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 …
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Observation databases
Image databases
DNA Archives
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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
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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
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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
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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)
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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 (?)
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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