For centuries, a taxonomic and alphabetic arrangement (TAA) of objects on shelves prevailed in fluid-preserved natural history collections while they were managed mostly by scientists for their own or vistors’ on-site research using physical specimens. However, most modern collections are now databased and internet-accessible, facilitating diverse forms of research accomplished remotely and decreasing the frequency of need for physical access to specimens, yet the way specimens are shelved and accessed remains nearly universally unchanged. With our fish collection struggling with both severe space limitation and unprecedented rapid growth supporting externally funded research that requires rapid specimen processing and data publication, we started shelving in an object (jar) and catalog number-based arrangement (OCA). To make that possible in our limited and near-full space, without altering our physical shelves in any way, we eliminated all between-jar spaces in our collection, including the customary space between taxa, while keeping it in its original TAA-based order (thus eliminating TAA-based growth capacity. In the resultant empty shelf space, we implemented an OCA shelving system for all newly cataloged jars. Once the OCA contained a relatively large number of jars, we carried out pragmatic, TAA-OCA comparisons. Volumetric jar storage capacity in the OCA is 17% \textgreater TAA, and adjusting the OCA’s vertical shelf spacing to optimizefor each of our 3 jar sizes (impossible in the TAA), could increase that to 115% \textgreater TAA. Ten of 15 routine staff tasks were more efficiently accomplished in the OCA than in the TAA, and the OCA greatly decreases shelving errors (misplacement). We discuss ways to improve efficiency in the OCA for the 5 tasks on which the TAA out-performed it, and report ancillary, unanticipated benefits, such as a way to much more efficiently and quickly monitor fluid levels across all jars. All newly cataloged specimen jarscontinue going into our OCA, and we have significantly postponed hitting the point of absolutely being unable to continue growing. We are hopeful that eventually, a move to a new space will enable conversion of the entire collection from TAA to a more fully-optimized OCA.

We provide an updated overview of the taxonomic and conservation status of all North American blind Ictalurids, and continuing efforts to better understand them. In Texas’ deep Edwards Aquifer under San Antonio, Satan eurystomus (Widemouth Blindcat) has not been collected since 1984, but fragments of Trogloglanis pattersoni (Toothless Blindcat) continue to appear occasionally from the only well still consistently available for sampling, providing material for its recently published complete mitogenome. A metabarcoding-based eDNA sampling project hoping to detect blindcats (and other taxa) is now in early testing in wells throughout the San Antonio area. Lack of access to wells remains a major roadblock for that effort, but we have promising outreach efforts developing that we hope will open doors for sampling in the near future. In the adjacent transboundary Edwards-Trinity Aquifer, new localities have been found for Prietella phreatophila (Mexican Blindcat) in both Coahuila and Texas, and a captive colony at San Antonio Zoo continues to thrive and grow. Two complete mitochondrial genomes from 2 specimens of this species using different methodologies are now available. We present new CT data that indicate specimens from a cave \textasciitilde25 km N of the type locality of Prietella lundbergi (Phantom Blindcat) in Tamaulipas, México, initially reported as that species, represent an undescribed taxon. Multiple attempts by divers to obtain additional specimens of P. lundbergi from the type locality have failed, leaving the formalin-preserved holotype as the only specimen of that species.

Mexico is a country of exceptional physiographic diversity, and the heterogeneity of surface- water resources in the country is remarkable. Some of the wettest (e.g., the Lacandón Forest in Chiapas) and driest (e.g., the deserts of Sonora) places on the North American continent are in Mexico. Mexico is also home to a great diversity of indigenous cultures, many of which have long and complex relationships with rivers and streams. In this chapter, we describe eight rivers: Río Fuerte, Río Salado, Río Nazas-Aguanaval, Río Tamesí, Río Balsas, Río De la Sierra, Río Lacantún, and Río Hondo. The basins we selected are distributed throughout the country and have diverse drainage patterns; some are endorheic, and others drain into the Pacific Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, or the Caribbean Sea.

Mexico is a country of exceptional physiographic diversity, and the heterogeneity of surface- water resources in the country is remarkable. Some of the wettest (e.g., the Lacandón Forest in Chiapas) and driest (e.g., the deserts of Sonora) places on the North American continent are in Mexico. Mexico is also home to a great diversity of indigenous cultures, many of which have long and complex relationships with rivers and streams. In this chapter, we describe eight rivers: Río Fuerte, Río Salado, Río Nazas-Aguanaval, Río Tamesí, Río Balsas, Río De la Sierra, Río Lacantún, and Río Hondo. The basins we selected are distributed throughout the country and have diverse drainage patterns; some are endorheic, and others drain into the Pacific Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, or the Caribbean Sea.

This dataset provides location information and some limited attributes of known and potential ciénegas in the Madrean Archipelago ecoregion and closely surrounding area. This was created using point data and information provided by Dean Hendrickson and Thomas Minckley, combined with potential locations derived from analysis of classified raster land cover images and other specialized datasets. Ciénegas, as defined here, are wetlands in arid and semi-arid regions associated with groundwater or lotic components that ideally result in perennial waters on temporal scales of decades to centuries. Ciénegas are typically located at elevations ranging from 0 to 2000m. Ciénegas are typified by significant differences in flora and fauna relative to the greater terrestrial conditions in the region in which they are located. Ciénegas are freshwater to brackish North American wetlands associated with fluvial systems of arid/semi-arid areas of the southwestern U.S. and northwestern Mexico. Once extensively utilized by the region's indigenous human cultures, as well as early European explorers and settlers, the extent of these aquatic riparian communities has dramatically decreased from historic conditions. These communities are now considered imperiled in North America. The data were collected to provide an up-to-date inventory of ciénegas, along with the locations of potential ciénegas, in the Madrean Archipelago ecoregion (and surrounding 15km buffer) in the US and Mexico. This database is meant to bring attention to ciénegas and ultimately prompt more research and restoration activities on these rare and vulnerable ecosystems. The point data are not meant to provide the precise location, but rather depict a general location. The locations of potential ciénegas were calculated as the centroid of the associated, classified raster image pixels or vector polygons. These points would, therefore, not be ideal as target information for a supervised classification of remotely sensed data. This dataset, however, is useful for locating ciénegas for further research, analysis, management and restoration. Additionally, this census of known and potential ciénegas provides a regional geospatial overview of this important ecosystem that few resources can match. In the near future, moreover, we are intending to perform a landscape change analysis focused on ciénegas of the greater Madrean Archipelago ecoregion.