Leveraging natural history collections to understand the impacts of global change

Abstract

This joint Special Feature focuses on the contributions and potential of natural history collections to address global change questions.

A new approach to geostatistical synthesis of historical records reveals capuchin spatial responses to climate and demographic change

“…Longitudinal observational research and natural history have been instrumental in highlighting the impact of global change on ecological processes (Magnuson, 1990; Sanders et al., 2023). Despite this, there is a noticeable decline in interest and funding for longitudinal research, coupled with a diminishing ability among researchers to harness these valuable data‐sets over time (Whitlock, 2011).…”

Temperature‐driven homogenization of an ant community over 60 years in a montane ecosystem

“…Additionally, temperature dictates the functioning of ant colonies by influencing metabolic rates and restricting activity periods for foraging (Roeder et al, 2022). Pairing historical studies on distributions with contemporary sampling and environmental data can provide a unique opportunity to examine how environmental change has affected communities over long time scales (Kerr et al, 2015;Lewthwaite & Mooers, 2022;Resasco et al, 2014;Sanders et al, 2023;Tingley et al, 2009). Historical data sets provide us baseline data to compare against and help us understand changes in species phenology, genotypes, distributions, and interactions (Davis et al, 2023;Pyke et al, 2012Pyke et al, , 2016Sanders et al, 2023).…”

“…Pairing historical studies on distributions with contemporary sampling and environmental data can provide a unique opportunity to examine how environmental change has affected communities over long time scales (Kerr et al, 2015;Lewthwaite & Mooers, 2022;Resasco et al, 2014;Sanders et al, 2023;Tingley et al, 2009). Historical data sets provide us baseline data to compare against and help us understand changes in species phenology, genotypes, distributions, and interactions (Davis et al, 2023;Pyke et al, 2012Pyke et al, , 2016Sanders et al, 2023). Examining long-term community trends provides the ability to identify how climate change is contributing to current biodiversity loss (Hooper et al, 2012).…”

Deep computer vision reveals the mediation of thermal-melanism and body size by precipitation and sex in a threatened alpine butterfly,Parnassius smintheus

“…This approach relies on the variability in precipitation and temperature across space and time to disentangle evidence for priority investment in melanism or size as a quasi-experiment. Such an approach is increasingly possible because of the global effort to digitize billions of museum specimens and make those records publicly available on aggregating websites such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) (Sanders et al 2023). While this effort initially focused on transcribing label data to amass records of occurrences (species, location, date of collection, etc.…”