The colonial legacy of herbaria
Language English Country Great Britain, England Media print-electronic
Document type Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
PubMed
37308536
DOI
10.1038/s41562-023-01616-7
PII: 10.1038/s41562-023-01616-7
Knihovny.cz E-resources
- MeSH
- Humans MeSH
- Surveys and Questionnaires MeSH
- Plants * MeSH
- Check Tag
- Humans MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
- Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
Herbarium collections shape our understanding of Earth's flora and are crucial for addressing global change issues. Their formation, however, is not free from sociopolitical issues of immediate relevance. Despite increasing efforts addressing issues of representation and colonialism in natural history collections, herbaria have received comparatively less attention. While it has been noted that the majority of plant specimens are housed in the Global North, the extent and magnitude of this disparity have not been quantified. Here we examine the colonial legacy of botanical collections, analysing 85,621,930 specimen records and assessing survey responses from 92 herbarium collections across 39 countries. We find an inverse relationship between where plant diversity exists in nature and where it is housed in herbaria. Such disparities persist across physical and digital realms despite overt colonialism ending over half a century ago. We emphasize the need for acknowledging the colonial history of herbarium collections and implementing a more equitable global paradigm for their collection, curation and use.
Bell Museum University of Minnesota St Paul MN USA
Botany Section Naturalis Biodiversity Center Leiden the Netherlands
Botany Unit Finnish Museum of Natural History University of Helsinki Helsinki Finland
Central Regional Centre Botanical Survey of India Allahabad India
Conservatory and Botanic Gardens of Geneva Geneva Switzerland
Deccan Regional Centre Botanical Survey of India Hyderabad India
Department of Biological Sciences Faculty of Science and Technology Kochi University Kochi Japan
Department of Biological Sciences Purdue University West Lafayette IN USA
Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research University of Vienna Vienna Austria
Department of Botany and Zoology Faculty of Science Masaryk University Brno Czech Republic
Department of Botany National Museum of Natural History Smithsonian Institution Washington DC USA
Department of Botany National Museum of Nature and Science Tsukuba Japan
Department of Environmental Biology Sapienza University of Rome Rome Italy
Department of Geography Florida State University Tallahassee FL USA
Department of Plant Sciences University of Oxford Oxford UK
East African Herbarium National Museums of Kenya Nairobi Kenya
Ecology and Genetics Research Unit University of Oulu Oulu Finland
Graduate School of Integrated Sciences for Life Hiroshima University Hiroshima Japan
Harvard University Herbaria Cambridge MA USA
Hattori Botanical Laboratory Nichinan Japan
Herbario San Marcos Museo de Historia Natural Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos Lima Peru
Herbarium Patavinum University of Padua Padua Italy
Herbier Louis Marie Université Laval Québec City Québec Canada
Herbier LY FR BioEEnVis Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 Lyon France
Hungarian Natural History Museum Budapest Hungary
Institute of Biological Sciences Maria Curie Skłodowska University Lublin Poland
Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences Průhonice Czech Republic
Institute of Botany Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences Tashkent Uzbekistan
Institute of Integrative Biology ETH Zurich Zurich Switzerland
Instituto de Botánica Darwinion San Isidro Argentina
Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal Córdoba Argentina
Komarov Botanical Institute Russian Academy of Sciences Saint Petersburg Russian Federation
Meise Botanic Garden Meise Belgium
Missouri Botanical Garden St Louis MO USA
Miyajima Natural Botanical Garden Hiroshima University Hiroshima Japan
National Institute of Ecology Seocheon South Korea
National Parks Board Singapore Botanic Gardens Singapore Singapore
Natural History Museum University of Oslo Oslo Norway
Naturhistorisches Museum Wien Vienna Austria
New York Botanical Garden Bronx NY USA
Purdue Center for Plant Biology Purdue University West Lafayette IN USA
Rocky Mountain Herbarium University of Wyoming Laramie WY USA
Royal Botanic Gardens Kew Surrey UK
Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria Melbourne Victoria Australia
Sikkim Himalayan Regional Centre Botanical Survey of India Gangtok India
South African National Biodiversity Institute Pretoria South Africa
South China Botanical Garden Herbarium Chinese Academy of Sciences Guangzhou China
Universidad Central de Venezuela Caracas Venezuela
Universidad Nacional de Colombia Bogotá Colombia
University of Florida Herbarium Florida Museum Gainesville FL USA
University of Oulu Botanical Museum Oulu Finland
University of Washington Herbarium Burke Museum Seattle WA USA
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