Transcript Ronquist
Importance and Use of Natural
History Collections – European
and Global Perspective
Fredrik Ronquist
Swedish Museum of Natural History
Stockholm
Natural History Collections
• Research – collections – exhibits
• Large collections (millions of biological and
geological specimens), rapidly growing
• Invaluable archive: diversity and evolution of life
on earth, geological history, environmental
changes
• Strong research tradition: cradle of natural
science
• Much of research still tied to collections
• Outreach, play major role in promoting public
understanding of science
Modern collections …
•
•
•
•
Observation databases
Image databases
DNA Archives
…
The Species Gateway
(www.artportalen.se)
• Web Repository for
Observational Data
• Used by amateur and
professional biologists
• Developed and hosted
by Swedish Species
Information Centre and
Swedish Environmental
Protection Agency
• Collaboration with
Amateur Societies
• 14 M observations in
total (1.4 M digitized
museum specimens)
• 4.5 M observations 2008
Do we still need collections
of biological and geological
specimens?
Wood White
Réal’s Wood White
Harbour seal
Sampling eggs
• 1960s: bird and seal populations
decreasing; egg-shell thinning
• Baltic Sea and feeding rivers: among
the world’s most polluted waters
• Existing collections of eggs, bones
and skin allowed tracing of historical
trends and identification of
contaminant sources (chlorinated
toxins and heavy metals)
• Started systematic collection of
frozen tissue samples
• Environmental Specimen Bank now
holds about 260,000 samples
• The world’s longest time series of
biological samples of this kind
Guillemot eggs
Dept. Contaminant Research
Current Trends
• The biodiversity revolution: Charting and
monitoring changes in biological diversity
on the planet
• The cyber-revolution: information
technology transforming the way we work
with natural history collections
Charting Biological Diversity
• Only 10-20 % of species of life on earth described
• 50 % of species extinct or critically endangered by 2100
due to human impact
• Climate change alone estimated to cause extinction of
25 % of species in the next 50 years
• Few species known well enough to judge whether they
are threatened by extinction (15 % US, 33 % Sweden)
• 2010 biodiversity target (significant reduction in loss)
difficult to reach
• Loss of diversity and ecosystem services threat to the
survival of humankind
• Completing the inventory of life on earth should be a top
scientific and societal priority
• With extra funding and technology advances could be
done in 20-25 years
National Science Foundation
Focus on World fauna of individual
groups
Partnerships for Enhancing Expertise
in Taxonomy (PEET)
Assembling the Tree of Life (AToL)
Revisionary Synthesis in Systematics
(REVSYS)
Planetary Biodiversity Inventories
(PBI)
Swedish Taxonomy Initiative
All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI)
Within 20 years, all Swedish multicellular species
will be scientifically described and documented
All species that can be identified without
advanced technical methodology (appr. 35,000) will
be presented in Swedish in a well-illustrated
Swedish Flora and Fauna Encyclopaedia
There will be keys to all species and the
distribution, biology, and conservation of each
species will be summarized
A collaborative project coordinated by the
Swedish Species Information Centre
(ArtDatabanken)
Swedish Taxonomy
Initiative
3.0 M Euro/year for the core activities,
Biodiversity Encyclopedia, inventories, etc.
1.5 M Euro/year to support taxonomic
research on poorly known organisms
2.0 M Euro/year to support natural history
museums
130 M Euro over 20 years
(LHC 3,200 – 6,400 M Euro)
To date about 2,000 new species
recorded, about 600 new to science
Other Nordic Countries
The Norwegian Biodiversity Information
Centre awarded 2.3 M Euro to launch
Norwegian Taxonomy
Initiative in 2009
Finnish PUTTE project finished in 2008;
continued as Taxonomy Initiative?
Nordic Taxonomic Research Council?
Amateur biologists are crucial in inventorying
and monitoring
Information Technology
• Specimen-based research is becoming an
e-science
• Rational collection management relies
more and more on information technology
• Virtual experience crucial part of exhibits
Information Technology
• Major push to digitize museum specimens (NHRS 15
years)
• Development of novel, partly automated digitization
techniques (robots, image-based, OCR, web annotation)
• Specimen data through common data portal (GBIF,
www.gbif.org; > 150 M specimens)
• High-resolution images (Morphbank;
www.morphbank.net)
• Digitization of older literature (Biodiversity Heritage
Library; www.biodiversitylibrary.org)
• Publishing of hyperlinked species descriptions online
(ZooTaxa; www.mapress.com/zootaxa)
• Mandatory registration of new species names in open
web repositories (ZooBank; www.zoobank.org)
Information Technology cont’d
Vince Smith
• Scratchpads – collaborative tools for
building web sites
E O Wilson
• Encyclopedia of Life – aggregating
information for all known species
The European Scene
• Research:
– EU funding gradually becomes more important
– Competition among institutions across Europe for best scientists and for
EU funding
– Biodiversity invontories and monitoring
– Programmes for integrating amateur biologists
– E-science
• Collections:
–
–
–
–
Standardization across Europe of storage – More cost-effective
Avoidance of pesticides – New & better storage facilities
Aggregation of collections – More cost-effective
Information technology for collection management
• Exhibits:
– Local presence more important than ever
– Virtual museums
– Exhibits on tour
Major Research Infrastructures
• Natural History Collections are MRIs (cf. Large Hadron
Collider; EMBL)
• Collections: storage facilities, pest management,
personnel, information technology
• Labs: DNA labs, geological analysis
• European competition will result in fewer top research
institutions
• Well coordinated, distributed set of collections: (The
Netherlands)
• Centralized: UK (The Natural History Museum),
Denmark (Statens Naturhistoriske Museer), Sweden
(Naturhistoriska riksmuseet)
Consortium of European
Taxonomic Facilities
www.cetaf.org
• Synthesys I and II: Synthesis of Systematic Resources
(EU 6th and 7th framework programme; 2004-2009, 20092015, www.synthesys.info)
– Transnational access to CETAF facilities
– Networking activities
– Joint research
• EDIT: Towards a European Distributed Institute of
Taxonomy (Centre of Excellence, EU 6th Framework
Programme, 2006-2011, www.e-taxonomy.eu)
–
–
–
–
Integrate taxonomic effort within Europe
Build world-leading capacity
Create virtual centre of excellence (EDIT)
Increase scientific basis and capacity for conservation
Consortium of European
Taxonomic Facilities
www.cetaf.org
CETAF-related projects or initiatives:
• ENBI: European Network for Biodiversity Information
• ENHSIN: European Natural History Specimen
Information Network
• BioCASE: A Biological Collection Access Service for
Europe
• Fauna Europaea: Database of the names of all known
European animal species
• Euro + Med PlantBase: Database of vascular plants of
Europe and the Mediterranean region
• LifeWatch: e-science and technology infrastructure for
biodiversity data and observatories
Good Advice (?)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Coordinate or centralize the resources
Think long-term (50-100 years)
Cut corners by using emerging information technology
Specialize; aim to be best in Europe in some areas
Be a good European and international player: participate
in joint projects, cut out a role for yourselves as leaders
of some initiatives
Join CETAF, EDIT
Prepare for major biodiversity inventorying and
monitoring initiatives
Contribute to development of information technology?
Build collaborations with amateur biologists