Research Initiative:

Environmental Change

How do you describe the environmental changes of the Anthropocene without the context of prior epochs?

Biodiversity collections are well used in the endeavor to illustrate changes in the environment over the recent and not-so-recent past. But can other scientific collections further describe the changes on our planet over longer timescales?

Theme
Past Events

How do you study Environmental Change in Scientific Collections?

Biodiversity collections, especially those held in natural history museums, can contain specimens and biodiversity records that go back decades, if not centuries. Many of the most famous expeditions of the 19th century returned with now infamous stores of plants and animals. In the early 20th century, naturalists began more methodically surveying regions for biodiversity. And as technology evolved over the 20th century, our ability to collect, preserve and maintain specimens allowed for the continued expansion of collections.

In the context of global environmental change, many of these historically collected specimens and samples can be used to compare with more recently collected material. Studies can investigate changes in biodiversity, species richness, species range, species habitat preferences and a host of other topics over timescales longer than the career of a single scientist. What’s more, comparisons can be made with the fossil record to put the science of the current age into the context of prior epochs.

But - that’s not all. Another group of samples frequently used to investigate global change are cores - mainly ice cores and sediment cores. These samples, by virtue of the methods by which they’re created, offer a look back in time from a single core. While the biodiversity collections do not significantly overlap in time with cores, paleontological collections do.

Scientific Collections and Environmental Change: Breakout Session at SPNHC2014

Scientific Collections International (SciColl) and The Natural History Museum London (NHM) hosted a session at the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) 2014 Annual Meeting. The main theme was the integration of scientific collections into environmental change research as natural history and other scientific collections offer relatively under-utilized or under-integrated sources of critical evidence about the past, and hold the potential for refining our understanding of how natural systems respond to environmental change.

Schedule	Presenter	Title
16:10	Ellinor Michel, NHM	Unlocking Evidence: Scientific Collections and Environmental Change
16:25	Mark Spencer, NHM	Unlocking the Environmental Change Vault at the NHM - Orchids, Butterflies and Thyme!
16:40	Judith Price, Canadian Museum of Nature	DOAD, NODE and NANODe: integrating ostracod collections and databases for environmental change research applications
16:55	Selina Brace, NHM	Investigating the impact of late quaternary environmental changes using ancient DNA from collared lemming
17:10	Matthew Collins, University of York	Forgotten molecules, long lost records
17:30	Eileen Graham, SciColl	Discussing Evidence Panel Q & A: Scientific Collections and Environmental Change

#didyouknow...

Though not collected for toxin analyses, lichen collections in herbaria have been used to document increases in airborne lead levels.

...?

Theme

Past Events

How do you study Environmental Change in Scientific Collections?

Breakout session at SPNHC2014

SPNHC, NatSCA, Museum Wales agreed to have SciColl and NHM London host a breakout session at their annual meeting. This will allow us to begin the discussions outlined in our September event with the natural history collections community.

Scientific Collections and Environmental Change

SPNHC Website

16.10 Unlocking Evidence: Scientific Collections and Environmental Change Ellinor Michel & Eileen Graham EC1
16.25 TBD Mark Spencer EC2
16.40 DOAD, NODE and NANODe: integrating ostracod collections and databases for environmental change research applications David J. Horne & Judith Price EC3
16.55 Investigating the impact of late Quaternary environmental changes using ancient DNA from collared lemming Selina Brace, Eleftheria Palkopoulou, Love Dalén, John Stewart & Ian Barnes EC4
17.10 Forgotten molecules, long lost records Matthew Collins EC5
17.30 Discussing Evidence: Scientific Collections and Environmental Change - Panel Discussion and Audience Participation Eileen Graham & Ellinor Michel EC6

#didyouknow...

Though not collected for toxin analyses, lichen collections in herbaria have been used to document increases in airborne lead levels.

...?