From Plant Press, Vol. 27, No. 2, April 2024.
By Jun Wen.
The recent proposed closure of the Duke University Herbarium has rocked the scientific community. The Duke Herbarium holds a world-class collection of ~825,000 specimens of plants, fungi, algae, and lichens, representing major branches of the tree of life. It is well known for its depth and breadth of collections from southeastern USA, an important biodiversity hotspot, as well as global holdings, especially the Neotropics. The Herbarium has helped train generations of outstanding plant biologists.
Herbaria and the associated collections play important roles in research and training in biological sciences. They provide an invaluable record of the distribution of plants throughout the world and through time, and they have been used in many types of studies including systematics, biogeography, ecology, conservation, climate science, genetics and genomics, and monitoring and managing invasive species (Wen et al. 2015, J. Syst. Evol.; https://doi.org/10.1111/jse.12181). Collections are the only direct documentation of the biological, physical, and cultural diversity of the planet: past, present, and future (Funk 2018, J. Syst. Evol.; https://doi.org/10.1111/jse.12315). Yet herbaria and collections-based research are often under-appreciated and sometimes under threat. Herbaria are also important platforms to connect people with nature, and educate the public on critical issues on biodiversity, conservation, medicinal plants, food, agriculture, and health.
The decision to close the Duke University herbarium is very short-sighted and disappointing, especially at the time when the field of systematics is becoming highly relevant to society and is experiencing a major revolution with the development of collections-based big data (genomics and informatics) (Wen et al. 2023, Pleione; http://pleione.ehsst.org/journals/Pleione172/001%20Collection%20Based%20Integrative%20Systematics.pdf). Today, herbaria are far beyond being repositories for systematics and biodiversity science. They are also a genbank (we can get genomes from specimens that are over 100 years old), an ecobank (each specimen holds ecological data points on its environment), and a morphobank (each specimen renders rich morphological information and is being studied via machine deep learning in biodiversity science). These recent advances in the use of collections are opening many new opportunities for the scientific role of herbaria in the age of big data (Davis 2022, Trends Ecol. Evol.; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2022.11.015). Herbaria and collections should be well preserved and continue to be supported and developed. We are still in the infancy of understanding the biodiversity of our planet, and herbaria will be critical for exploring biodiversity, climate changes and the impacts on humans in the current epoch of the Anthropocene.
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