我国植物模式标本的馆藏量

植物标本是物种存在的永久凭证,模式标本在保障命名体系稳定中有不可替代的作用。标本馆藏量和模式标本数量反映一个国家或地区的历史积累。作者通过对比分析,发现我国的标本馆藏量远低于国际平均水平,模式标本馆藏量也相对较少,历史积累不足。在数字化本土馆藏模式标本基础上,标本数字化平台项目应将国外馆藏的中国植物种类的模式标本"引渡"回国。今后我国植物分类学研究者的重要工作之一是加强空白地区和国外标本采集,提高馆藏标本的代表性。     

中国竹类植物馆藏标本现状与地理分布

馆藏标本是分类学研究的主要凭证, 对特定类群标本的采集信息进行细致整理和分析, 有助于理解该类群研究的历史、现状和不足。此外, 结合最新的系统学研究成果和相应的环境数据构建生态位模型, 可以加深人们对特定类群分类与分布状况的认识。被子植物的分类鉴定常基于繁殖性状进行, 然而, 竹类植物一般进行克隆繁殖, 只有在经过长期的营养生长之后, 才会进行有性生殖并同时死亡。因此, 国内的竹类标本大多仅记录了营养性状, 具有繁殖性状的标本数量稀少。由于这一特殊的生物学习性, 竹类植物是当今分类学研究中最为困难的类群之一。本研究基于全国竹类植物馆藏标本的采集数据, 分析了我国竹类标本的采集和保藏现状; 利用比值法和斜率法从采集地理偏差和采集类群偏差两方面评估了竹类植物标本的采集完整度; 结合气候数据, 利用模型模拟的方法分析了影响不同竹类分支分布的主要因素。采集信息分析结果表明, 国内标本馆对竹类标本的收集和保藏存在很大的不均衡性, 且对研究团队具有较高的依赖性; 其次竹类标本的采集量的变化较好地反映了国内植物分类学研究的历史; 而对类群和地理采集完整度的评估结果表明, 中国竹类标本的采集和整理工作仍任重道远。模型模拟结果表明, 温度限定了竹类植物两大分支各自的分布北界, 水分对温带木本竹类分支(temperate woody bamboos, TWB)的限制作用比旧世界热带木本竹类分支(paleotropical woody bamboos, PWB)强, 而温度对PWB的限制性更强。生态位模拟的结果进一步显示, 中国温带和旧世界热带木本竹类两大分支的适生区出现了明显的分化, 但在亚热带区域仍有部分重叠。植物标本记录了特定类群在时间和空间上的分布格局, 相关的信息一方面可以促进物种灭绝风险评估、可持续利用和综合保护, 另一方面也可助力大尺度生物多样性分布格局及全球变化对多样性的影响研究。     

植物模式标本数据整合新的机遇与挑战

命名模式是分类群名称永久依附的成分,在分类学研究中有不可替代的价值。中国复杂的植物采集历史以及对中国植物标本开展研究的单位各异,导致我国植物模式标本零散分布于全球各大标本馆,给分类工作的开展带来了极大的困难。标本数字化的开展为模式标本数据整合提供了新的机遇,同时也给我们带来了人名和地名标准化以及模式类型确认等方面的挑战。我国于2006年开始对模式标本数据进行收集和整理,迄今已完成国内外20余家标本馆9万余条标本数据的收集。模式考证和模式类型清理是我们下一步亟须开展的工作,同时我们应将地名变更资料、人名考证资料进行整合并建立相应的数据库以推动模式标本数据的标准化。这将在很大程度上有助于我们摸清中国模式标本的家底。     

中国高等植物数字化标本分析

传统上馆藏标本,主要用于植物分类学、植物资源学的研究。数字标本的出现将标本的使用拓展到从研究生物多样性时间空间分布到生态学和进化学理论、生物多样性保护、农业和人类健康等广泛领域。截至目前,从互联网上获取的采自中国的植物标本数量已有1 200多万份。该文通过整理和分析这些数据以了解中国植物标本的数字化精度、采集时间和采集地区规律以及采集空缺等状况。结果表明:中国标本采集形成了4个高峰,即20世纪30年代、60年代、80年代和21世纪初,中国植物标本采集和研究工作主要在20世纪50年代后由中国学者完成。标本采集地区覆盖度在省级较好,县级标本采集则很不平衡; 标本采集类群在科属层面覆盖率高,但近五分之一的物种采集不足; 标本的采集量既与植物分布幅度相关,也与采集地区的知名度、所获科研项目及采集者偏好有关。未来中国植物标本数字化方向应该在继续挖掘馆藏标本的同时,一方面开展对现有数字化标本信息再审核及补充,并加强与欧美大馆的信息共享以获取早期历史标本信息; 另一方面应用数字化标本信息分析结果,指导境内标本的精准采集,包括采集薄弱/空白地区、采集薄弱/空白属种的采集,以进一步增强实体标本馆能力,提高数字化标本质量,为进一步完善植物标本数字化和精准化采集提供依据,更好地服务科学和社会的发展。     

The herbarium of the future

The ~400 million specimens deposited across ~3000 herbaria are essential for: (i) understanding where plants have lived in the past, (ii) forecasting where they may live in the future, and (iii) delineating their conservation status. An open access ‘global metaherbarium’ is emerging as these specimens are digitized, mobilized, and interlinked online. This virtual biodiversity resource is attracting new users who are accelerating traditional applications of herbaria and generating basic and applied scientific innovations, including e-monographs and floras produced by diverse, interdisciplinary, and inclusive teams; robust machine-learning algorithms for species identification and phenotyping; collection and synthesis of ecological and genomic trait data at large spatiotemporal and phylogenetic scales; and exhibitions and installations that convey the beauty of plants and the value of herbaria in addressing broader societal issues.     

Estimates of the number of mounted pteridophyte specimens in six major herbaria in the United States

A stratified-random sampling method was used to estimate the number of pteridophyte specimens in six of the largest herbaria in the United states (F, GH/A/NEBC, MO, NY, UC, US). The point estimate of the collection size and the 95% confidence intervals for each herbarium were found to be as follows: US 251,000 (±20,000); NY 201,000 (±20,000); MO 160,000 (±15,000); GH/A/NEBC 124,000 (±12,000); UC 119,000 (±9,000); F 97,000 (±10,000). It is hoped that these numbers will help assess the growth of these collections in the future.     

Biological collections and ecological/environmental research: a review,some observations and a look to the future

Housed worldwide, mostly in museums and herbaria, is a vast collection of biological specimens developed over centuries. These biological collections, and associated taxonomic and systematic research, have received considerable long‐term public support. The work remaining in systematics has been expanding as the estimated total number of species of organisms on Earth has risen over recent decades, as have estimated numbers of undescribed species. Despite this increasing task, support for taxonomic and systematic research, and biological collections upon which such research is based, has declined over the last 30‐40 years, while other areas of biological research have grown considerably, especially those that focus on environmental issues. Reflecting increases in research that deals with ecological questions (e.g. what determines species distribution and abundance) or environmental issues (e.g. toxic pollution), the level of research attempting to use biological collections in museums or herbaria in an ecological/environmental context has risen dramatically during about the last 20 years. The perceived relevance of biological collections, and hence the support they receive, should be enhanced if this trend continues and they are used prominently regarding such environmental issues as anthropogenic loss of biodiversity and associated ecosystem function, global climate change, and decay of the epidemiological environment. It is unclear, however, how best to use biological collections in the context of such ecological/environmental issues or how best to manage collections to facilitate such use. We demonstrate considerable and increasingly realized potential for research based on biological collections to contribute to ecological/environmental understanding. However, because biological collections were not originally intended for use regarding such issues and have inherent biases and limitations, they are proving more useful in some contexts than in others. Biological collections have, for example, been particularly useful as sources of information regarding variation in attributes of individuals (e.g. morphology, chemical composition) in relation to environmental variables, and provided important information in relation to species' distributions, but less useful in the contexts of habitat associations and population sizes. Changes to policies, strategies and procedures associated with biological collections could mitigate these biases and limitations, and hence make such collections more useful in the context of ecological/environmental issues. Haphazard and opportunistic collecting could be replaced with strategies for adding to existing collections that prioritize projects that use biological collections and include, besides taxonomy and systematics, a focus on significant environmental/ecological issues. Other potential changes include increased recording of the nature and extent of collecting effort and information associated with each specimen such as nearby habitat and other individuals observed but not collected. Such changes have begun to occur within some institutions. Institutions that house biological collections should, we think, pursue a mission of ‘understanding the life of the planet to inform its stewardship’ ( Krishtalka & Humphrey, 2000 ), as such a mission would facilitate increased use of biological collections in an ecological/environmental context and hence lead to increased appreciation, encouragement and support from the public for these collections, their associated research, and the institutions that house them.     

DNA banking for plant breeding,biotechnology and biodiversity evaluation

The manipulation of DNA is routine practice in botanical research and has made a huge impact on plant breeding, biotechnology and biodiversity evaluation. DNA is easy to extract from most plant tissues and can be stored for long periods in DNA banks. Curation methods are well developed for other botanical resources such as herbaria, seed banks and botanic gardens, but procedures for the establishment and maintenance of DNA banks have not been well documented. This paper reviews the curation of DNA banks for the characterisation and utilisation of biodiversity and provides guidelines for DNA bank management. It surveys existing DNA banks and outlines their operation. It includes a review of plant DNA collection, preservation, isolation, storage, database management and exchange procedures. We stress that DNA banks require full integration with existing collections such as botanic gardens, herbaria and seed banks, and information retrieval systems that link such facilities, bioinformatic resources and other DNA banks. They also require efficient and well-regulated sample exchange procedures. Only with appropriate curation will maximum utilisation of DNA collections be achieved.     

The use of specimen-label databases for conservation purposes: an example using Mexican Papilionid and Pierid butterflies

In recent years, use of databases of the labels of specimens deposited in museums and herbaria is becoming increasingly common as a tool for addressing biodiversity conservation and management problems. These databases are often large in size and complex in structure, and their application to conservation deserves a wider appreciation of some of the biases, gaps and potential pitfalls common to them. In this paper, we discuss some of the problems associated with using such databases for obtaining lists of species for arbitrary sites, as well as for the estimation of the distribution area of single species. The possibility of obtaining these closely related variables using specimen databases is shown to be scale-dependent. A tool based on mark-recapture techniques is applied to the problem of: (i) detecting sites with low number of species due to lack of adequate in-site sampling and, (ii) species with small estimated areas due to poor spatial coverage of samples.     

Assessing the Relevance of Herbarium Collections as Tools for Conservation Biology

Herbarium collections constitute permanent and often well-documented records of the distribution of taxa through space and time. Since their creation, their uses have dramatically expanded and with many new uses being proposed, including some for which herbaria were not initially intended for. In this paper we assess the potential of these collections on conservation biology, by providing exemplary studies that use herbarium specimens, grouped into four categories: (1) based on occurrence data, such as studies about plant extinction or introduction, or those focused on modelling their ecological niche; (2) based on the specimens themselves, such as morphological or phenological studies to evaluate the impact of climate change; (3) based in genetic data, such as phylogeographic or taxonomical studies; and (4), other applied studies.     

Representing biodiversity: Data and procedures for identifying priority areas for conservation

Biodiversity priority areas together should represent the biodiversity of the region they are situated in. To achieve this, biodiversity has to be measured, biodiversity goals have to be set and methods for implementing those goals have to be applied. Each of these steps is discussed. Because it is impossible to measure all of biodiversity, biodiversity surrogates have to be used. Examples are taxa sub-sets, species assemblages and environmental domains. Each of these has different strengths and weaknesses, which are described and evaluated. In real-world priority setting, some combination of these is usually employed. While a desirable goal might be to sample all of biodiversity from genotypes to ecosystems, an achievable goal is to represent, at some agreed level, each of the biodiversity features chosen as surrogates. Explicit systematic procedures for implementing such a goal are described. These procedures use complementarity, a measure of the contribution each area in a region makes to the conservation goal, to estimate irreplaceability and flexibility, measures of the extent to which areas can be substituted for one another in order to take competing land uses into account. Persistence and vulnerability, which also play an important role in the priority setting process, are discussed briefly.     

The contribution of small collections to species distribution modelling: A case study from Fuireneae (Cyperaceae)

The recent and rapid digitization of biodiversity data from natural history collection (NHC) archives has enriched collections based data repositories; this data continues to inform studies of species' geographic distributions. Here we investigate the relative impact of plant data from small natural history collections (collections with < 100,000 specimens) on species distributional models in an effort to document the potential of data from small NHCs to contribute to and inform biodiversity research. We modelled suitable habitat of five test case species from Fuireneae (Cyperaceae) in the United States using specimen records available via the Global Biodiversity Information Facility and that of data ready to mobilize from two regional small herbaria. Data were partitioned into three datasets based on their source: 1) collections-based records from large NHCs accessed GBIF, 2) collections-based records from small NHCs accessed from GBIF, and 3) collections-based records from two small regional herbaria not yet mobilized to GBIF. We extracted and evaluated the ecological niche represented for each of the three datasets by applying dataset occurrences to 14 environmental factors, and we modelled habitat suitability using Maxent to compare the represented distribution of the environmental values among the datasets. Our analyses indicate that the data from small NHCs contributed unique information in both geographic and environmental space. When data from small collections were combined with data from large collections, species models of the ecological niche resulted in more refined predictions of habitat suitability, indicating that small collections can contribute unique occurrence data which enhance species distribution models by bridging geographic collection gaps and shifting modelled predictions of suitable habitat. Inclusion of specimen records from small collections in ongoing digitization efforts is essential for generating informed models of a species' niche and distribution.     

2020年后生物多样性保护需要建立新的资金机制

《生物多样性公约》第十五次缔约方大会(COP15)将评估全球生物多样性保护已有进展, 审议并通过“2020年后全球生物多样性框架”, 后者是实现2050愿景“与自然和谐相处”的关键, 有助于达成联合国可持续发展的目标。生物多样性资金机制现在是将来也是实施全球生物多样性保护行动计划的重要保证。根据《生物多样性公约》信息交换所的数据, 目前各缔约方每年对本国生物多样性保护的投资额度占其当年国内生产总值(GDP)的比例比较小。中国作为发展中国家, 2015年时生物多样性保护资金投入占GDP比例为0.255%, 在世界各国中处于比较高的水平。近年中国对生物多样性保护的投入连年增加, 2019年时已经达约0.6%。有研究表明, 目前全球每年生物多样性保护资金的缺口至少500亿美元, 未来十年还有更大的资金缺口, 而且当前已有生物多样性资金渠道比较单一, 并存在一些短板, 远远不能满足生物多样性保护行动的要求, 急需建立新的资金机制, 调动更多资源, 推动2030年生物多样性保护任务和目标的实现。《生物多样性公约》的资金机制可以与包括《联合国气候变化框架公约》在内的其他相关环境公约协同增效, 比如基于自然的解决方案将生物多样性保护与气候变化减缓等环境目标联系起来。中国作为COP15的东道国, 有积极协调磋商的责任, 力求在大会上推动形成一个新的资金机制, 即全球生物多样性保护基金, 为“2020年后全球生物多样性框架”的实施保驾护航。新的生物多样性保护资金机制将独立于现有的生物多样性保护资金机制, 具有多样化投资渠道并引入绩效评估机制, 将经费与任务目标关联, 提高资金的使用效率, 支持发展中国家的生物多样性保护行动。     

利用腊叶标本初探椭圆叶花锚（龙胆科）花特征的地理变异

对一种植物花特征的地理变异及其选择压力研究首先需要了解该植物花特征在不同地区的变异式样,而利用腊叶标本是获取植物花特征地理变异的理想方法。我们利用椭圆叶花锚的腊叶标本,通过测量花的高度和距的长度,并与地理因子（海拔、纬度和经度）做回归分析,探讨椭圆叶花锚两个变种的花特征及其地理变异式样。结果表明：1）已鉴定为两个变种的距长度并没有明显的差异,而且变种大花花锚的距长度均在原变种卵萼花锚的变化范围之内;如果不考虑两个变种,椭圆叶花锚的距长度变化不存在明显的间断,因此研究结果不支持将椭圆叶花锚分为两个变种;2）椭圆叶花锚的花高度和距长度呈显著的正相关关系,而且99％的数据都在预测回归99％的置信区间内,表明花高度和距长度可能受到了相同选择压力的驱动;但仍有1％的点在预测区间之外,表明这些地点的花经历的选择压力可能与其它多数分布地点的选择压力不尽相同;3）椭圆叶花锚花的几何大小与纬度和海拔呈显著的负相关关系,而与经度呈显著的正相关关系;依据三个因子的回归系数,纬度（-2．735）对椭圆叶花锚花大小的影响最大,而海拔（-0．516）和经度（0．669）相对较小,因此如果要开展椭圆叶花锚花特征的地理变异研究,在纬度不同的地点开展相关研究将获得更为理想的数据。我们的研究结果表明椭圆叶花锚花特征地理变异可能存在不同的选择压力,而开展相关的野外观察和实验将极大的丰富我们对椭圆叶花锚的花特征地理变异及其选择压力的理解,并为如何利用腊叶标本开展相关研究提供一个思路。     

Biological collections in an ever changing world: Herbaria as tools for biogeographical and environmental studies

Plant specimens stored in herbaria are being used as never before to document the impacts of global change on humans and nature. However, published statistics on the use of biological collections are rare, and ecologists lack quantitative data demonstrating the relevance to science of herbarium specimens. I found 382 studies with original data that used herbarium specimens to document biogeographical patterns or environmental changes. Most studies are less than 10 years old, and only 1.4% of the herbarium specimens worldwide have been used to answer biogeographical or environmental questions. The vast majority (82%) of papers dealt with vascular plants, but some studies also used bryophytes, lichens, seaweeds and fungi. The herbarium specimens were collected from all continents, but most of the studies used specimens from North America (40% of studies) or Europe (28%). Many types of researches (conservation, plant disease, plant invasion, pollution, etc.) can be conducted using herbarium specimens. Climate change, and especially phenological reconstructions, are clearly emerging research topics. By group, small herbaria (<100,000 specimens) are consulted as often as very large herbaria (>1,000,000 specimens) for biogeographical and environmental research, but in most cases, only large facilities provide specimens collected worldwide. The median number of specimens per study in papers using computerized collections (15,295) was much higher than for papers that did not include electronic data (226). The use of molecular analyses to investigate herbarium specimens is still relatively unexplored, at least from biogeographical and environmental points of view. Combined with recently developed procedures to correct biases, herbarium specimens might provide in the near future exciting additional spatio-temporal insights that are currently unimaginable.     

An assessment of animal species diversity in continental waters

There is a need for monitoring the status and trends of freshwater biodiversity in order to quantify the impacts of human actions on freshwater systems and to improve freshwater biodiversity conservation. Current projects carrying assessment of freshwater biodiversity focus mainly on leading-better-known groups such as fish, or identify keystone species and/or endemic freshwater systems for conservation purposes. Our purpose is to complete these existing projects by providing quantitative estimates of species number for all freshwater groups on each continent and/or major eco-regions. This article present the results of the first implementation phase carried out from September 2002 to June 2003 and which addressed only freshwater animal species. The project consisted of: (1) compiling existing data from literature, web sites and museum collections; (2) contacting scientific experts of each group to provide a ‘to the best of their knowledge, estimates of species numbers. In this study, we consider as true freshwater species, those that complete part or all of their life cycle in freshwater, and water-dependant species those that need freshwater for food or that permanently use freshwater habitats. The current order of magnitude for known freshwater animal species world wide is 100 000, of which half are insects. Among other groups, there are some 20 000 vertebrate species; 10 000 crustacean species and 5000 mollusc species that are either true freshwater or water-dependant species. The study highlighted gaps in the basic knowledge of species richness at continental and global scales: (1) Some groups such as Protozoa, nematodes or annelids have been less studied and data on their diversity and distribution is scarce. Because current richness estimates for these groups are greatly biased by knowledge availability, we can expect that real species numbers might be much higher. (2) Continents are not equal in the face of scientific studies: South America and Asia are especially lacking global estimates of species richness for many groups, even for some usually well-known ones such as molluscs or insects. The second phase of the project will address freshwater plants and algae. The present status should be considered as a first sketch of the global picture of freshwater biodiversity. We hope that this project will initiate interactive exchange of data to complete and update this first assessment.     

Herbarium records in Arctic dwarf shrub dendrochronology: Methodological approach and perspectives

Our work aims to investigate whether herbaria resources can be used for the extension of Arctic dwarf shrub chronologies. The current use of herbaria reaches far beyond their initially aims; among the new applications, phenology observations and conservation biology can be mentioned. However, to this date, no studies on the use of herbarium specimens for dendrochronological research have been published. Examples of perennial plants from herbarium sheets that could potentially be used for such studies are dwarf shrubs, samples of which often consist of whole specimens, including the root system, the root collar and branches. Here, we present a protocol for the selection and processing of historical material. Based on the collections from Kew and Copenhagen, which are among of the largest herbaria with Arctic plants, a database of 25 areas from the Atlantic sector of the Arctic was created. Material from the following most common species was collected: grey willow (Salix glauca L.), polar willow (Salix polaris Wahlenb.), dwarf willow (Salix herbacea L.), net-leaved willow (Salix reticulata L.), arctic willow (Salix arctica Pall.), mountain avens (Dryas octopetala L.), dwarf birch (Betula nana L.). We present the preliminary results of a case study using historical samples of Salix arctica from the Thule (Qaanaaq) area, NW Greenland. Dwarf shrubs can commonly reach the age of 80–100 years or beyond, while herbaria resources may allow the extension of such series over the last centuries. Therewith, these resources may provide an excellent proxy data source on the changing natural environment beyond the northern and upper tree limits, where well-replicated proxy time-series remain sparse.     

The phenology of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Rubus fruticosus</Emphasis> in Ireland: herbarium specimens provide evidence for the response of phenophases to temperature,with implications for climate warming

To date, phenological research has provided evidence that climate warming is impacting both animals and plants, evidenced by the altered timing of phenophases. Much of the evidence supporting these findings has been provided by analysis of historic records and present-day fieldwork; herbaria have been identified recently as an alternative source of phenological data. Here, we used Rubus specimens to evaluate herbaria as potential sources of phenological data for use in climate change research and to develop the methodology for using herbaria specimens in phenological studies. Data relevant to phenology (collection date) were recorded from the information cards of over 600 herbarium specimens at Ireland’s National Herbarium in Dublin. Each specimen was assigned a score (0–5) corresponding to its phenophase. Temperature data for the study period (1852 – 2007) were obtained from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit (CRU); relationships between temperature and the dates of first flower, full flower, first fruit and full fruit were assessed using weighted linear regression. Of the five species of Rubus examined in this study, specimens of only one (R. fruticosus) were sufficiently abundant to yield statistically significant relationships with temperature. The results revealed a trend towards earlier dates of first flower, full flower and first fruit phenophases with increasing temperature. Through its multi-phenophase approach, this research serves to extend the most recent work—which validated the use of herbaria through use of a single phenophase—to confirm herbarium-based research as a robust methodology for use in future phenological studies.