Current Events

 

The New England Botanical Club is holding monthly meetings in a virtual format using Zoom. Meetings will be the first Saturday of the month at 7pm (except January on second Saturday). Non-members may register for the meeting access link here.

 

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Dr. Mason Heberling

Assistant Curator of Botany
Carnegie Museum of Natural History
Pittsburgh, PA

"Rethinking the Herbarium Specimens"

Mark your calendar for the next NEBC Meeting on Saturday, February 6, 2021 at 7pm via Zoom.

Abstract: With over 390 million plant specimens collected by thousands of botanists over nearly five centuries in museums worldwide, herbaria (collections of preserved dead plants) comprise an enormous resource for understanding the world around us. Herbarium specimens are receiving unprecedented attention due to recently developed methods, new perspectives, and perhaps most notably, their increased accessibility through widespread digitization. While the longstanding functions of herbaria remain relevant in modern research, herbarium data are increasingly used in unanticipated ways. I will discuss the past, present, and future of herbarium specimen use, supported by a review of over 13,000 herbarium-related studies from 1923-2017. Specimens are increasingly appreciated as temporally and spatially extensive sources of genotypic, phenotypic, and biogeographic data. I will also highlight several unanticipated uses of specimens in my research, including documenting trait changes in invasive plants, understanding impacts of climate change on flowering and leaf out times, and using specimen roots to measure a century of soil microbial communities. As novel uses of specimens become more prevalent, new curatorial needs and perspectives need to be considered, including an open re-evaluation of the very collection event itself is needed. The use of digital observations and community science platforms, such as iNaturalist, provide a powerful approach to complement and enhance the research value of specimens. As we enter the Anthropocene, herbaria have likewise entered a new era with enhanced scientific, educational, and societal relevance.

 

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