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Mandrioli M. From Dormant Collections to Repositories for the Study of Habitat Changes: The Importance of Herbaria in Modern Life Sciences. Life (Basel) 2023; 13:2310. [PMID: 38137911 PMCID: PMC10744909 DOI: 10.3390/life13122310] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/04/2023] [Revised: 11/25/2023] [Accepted: 12/05/2023] [Indexed: 12/24/2023] Open
Abstract
In recent decades, the advent of new technologies for massive and automatized digitization, together with the availability of new methods for DNA sequencing, strongly increased the interest and relevance of herbarium collections for the study of plant biodiversity and evolution. These new approaches prompted new projects aimed at the creation of a large dataset of molecular and phenological data. This review discusses new challenges and opportunities for herbaria in the context of the numerous national projects that are currently ongoing, prompting the study of herbarium specimens for the understanding of biodiversity loss and habitat shifts as a consequence of climate changes and habitat destruction due to human activities. With regard to this, the National Biodiversity Future Center (active in Italy since 2022) started a large-scale digitization project of the Herbarium Centrale Italicum in Florence (Italy), which is the most important Italian botanical collection, consisting of more than 4 million samples at present.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mauro Mandrioli
- Department of Life Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Via Campi 213/D, 41125 Modena, Italy
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2
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Brian JI, Catford JA. A mechanistic framework of enemy release. Ecol Lett 2023; 26:2147-2166. [PMID: 37921034 DOI: 10.1111/ele.14329] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/06/2023] [Accepted: 10/03/2023] [Indexed: 11/04/2023]
Abstract
The enemy release hypothesis (ERH) is the best-known hypothesis explaining high performance (e.g. rapid population growth) of exotic species. However, the current framing of the ERH does not explicitly link evidence of enemy release with exotic performance. This leads to uncertainty regarding the role of enemy release in biological invasions. Here, we demonstrate that the effect of enemy release on exotic performance is the product of three factors: enemy impact, enemy diversity, and host adaptation. These factors are modulated by seven contexts: time since introduction, resource availability, phylogenetic relatedness of exotic and native species, host-enemy asynchronicity, number of introduction events, type of enemy, and strength of growth-defence trade-offs. ERH-focused studies frequently test different factors under different contexts. This can lead to inconsistent findings, which typifies current evidence for the ERH. For example, over 80% of meta-analyses fail to consider ecological contexts which can alter study findings; we demonstrate this by re-analysing a recent ERH synthesis. Structuring the ERH around factors and contexts promotes generalisable predictions about when and where exotic species may benefit from enemy release, empowering effective management. Our mechanistic factor-context framework clearly lays out the evidence required to support the ERH, unifies many enemy-related invasion hypotheses, and enhances predictive capacity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joshua I Brian
- Department of Geography, King's College London, London, UK
| | - Jane A Catford
- Department of Geography, King's College London, London, UK
- Fenner School of Environment & Society, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
- School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia
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3
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Kim AS, Kreiner JM, Hernández F, Bock DG, Hodgins KA, Rieseberg LH. Temporal collections to study invasion biology. Mol Ecol 2023; 32:6729-6742. [PMID: 37873879 DOI: 10.1111/mec.17176] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/22/2023] [Revised: 10/07/2023] [Accepted: 10/11/2023] [Indexed: 10/25/2023]
Abstract
Biological invasions represent an extraordinary opportunity to study evolution. This is because accidental or deliberate species introductions have taken place for centuries across large geographical scales, frequently prompting rapid evolutionary transitions in invasive populations. Until recently, however, the utility of invasions as evolutionary experiments has been hampered by limited information on the makeup of populations that were part of earlier invasion stages. Now, developments in ancient and historical DNA technologies, as well as the quickening pace of digitization for millions of specimens that are housed in herbaria and museums globally, promise to help overcome this obstacle. In this review, we first introduce the types of temporal data that can be used to study invasions, highlighting the timescale captured by each approach and their respective limitations. We then discuss how ancient and historical specimens as well as data available from prior invasion studies can be used to answer questions on mechanisms of (mal)adaptation, rates of evolution, or community-level changes during invasions. By bridging the gap between contemporary and historical invasive populations, temporal data can help us connect pattern to process in invasion science. These data will become increasingly important if invasions are to achieve their full potential as experiments of evolution in nature.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amy S Kim
- Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
| | - Julia M Kreiner
- Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
| | - Fernando Hernández
- Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
| | - Dan G Bock
- Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
| | - Kathryn A Hodgins
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Loren H Rieseberg
- Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
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4
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Swain A, Azevedo-Schmidt LE, Maccracken SA, Currano ED, Dunne JA, Labandeira CC, Fagan WF. Sampling bias and the robustness of ecological metrics for plant-damage-type association networks. Ecology 2023; 104:e3922. [PMID: 36415050 DOI: 10.1002/ecy.3922] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2022] [Accepted: 10/05/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Plants and their insect herbivores have been a dominant component of the terrestrial ecological landscape for the past 410 million years and feature intricate evolutionary patterns and co-dependencies. A complex systems perspective allows for both detailed resolution of these evolutionary relationships as well as comparison and synthesis across systems. Using proxy data of insect herbivore damage (denoted by the damage type or DT) preserved on fossil leaves, functional bipartite network representations provide insights into how plant-insect associations depend on geological time, paleogeographical space, and environmental variables such as temperature and precipitation. However, the metrics measured from such networks are prone to sampling bias. Such sensitivity is of special concern for plant-DT association networks in paleontological settings where sampling effort is often severely limited. Here, we explore the sensitivity of functional bipartite network metrics to sampling intensity and identify sampling thresholds above which metrics appear robust to sampling effort. Across a broad range of sampling efforts, we find network metrics to be less affected by sampling bias and/or sample size than richness metrics, which are routinely used in studies of fossil plant-DT interactions. These results provide reassurance that cross-comparisons of plant-DT networks offer insights into network structure and function and support their widespread use in paleoecology. Moreover, these findings suggest novel opportunities for using plant-DT networks in neontological terrestrial ecology to understand functional aspects of insect herbivory across geological time, environmental perturbations, and geographic space.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anshuman Swain
- Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA.,Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, District of Columbia, USA.,Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Lauren E Azevedo-Schmidt
- Department of Botany, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, USA.,Climate Change Institute, University of Maine, Orono, Maine, USA
| | - S Augusta Maccracken
- Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, District of Columbia, USA.,Department of Earth Sciences, Denver Museum of Nature & Science, Denver, Colorado, USA
| | - Ellen D Currano
- Department of Botany, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, USA.,Department of Geology & Geophysics, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, USA
| | | | - Conrad C Labandeira
- Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, District of Columbia, USA.,Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA.,College of Life Sciences and Academy for Multidisciplinary Studies, Capital Normal University, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - William F Fagan
- Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA
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Tracing the invasion of a leaf-mining moth in the Palearctic through DNA barcoding of historical herbaria. Sci Rep 2022; 12:5065. [PMID: 35332171 PMCID: PMC8948198 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-08894-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2021] [Accepted: 03/11/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
The lime leaf-miner, Phyllonorycter issikii is an invasive micromoth with an unusually higher number of haplotypes in the invaded area (Europe, Western Siberia) compared to its putative native region (East Asia). The origin of the genetic diversity in the neocolonized region remains unclear. We surveyed over 15 thousand herbarium specimens of lime trees (Tilia spp.) collected across the Palearctic over a period of 252 years (1764-2016) looking for preserved larvae within the archival leaf mines. We found 203 herbarium specimens with leaf mines of Ph. issikii collected in East Asia, one of them dating back to 1830, i.e. 133 years before the description of the species. In contrast, only 22 herbarium specimens collected in the West Palearctic in the last three decades (1987-2015) carried leaf mines. DNA barcoding of archival specimens revealed 32 haplotypes out of which 23 were novel (not known from modern populations) and found exclusively in East Asia. Six haplotypes are shared between both native and invaded areas and only two were responsible for the recent invasion of the Western Palearctic. The remarkable number of newly discovered haplotypes in archival populations supports East Asia as the native region and the source area of invasion.
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Goëau H, Lorieul T, Heuret P, Joly A, Bonnet P. Can Artificial Intelligence Help in the Study of Vegetative Growth Patterns from Herbarium Collections? An Evaluation of the Tropical Flora of the French Guiana Forest. PLANTS (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2022; 11:530. [PMID: 35214863 PMCID: PMC8875713 DOI: 10.3390/plants11040530] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2021] [Revised: 02/02/2022] [Accepted: 02/08/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
A better knowledge of tree vegetative growth phenology and its relationship to environmental variables is crucial to understanding forest growth dynamics and how climate change may affect it. Less studied than reproductive structures, vegetative growth phenology focuses primarily on the analysis of growing shoots, from buds to leaf fall. In temperate regions, low winter temperatures impose a cessation of vegetative growth shoots and lead to a well-known annual growth cycle pattern for most species. The humid tropics, on the other hand, have less seasonality and contain many more tree species, leading to a diversity of patterns that is still poorly known and understood. The work in this study aims to advance knowledge in this area, focusing specifically on herbarium scans, as herbariums offer the promise of tracking phenology over long periods of time. However, such a study requires a large number of shoots to be able to draw statistically relevant conclusions. We propose to investigate the extent to which the use of deep learning can help detect and type-classify these relatively rare vegetative structures in herbarium collections. Our results demonstrate the relevance of using herbarium data in vegetative phenology research as well as the potential of deep learning approaches for growing shoot detection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hervé Goëau
- Botany and Modeling of Plant Architecture and Vegetation (AMAP), French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), French National Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE), Research Institute for Development (IRD), University of Montpellier, 34398 Montpellier, France; (P.H.); (P.B.)
| | - Titouan Lorieul
- ZENITH Team, Laboratory of Informatics, Robotics and Microelectronics-Joint Research Unit, Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (INRIA) Sophia-Antipolis, CEDEX 5, 34095 Montpellier, France; (T.L.); (A.J.)
| | - Patrick Heuret
- Botany and Modeling of Plant Architecture and Vegetation (AMAP), French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), French National Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE), Research Institute for Development (IRD), University of Montpellier, 34398 Montpellier, France; (P.H.); (P.B.)
| | - Alexis Joly
- ZENITH Team, Laboratory of Informatics, Robotics and Microelectronics-Joint Research Unit, Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (INRIA) Sophia-Antipolis, CEDEX 5, 34095 Montpellier, France; (T.L.); (A.J.)
| | - Pierre Bonnet
- Botany and Modeling of Plant Architecture and Vegetation (AMAP), French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), French National Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE), Research Institute for Development (IRD), University of Montpellier, 34398 Montpellier, France; (P.H.); (P.B.)
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Kozlov MV, Sokolova IV, Zverev V, Egorov AA, Goncharov MY, Zvereva EL. Biases in estimation of insect herbivory from herbarium specimens. Sci Rep 2020; 10:12298. [PMID: 32704145 PMCID: PMC7378164 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-69195-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/07/2019] [Accepted: 07/09/2020] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Information regarding plant damage by insects in the past is essential to explore impacts of climate change on herbivory. We asked whether insect herbivory measured from herbarium specimens reflects the levels of herbivory occurring in nature at the time of herbarium sampling. We compared herbivory measurements between herbarium specimens collected by botany students and ecological samples collected simultaneously by the authors by a method that minimized unconscious biases, and asked herbarium curators to select one of two plant specimens, which differed in leaf damage, for their collections. Both collectors and curators generally preferred specimens with lesser leaf damage, but the strength of this preference varied among persons. In addition, the differences in measured leaf damage between ecological samples and herbarium specimens varied among plant species and increased with the increase in field herbivory. Consequently, leaf damage in herbarium specimens did not correlate with the actual level of herbivory. We conclude that studies of herbarium specimens produce biased information on past levels of herbivory, because leaf damage measured from herbarium specimens not only underestimates field herbivory, but it is not proportional to the level of damage occurring in nature due to multiple factors that cannot be controlled in data analysis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mikhail V Kozlov
- Department of Biology, University of Turku, 20014, Turku, Finland.
| | - Irina V Sokolova
- Herbarium, V. L. Komarov Botanical Institute, Professora Popova Str. 2, 197376, St. Petersburg, Russia
| | - Vitali Zverev
- Department of Biology, University of Turku, 20014, Turku, Finland
| | - Alexander A Egorov
- Department of Biogeography and Nature Preservation, Institute of Earth Sciences, St. Petersburg State University, Universitetskaya nab. 7-9, 199034, St. Petersburg, Russia
| | - Mikhail Y Goncharov
- St. Petersburg Chemical-Pharmaceutical University, Professora Popova Str. 14, 197022, St. Petersburg, Russia
| | - Elena L Zvereva
- Department of Biology, University of Turku, 20014, Turku, Finland
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Meineke EK, Tomasi C, Yuan S, Pryer KM. Applying machine learning to investigate long-term insect-plant interactions preserved on digitized herbarium specimens. APPLICATIONS IN PLANT SCIENCES 2020; 8:e11369. [PMID: 32626611 PMCID: PMC7328658 DOI: 10.1002/aps3.11369] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/01/2019] [Accepted: 03/04/2020] [Indexed: 05/28/2023]
Abstract
PREMISE Despite the economic significance of insect damage to plants (i.e., herbivory), long-term data documenting changes in herbivory are limited. Millions of pressed plant specimens are now available online and can be used to collect big data on plant-insect interactions during the Anthropocene. METHODS We initiated development of machine learning methods to automate extraction of herbivory data from herbarium specimens by training an insect damage detector and a damage type classifier on two distantly related plant species (Quercus bicolor and Onoclea sensibilis). We experimented with (1) classifying six types of herbivory and two control categories of undamaged leaf, and (2) detecting two of the damage categories for which several hundred annotations were available. RESULTS Damage detection results were mixed, with a mean average precision of 45% in the simultaneous detection and classification of two types of damage. However, damage classification on hand-drawn boxes identified the correct type of herbivory 81.5% of the time in eight categories. The damage classifier was accurate for categories with 100 or more test samples. DISCUSSION These tools are a promising first step for the automation of herbivory data collection. We describe ongoing efforts to increase the accuracy of these models, allowing researchers to extract similar data and apply them to biological hypotheses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emily K. Meineke
- Department of Entomology and NematologyUniversity of CaliforniaDavisCalifornia95616USA
| | - Carlo Tomasi
- Department of Computer ScienceDuke UniversityDurhamNorth Carolina27708USA
| | - Song Yuan
- Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials ScienceDuke UniversityDurhamNorth Carolina27708USA
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Vega FE, Smith LT, Davies NMJ, Moat J, Góral T, O’Sullivan R, Davis AP. Elucidation of Hosts, Native Distribution, and Habitat of the Coffee Berry Borer ( Hypothenemus hampei) Using Herbaria and Other Museum Collections. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2019; 10:1188. [PMID: 31632423 PMCID: PMC6781851 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2019.01188] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2019] [Accepted: 08/29/2019] [Indexed: 06/01/2023]
Abstract
The coffee berry borer (Hypothenemus hampei) is the most damaging insect pest of global coffee production. Despite its importance, our knowledge on the insect's natural habitat, range, and wild host species remains poorly known. Using archival sources (mainly herbaria but also other museum collections), we surveyed 18,667 predominantly wild-collected herbarium specimens mostly from Africa, Madagascar, and Asia for coffee berry borer occurrence. A total of 72 incidences were confirmed for presence of the coffee berry borer, with identifications assisted by micro-CT for SEM. Of the 72 positive infestations, all were from tropical African coffee (Coffea) species, of which 32 were from wild (non-cultivated) plants. Of the 32 wild occurrences, 30 were found in C. canephora (robusta coffee), 1 in C. liberica (Liberica coffee), and 1 in C. arabica (Arabica coffee). Our herbarium survey confirms literature and anecdotal reports that the coffee berry borer is indigenous to tropical Africa, and that coffee species, and particularly robusta coffee, are important hosts. We identify the wetter type of Guineo-Congolian forest as either the preferred or exclusive native habitat of the coffee berry borer. Other than coffee, we find no evidence of other naturally occurring hosts. Characters of infestation (e.g., hole position on coffee fruits) infers a certain degree of specificity between the coffee berry borer and its host.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fernando E. Vega
- Sustainable Perennial Crops Laboratory, United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville, MD, United States
| | - Lucy T. Smith
- Natural Capital Department (APD), Identification and Naming Department (LTS and NMJD), Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom
| | - Nina M. J. Davies
- Natural Capital Department (APD), Identification and Naming Department (LTS and NMJD), Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom
| | - Justin Moat
- Natural Capital Department (APD), Identification and Naming Department (LTS and NMJD), Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom
| | - Tomasz Góral
- Zespół ds. Infrastruktury, Centrum Nowych Technologii Uniwersytetu, Warszawa, Poland
- The Department of Life Sciences, The Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom
| | - Robert O’Sullivan
- Natural Capital Department (APD), Identification and Naming Department (LTS and NMJD), Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom
- School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Aaron P. Davis
- Natural Capital Department (APD), Identification and Naming Department (LTS and NMJD), Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom
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Beaulieu C, Lavoie C, Proulx R. Bookkeeping of insect herbivory trends in herbarium specimens of purple loosestrife ( Lythrum salicaria). Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2018; 374:rstb.2017.0398. [PMID: 30455215 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2017.0398] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 06/22/2018] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The potential use of herbarium specimens to detect herbivory trends is enormous but largely untapped. The objective of this study was to reconstruct the long-term herbivory pressure on the Eurasian invasive plant, purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria), by evaluating leaf damage over 1323 specimens from southern Québec (Canada). The hypothesis tested is that that the prevalence of herbivory damage on purple loosestrife is low during the invasion phase and increases throughout the saturation phase. Historical trends suggest a gradual increase in hole feeding and margin feeding damage from 1883 to around 1940, followed by a period of relative stability. The percentage of specimens with window feeding damage did not begin to increase until the end of the twentieth century, from 3% (2-6%) in 1990 to 45% (14-81%) in 2015. Temporal changes in the frequency of window feeding damage support the hypothesis of an increasing herbivory pressure by recently introduced insects. This study shows that leaf damage made by insects introduced for the biocontrol of purple loosestrife, such as coleopterans of the Neogalerucella genus, can be assessed from voucher specimens. Herbaria are a rich source in information that can be used to answer questions related to plant-insect interactions in the context of biological invasions and biodiversity changes.This article is part of the theme issue 'Biological collections for understanding biodiversity in the Anthropocene'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Caroline Beaulieu
- Département des Sciences de l'environnement; Chaire de Recherche du Canada en Intégrité Écologique, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, 3351 Boul. des Forges, CP 500, Trois-Rivières (Qc), Canada G9A 5H7
| | - Claude Lavoie
- École supérieure d'aménagement du territoire et de développement régional, Université Laval, 2325 allée des Bibliothèques, Québec (Qc), Canada G1V 0A6
| | - Raphaël Proulx
- Département des Sciences de l'environnement; Chaire de Recherche du Canada en Intégrité Écologique, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, 3351 Boul. des Forges, CP 500, Trois-Rivières (Qc), Canada G9A 5H7
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11
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Meineke EK, Davies TJ, Daru BH, Davis CC. Biological collections for understanding biodiversity in the Anthropocene. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2018; 374:rstb.2017.0386. [PMID: 30455204 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2017.0386] [Citation(s) in RCA: 94] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 09/17/2018] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Global change has become a central focus of modern biology. Yet, our knowledge of how anthropogenic drivers affect biodiversity and natural resources is limited by a lack of biological data spanning the Anthropocene. We propose that the hundreds of millions of plant, fungal and animal specimens deposited in natural history museums have the potential to transform the field of global change biology. We suggest that museum specimens are underused, particularly in ecological studies, given their capacity to reveal patterns that are not observable from other data sources. Increasingly, museum specimens are becoming mobilized online, providing unparalleled access to physiological, ecological and evolutionary data spanning decades and sometimes centuries. Here, we describe the diversity of collections data archived in museums and provide an overview of the diverse uses and applications of these data as discussed in the accompanying collection of papers within this theme issue. As these unparalleled resources are under threat owing to budget cuts and other institutional pressures, we aim to shed light on the unique discoveries that are possible in museums and, thus, the singular value of natural history collections in a period of rapid change.This article is part of the theme issue 'Biological collections for understanding biodiversity in the Anthropocene'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emily K Meineke
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
| | - T Jonathan Davies
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, V6T 1Z4.,African Centre for DNA Barcoding, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg 2006, South Africa
| | - Barnabas H Daru
- Department of Life Sciences, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Corpus Christi, TX 78412, USA
| | - Charles C Davis
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
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