The costs of describing the entire animal kingdom

Abstract

In the otherwise excellent special issue of Trends inEcology and Evolution on long-term ecological research(TREE 25(10),2010), none of the contributors mentionedthe importance of natural history collections (NHCs) assources of data that can strongly complement past andongoing survey data. Whereas very few field surveyshave operated for more than a few decades, NHCs,conserved in museums and other institutions, comprisesamples of the Earth’s biota typically extending backwell into the nineteenth century and, in some cases,before this time. They therefore span the period ofaccelerated anthropogenic habitat destruction, climatewarming and ocean acidification, in many cases reflect-ing baseline conditions before the major impact of thesefactors.Natural history collections (NHCs) provide a rich source ofdata at thetaxic andcommunitylevels, andcan contributeto a wide range of studies [1]. These include biogeographicrange changes (spatial and/or altitudinal) [2]; phenologicalshifts (e.g. in flowering time [3]); and evolutionary change(genetic or morphological). They can also (if unsorted bulksamples are available) document changes in communitycomposition in the recent past (historical samples) andthrough deeper geological time (fossil samples). In addi-tion, museum specimens provide source material for arange of genetic, biochemical, isotopic and trace-elementstudies into organismal responses to environmentalchange (e.g. use of preserved feathers to trace changesin the diet and migration of birds [4]).NHCs comprise not only the products of opportunisticcollecting but are also (particularly in the major nationalmuseums and institutions) repositories of major surveys.The Natural History Museum (NHM) in London, UK, forexample, houses thousands of jars from the Discovery andChallenger marine expeditions that were collected at hun-dredsofstationsinthelatenineteenthandearlytwentiethcenturies. These samples provide an outstanding (andlargely untapped) resource for comparison with modernsurveydata.Collectionsmadewithacoherentandsystem-aticsamplingstrategyareinevitablymorelikelytoprovideresearch-quality material than ad-hoc or point samples.Unknown or inconsistent sampling strategy can bea problem, but this is not unique to museum collections;methodological changes or gaps also occur in long-termfielddatasetsandneedtobeaccommodatedintheanalysis[5].Of particular value, a proportion of historical and mod-ern collections comprise time-series (i.e. the same localityand/ortaxonhasbeenregularlycollectedovermanyyears).For exploration of long-term ecological responses, NHC-derived datasets can be integrated with local or regionalclimatic and other records, such as the Central EnglandTemperature Record, which is continuous back to 1659(http://hadobs.metoffice.com/hadcet/). Time-series throughmuch longer intervals of the Earth’s history are availablein palaeontological collections.Central to all such endeavours is the availability ofaccurate provenance data on the NHC material. Museumspecimenlabelsandregistersideallyindicatetheplaceanddate of collection. However, even when such information isavailable, considerable work may be required to make itaccessible for research, for example, by georeferencing(establishing the latitude and longitude of) obscureplace-names, and entering all records onto an electronicdatabase [2]. Collaboration between researchers and col-lectionsmanagersisessentialand,ifresourcesforcurationare limited, researchers should consider including collec-tions databasing into their funding proposals.Curators and collections managers, for their part, havea vital part to play in this process. Policies crucial forenabling collections-based research include:Maintaining unpicked sub-samples of bulk-sampledcollections.Prioritising databasing of collections with researchpotential.Facilitating responsible destructive sampling. Thisincludes retaining duplicate imperfect specimens forthe purpose, and simplifying paperwork.Maintaining and extending time-series through con-tinued collecting, and collaboration with modernsurveys to enable acquisition of voucher specimens.Collaboratingwithothermuseumstocreate,ultimately,an integrated global resource (e.g. through the SciCollinitiative: http://www.scicoll.org/).In a recent example embodying many of these aspects,the NHM, in a project funded by the UK Government,compiled a database on the extent of NHM and otherBritish collections potentially suitable for investigatingthe effects of ocean acidification on marine biocalcifyingorganisms. The results of the project, summarizingsamplesaccumulatedgloballyover200 years,are available