taxonomic reference and an educational resource for the French Biodiversity Agency

The French Biodiversity Agency (OFB) is a public institution  dedicated to the protection and restoration of biodiversity in mainland France and overseas. Its activities are organized around five missions. As part of the mission of mobilization of stakeholders and citizens, OFB provides educational training for staff and external parties. The Paraclet Domaine has been a historic training center for ichthyology and hydrobiology. It houses biological collections, some of which are used as training materials, and other specimens are stored but not currently used. Our goal was to create a comprehensive inventory of the Domaine’s biological collections and to propose elements to showcase them. Our inventory revealed a rich collection with more than 4 000 lots representing 12 phyla (mainly freshwater teleost fish and aquatic invertebrates). The majority of the collections (68.9%) consists of freeze-dried teleost fish, followed by whole specimens preserved in alcohol (25.6%). More than 73% of the collections are associated with collection data and therefore have a better scientific value. Based on these results, we initiated a collection of teleost fish tissues for future work in molecular biology. As these collections are managed internally, it will be important to continue the work for the other collections of the institution, to harmonize the collection management system, and to create links to international databases to improve visibility and accessibility.