Old Plants, New Tricks: Phenological Research Using Herbarium Specimens

Charles G Willis; Elizabeth R Ellwood; Richard B Primack; Charles C Davis; Katelin D Pearson; Amanda S Gallinat; Jenn M Yost; Gil Nelson; Susan J Mazer; Natalie L Rossington; Tim H Sparks; Pamela S Soltis

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2017.03.015

Old Plants, New Tricks: Phenological Research Using Herbarium Specimens

Trends Ecol Evol. 2017 Jul;32(7):531-546. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2017.03.015. Epub 2017 Apr 29.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Harvard University Herbaria, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. Electronic address: charleswillis@fas.harvard.edu.
² Department of Biological Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA. Electronic address: eellwood@bio.fsu.edu.
³ Biology Department, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
⁴ Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Harvard University Herbaria, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
⁵ Department of Biological Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA.
⁶ Biological Science Department and Robert F. Hoover Herbarium, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA 93407, USA.
⁷ Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.
⁸ Coventry University, Coventry CV1 5FB, UK; Poznań University of Life Sciences, 60-625 Poznań, Poland.
⁹ Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.

PMID: 28465044
DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2017.03.015

Abstract

The timing of phenological events, such as leaf-out and flowering, strongly influence plant success and their study is vital to understanding how plants will respond to climate change. Phenological research, however, is often limited by the temporal, geographic, or phylogenetic scope of available data. Hundreds of millions of plant specimens in herbaria worldwide offer a potential solution to this problem, especially as digitization efforts drastically improve access to collections. Herbarium specimens represent snapshots of phenological events and have been reliably used to characterize phenological responses to climate. We review the current state of herbarium-based phenological research, identify potential biases and limitations in the collection, digitization, and interpretation of specimen data, and discuss future opportunities for phenological investigations using herbarium specimens.

Keywords: climate change; flowering; museums; phenology; plants.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Climate Change*
Flowers
Phylogeny*
Plants
Seasons
Temperature