how can we release biodiversity data from herbarium specimens for climate change research?

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):r.drinkwater@rbge.org.uk

• Elspeth Haston (Deputy Curator):e.haston@rbge.org.uk

Rob Cubey (Plant Records Officer):r.cubey@rbge.org.uk

Ruth Monfries (Climate Change Officer):r.monfries@rbge.org.uk