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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.
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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.
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- 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
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Societal Impact StatementAs herbaria digitize millions of plant specimens, ethnobotanical information associated with them is becoming increasingly accessible. These biocultural data include plant uses, names, and/or management practices of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs). However, the absence of shared curatorial standards limits accessibility and use by IPLCs and others. We estimated and characterized ethnobotanical data associated with herbarium specimens and provide here key considerations for future work. We identified a proportionally small, yet collectively significant, number of ethnobotanical specimens, and call for coordinating best practices among global herbaria to locate, acknowledge, and responsibly share this information, together with source communities. SummaryAs herbaria digitize millions of plant specimens, those containing biocultural information are becoming increasingly accessible. This information — also known as ethnobotanical data — holds both cultural and scientific value, and may include plant uses, vernacular names, local species concepts, cultural values, and plant management practices of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs). However, the lack of coordinated curatorial standards currently limits both the accessibility and effective use of this information by IPLCs, ethnobotanists, and others.To address this gap, we quantitatively estimated and characterized ethnobotanical information associated with herbarium specimens and offer key considerations to guide future work.We identified a proportionally small —yet collectively significant— number of ethnobotanical specimens, comprising approximately 1.6% of all specimen records and representing hundreds of thousands of specimens in the surveyed herbaria.We advocate for coordinating best practices to locate, acknowledge, and ethically share this information among herbaria, working together with source communities and through global cooperation.more » « less
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.3389/frym.2023.1170456
