how can we release biodiversity data from herbarium specimens for climate change research?
TRANSCRIPT
How can we release biodiversity data from herbarium specimens for climate change
research?
Elspeth Haston, Robyn Drinkwater, Robert Cubey & Ruth Monfries
Introduction• Pressed & dried
plant material mounted on board
• Data are held on the sheets
• Estimated 350 million specimens in worlds herbaria
RBGE Herbarium
• 3 million specimens• 1697-present day• Databasing since 2000– 24% databased
• Imaging since 2004– 10% imaged
Rapid entry workflow
6. Additional data entry
1. Minimal curation
2. Assign unique identifier (eg attach barcode)
3. Initial minimal data capture
4. Image specimen (camera or scanner)5. OCR
Where are our specimens from?
Locality data
• Lat/long – last 20 years this has been fairly consistent– Prior to this depended on collector
• Fit lat/long to older specimens• Various tools are being to developed to help
with this.
• Vouchered collection – ID can be checked and verified
• Taxonomically maintained
?
• Various characters can be studied:– Phenology– Stomatal density– Leaf morphology
• Offer a long history – can fill historic gaps in data collection for analysis of trends etc.
Specimens Observations
Time
No.
of r
ecor
ds
Studies at RBGE
• Started after Robbirt et al 2010 paper– Looked at Ophrys sphegodes in collection here.
Correlated with papers findings• Followed up by study of UK Saxifraga hypnoides– Databased– Georeferenced– Phenology scored– Results analysed based on Central England
temperature
Considerations
• Is there a standardised way to score characters?– Different taxonomic groups– Infloresence types
Considerations
• Currently hold data in our central database
Considerations
• How precise does the georeferencing need to be?
Considerations
• Should we be targeting certain groups?– Key indicator species– Most vulnerable e.g. high montane species– Easily identified species
Saxifraga hypnoides Dionysia archibaldii Urtica dioica
• Robyn Drinkwater (Digitisation):[email protected]
• Elspeth Haston (Deputy Curator):[email protected]
Rob Cubey (Plant Records Officer):[email protected]
Ruth Monfries (Climate Change Officer):[email protected]