Worldwide natural history collections contain more than three billion specimens assembled over hundreds of years, an irreplaceable physical record of life. Though there is bias inherent in their composition — from a disproportionate number of roadside plants to the dismissal of traditional ecological knowledge that could have expanded our understanding far sooner — we rely on them to gather data on the past, decipher the present, and forecast the future of the changing Earth. With modern technology, they can answer questions that their original collectors never dreamed of. Who knows what further mysteries they hold? Below, scientists explain their efforts to unravel some of those mysteries.
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Kent McFarland, Vermont Center for Ecostudies
Collections offer a view into the past and predictions for the future. As we profoundly alter the map of life, we require knowledge of plant and animal distributions over long periods. We cannot respond effectively to climate change, natural disasters, invasive species, and other threats without understanding our natural heritage. To compare current bumblebee diversity and distribution to historic records, the Vermont Center for Ecostudies used a century’s worth of specimens in the UVM collections. We revealed that almost half of the state’s bumblebee species—vital pollinators—have vanished or are in serious decline, spawning the listing of four species as Threatened and Endangered and plans for conservation.
Several of these scientists spoke at the University of Michigan's virtual Early Career Scientists Symposium of 2021, Natural History Collections: Drivers of Innovation.
