An official website of the United States government
Summary Plants are diverse, but investigating their ecology and evolution in nature across geographic and temporal scales to predict how species will respond to global change is challenging. With their geographic and temporal breadth, herbarium data provide physical evidence of the existence of a species in a place and time. The remarkable size of herbarium collections along with growing digitization efforts around the world and the possibility of extracting functional traits and geographic data from preserved plant specimens makes them invaluable resources for advancing our understanding of changing species distributions over time, functional biogeography, and conserving plant communities. Here, I synthesize core aspects of plant biogeography that can be gleaned from herbaria along changing distributions, attributes (functional biogeography), and conservation biogeography across the globe. I advocate for a collaborative, multisite, and multispecies research to harness the full potential of these collections while addressing the inherent challenges of using herbarium data for biogeography and macroecological investigations. Ultimately, these data present untapped resources and opportunities to enable predictions of plant species' responses to global change and inform effective conservation planning.
more »
« less
What is an Herbarium and How Does it Help Us Protect Biodiversity?
When scientists study plants, they often collect, preserve, and store parts of the plants in a big collection called an herbarium. These plant specimens serve as proof that a species was growing in a certain place at a certain time. Herbaria (“herbaria” is the plural of herbarium) are where scientists describe new plant species and study how different species are related. Herbaria also contain lots of information about where certain plant species grow, what type of habitats species like, and at what time of year plants bloom and make fruits. Finally, herbaria are powerful tools for helping us understand how plants are affected by disturbances like habitat destruction and climate change. For all of these reasons, herbaria allow us to better understand and protect plant species all over the world. To continue benefitting from herbaria, we need to keep collecting plants and make these collections accessible to the world.
more »
« less
- PAR ID:
- 10486462
- Publisher / Repository:
- Frontiers Media
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Frontiers for Young Minds
- Volume:
- 11
- ISSN:
- 2296-6846
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1170456
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
1. Predicting how ecological interactions will respond to global change is a major challenge. Plants and their associated insect herbivores compose much of macroscopic diversity, yet how their interactions have been altered by recent environmental change remains underexplored. 2. To address this gap, we quantified herbivory on herbarium specimens of four plant species with records extending back 112 years. Our study focused on the northeastern US, where temperatures have increased rapidly over the last few decades. This region also represents a range of urban development, a form of global change that has shown variable effects on herbivores in the past studies. 3. Herbarium specimens collected in the early 2000s were 23% more likely to be damaged by herbivores than those collected in the early 1900s. Herbivory was greater following warmer winters and at low latitudes, suggesting that climate warming may drive increasing insect damage over time. In contrast, human population densities were negatively associated with herbivore damage. 4. To explore whether changes in insect occurrence or abundance might explain shifts in herbivory, we used insect observational records to build climate occupancy models for lepidopteran herbivores (butterflies and moths) of our focal plant species. 5. These models show that higher winter temperatures were associated with higher probability of insect herbivore presence, while urbanization was associated with reduced probability of herbivore presence, supporting a link between insect herbivore occurrence and herbivory mediated through environment. 6. Synthesis. Using a temporal record of plant herbivory that spans over a century, we show that both temperature and urbanization influence insect damage to plants, but in very different ways. Our results indicate that damage to plants by insect herbivores will likely continue to increase through time in the northeastern US as global temperatures rise, but that urbanization may disrupt local effects of winter warming on herbivory by excluding certain herbivores. These changes may scale to shape ecosystem processes that are driven by herbivory, including plant productivity.more » « less
-
PREMISE Quantifying how closely related plant species differ in susceptibility to insect herbivory is important for our understanding of variation in plant-insect ecological interactions and evolutionary pressures on plant functional traits. However, empirically measuring in situ variation in herbivory over the entire geographic range where a plant-insect complex occurs is logistically difficult. Recently, new methods have been developed to use herbarium specimens to investigate patterns in plant-insect interactions across geographic areas, and during periods of accelerating anthropogenic change. Such investigations can provide insights into changes in herbivory intensity and phenology in plants that are of ecological and agricultural importance. METHODS Here, we analyze 274 pressed herbarium samples from all 14 species in the economically important plant genus Cucurbita (Cucurbitaceae) to investigate variation in herbivory damage. This collection is comprised of specimens of wild, undomesticated Cucurbita that were collected from across their native range in the Neotropics and subtropics, and Cucurbita cultivars that were collected from both within their native range and from locations where they have been introduced for agriculture in temperate Eastern North America. RESULTS We find that herbivory is common on individuals of all Cucurbita species collected from throughout their geographic ranges; however, estimates of herbivory varied considerably among individuals, with greater damage observed in specimens collected from unmanaged habitat. We also find evidence that mesophytic species accrue more insect damage than xerophytic species. CONCLUSIONS Our study demonstrates that herbarium specimens are a useful resource for understanding ecological interactions between domesticated crop plants and co-evolved insect herbivores.more » « less
-
PREMISE Quantifying how closely related plant species differ in susceptibility to insect herbivory is important for our understanding of variation in plant-insect ecological interactions and evolutionary pressures on plant functional traits. However, empirically measuring in situ variation in herbivory over the entire geographic range where a plant-insect complex occurs is logistically difficult. Recently, new methods have been developed to use herbarium specimens to investigate patterns in plant-insect interactions across geographic areas, and during periods of accelerating anthropogenic change. Such investigations can provide insights into changes in herbivory intensity and phenology in plants that are of ecological and agricultural importance. METHODS Here, we analyze 274 pressed herbarium samples from all 14 species in the economically important plant genus Cucurbita (Cucurbitaceae) to investigate variation in herbivory damage. This collection is comprised of specimens of wild, undomesticated Cucurbita that were collected from across their native range in the Neotropics and subtropics, and Cucurbita cultivars that were collected from both within their native range and from locations where they have been introduced for agriculture in temperate Eastern North America. RESULTS We find that herbivory is common on individuals of all Cucurbita species collected from throughout their geographic ranges; however, estimates of herbivory varied considerably among individuals, with greater damage observed in specimens collected from unmanaged habitat. We also find evidence that mesophytic species accrue more insect damage than xerophytic species. CONCLUSIONS Our study demonstrates that herbarium specimens are a useful resource for understanding ecological interactions between domesticated crop plants and co-evolved insect herbivores.more » « less
-
Herbarium collections shape our understanding of the world’s flora and are crucial for addressing global change and biodiversity conservation. The formation of such natural history collections, however, are not free from sociopolitical issues of immediate relevance. Despite increasing efforts addressing issues of representation and colonialism in natural history collections, herbaria have received comparatively less attention. While it has been noted that the majority of plant specimens are housed in the global North, the extent of this disparity has not been rigorously quantified to date. Here, by analyzing over 85 million specimen records and surveying herbaria across the globe, we assess the colonial legacy of botanical collections and how we may move towards a more inclusive future. We demonstrate that colonial exploitation has contributed to an inverse relationship between where plant biodiversity exists in nature and where it is housed in herbaria. Such disparities persist in herbaria across physical and digital realms despite overt colonialism having ended over half a century ago, suggesting ongoing digitization and decolonization efforts have yet to alleviate colonial-era discrepancies. We emphasize the need for acknowledging the inconvenient history of herbarium collections and the implementation of a more equitable, global paradigm for their collection, curation, and use.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.3389/frym.2023.1170456
