Changes in plant collection practices from the 16th to 21st centuries: implications for the use of herbarium specimens in global change research.

ABSTRACT:

Background and aims

Herbaria were recently advertised as reliable sources of information regarding historical changes in plant traits and biotic interactions. To justify the use of herbaria in global change research, we asked whether the characteristics of herbarium specimens have changed during the past centuries and whether these changes were due to shifts in plant collection practices.

Methods

We measured nine characteristics from 515 herbarium specimens of common European trees and large shrubs collected from 1558 to 2016. We asked botanists to rank these specimens by their scientific quality, and asked artists to rank these specimens by their beauty.

Key results

Eight of 11 assessed characteristics of herbarium specimens changed significantly during the study per

SUBMITTER: Kozlov MV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8225282 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature