L18: Why historical collections are important for biogeography?

Question 1

Accessibility of specimens sampled during biodiversity studies is problematic.

Answer 1

1) Limitation on systematically archive the samples of specimen.
2) Specimens are either discarded or only a small reference collection is saved.
3) Even if specimens are stored, material from separate plots or dates are often pooled to reduce storage space, rendering valuable information irretrievable.

Question 2

Potential solution to the problematic accessibility of specimens sampled during biodiversity studies

Answer 2

Deposit of all specimens from a study in a natural history collection. Public natural history collections make the content of their collections databases available through the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF).

Question 3

Botanical collections

Answer 3

1) Botanical collections originated in Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries (Reinaissance expeditions) (Nualart et al, 2017).
2) 3000 herbaria worldwide preserving almost 350 million specimens (Thiers 2006).
3) Traditionally used as libraries for taxonomic purposes. Digitalization has facilitated access.
4) Funk (2004) lists a total of 72 uses of herbarium collections.

Question 4

What is the Herbarium?

Answer 4

A collection of preserved plants that are stored, catalogued, and arranged systematically for study.

Question 5

Largest herbaria in Europe:

Answer 5

Paris (P, PC) France 8,877,300

Kew (K) United Kingdom 6,000,000

Question 6

Herbaria have one or more of the following functions or roles:

Answer 6

Conservatory of dried plant material.

Archival record of a local/regional flora.

Source of botanical information and diversity.

Recorder of plant names.

Training for botanists.

Research.

Question 7

How useful are collections for Biogeographical research?

1) Traditional

Answer 7

Identification of unknown species
Compilation of biodiversity surveys
Phylogenetic reconstructions

Question 8

How useful are collections for Biogeographical research?

2) Recent (using data in digital form)

Answer 8

Phenological studies (including climate change): Bee specimens (Bartomeus et al, 2010)
Ecological modelling (altitudinal al latitudinal gradients, SDMs-check the practical!)
Documenting the spread of invasive species (see lecture 17).
Recovering the distribution and migratory patterns of the extinct taxa (see lecture 17)

Question 9

To evaluate long-term phenological trends in wild bees from northeastern North Americ

Answer 9

Location of all data points used in the analysis.
to examine a 130-y period
Museum data from the contemporary period (2000–2010) in conjunction with data we recorded from museum specimens dating back to the 1880s.
Ten bee species that emerge in early spring.

Question 10

Data Capture Protocol.

Answer 10

1) full-label data from all pinned specimens of our study species that could be accessed from: the American Museum of Natural History; the Illinois Natural History Survey; and the entomology collections maintained by the University of Connecticut, etc.
2) Taxonomically verified specimens
3) Verified location (coordinates). Google Earth to “virtually ground truth” localities when possible.

Question 11

Conclusions

Answer 11

The Northeastern US bee species persisted along the last 100 year
However, community composition changed markedly
Bumblebees (e.g.Bombus impatiens) are doing great!