The Natural Science Collections Alliance has prepared two short reports on how natural history collections contribute to climate change research.
“How Thoreau, Walden, and Herbarium Specimens Informed Research” shows how plant collections at the Arnold Arboretum have been used to document changes in the timing of flowering. Since the late 1800’s, plants are blooming eight days earlier in the Boston area. Over the same time period, temperatures warmed by 1.5 degrees Celsius. Download a free copy of the issue brief at https://nscalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/nsca_climate_thoreau.pdf.
“Museum Collections Document a Century of Change” documents the lasting legacy of biological specimens, photographs, and field notes collected by the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California, Berkeley during the early twentieth century. These resources have been used in present-day research to understand how warming temperatures are impacting species ranges. Download a copy of the issue brief at https://nscalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/nsca-climate-grinnell.pdf.
Access other reports in NSC Alliance’s series “On the Importance of Scientific Collections” at https://nscalliance.org/?page_id=10.