Mutualism in museums: A model for engaging undergraduates in biodiversity science

Arctos: Community-driven innovations for managing natural and cultural history collections

More than tools for managing physical and digital objects, museum collection management systems (CMS) serve as platforms for structuring, integrating, and making accessible the rich data embodied by natural history collections. Here we describe Arctos, a scalable community solution for managing and publishing global biological, geological, and cultural collections data for research and education. Specific goals are to: (1) Describe the core features and implementation of Arctos for a broad audience with respect to the biodiversity informatics principles that enable high quality research; (2) Highlight the unique aspects of Arctos; (3) Illustrate Arctos as a model for supporting and enhancing the Digital Extended Specimen concept; and (4) Emphasize the role of the Arctos community for improving data discovery and enabling cross-disciplinary, integrative studies within a sustainable governance model. In addition to detailing Arctos as both a community of museum professionals and a collection database platform, we discuss how Arctos achieves its richly annotated data by creating a web of knowledge with deep connections between catalog records and derived or associated data. We also highlight the value of Arctos as an educational resource. Finally, we present the financial model of fiscal sponsorship by a nonprofit organization, implemented in 2022, to ensure the long-term success and sustainability of Arctos.

A set of principles and practical suggestions for equitable fieldwork in biology

Field biology is an area of research that involves working directly with living organisms in situ through a practice known as “fieldwork.” Conducting fieldwork often requires complex logistical planning within multiregional or multinational teams, interacting with local communities at field sites, and collaborative research led by one or a few of the core team members. However, existing power imbalances stemming from geopolitical history, discrimination, and professional position, among other factors, perpetuate inequities when conducting these research endeavors. After reflecting on our own research programs, we propose four general principles to guide equitable, inclusive, ethical, and safe practices in field biology: be collaborative, be respectful, be legal, and be safe. Although many biologists already structure their field programs around these principles or similar values, executing equitable research practices can prove challenging and requires careful consideration, especially by those in positions with relatively greater privilege. Based on experiences and input from a diverse group of global collaborators, we provide suggestions for action-oriented approaches to make field biology more equitable, with particular attention to how those with greater privilege can contribute. While we acknowledge that not all suggestions will be applicable to every institution or program, we hope that they will generate discussions and provide a baseline for training in proactive, equitable fieldwork practices.

Decline of Amateur Lepidoptera Collectors Threatens the Future of Specimen-Based Research

Amateur butterfly and moth collectors in the United States have procured more Lepidoptera specimens than professional scientists. The advent of large government-supported database efforts has made a quantitative examination of the impact of amateur collecting of these insects possible. We reviewed trends in Lepidoptera collecting since 1800, using more than 1 million United States lepidopteran specimens that have been collected into public databases. Our findings show a steep rise in the collection of specimens after World War II, followed by a short plateau and sharp decline in the late 1990s. In contrast, the rate of observations submitted to database groups dramatically increased around 2005. Declining acquisition of Lepidoptera specimens may compromise critically important testing of contemporary and future ecological, conservation, and evolutionary hypotheses on a grand scale, particularly given documented declines in insect populations. We suggest that increasing collaboration between professional and community-based scientists could alleviate the decline in amateur-collected specimens.

Natural history collections are critical resources for contemporary and future studies of urban evolution

Urban environments are among the fastest changing habitats on the planet, and this change has evolutionary implications for the organisms inhabiting them. Herein, we demonstrate that natural history collections are critical resources for urban evolution studies. The specimens housed in these collections provide great potential for diverse types of urban evolution research, and strategic deposition of specimens and other materials from contemporary studies will determine the resources and research questions available to future urban evolutionary biologists. As natural history collections are windows into the past, they provide a crucial historical timescale for urban evolution research. While the importance of museum collections for research is generally appreciated, their utility in the study of urban evolution has not been explicitly evaluated. Here, we: (a) demonstrate that museum collections can greatly enhance urban evolution studies, (b) review patterns of specimen use and deposition in the urban evolution literature, (c) analyze how urban versus rural and native versus nonnative vertebrate species are being deposited in museum collections, and (d) make recommendations to researchers, museum professionals, scientific journal editors, funding agencies, permitting agencies, and professional societies to improve archiving policies. Our analyses of recent urban evolution studies reveal that museum specimens can be used for diverse research questions, but they are used infrequently. Further, although nearly all studies we analyzed generated resources that could be deposited in natural history collections (e.g., collected specimens), a minority (12%) of studies actually did so. Depositing such resources in collections is crucial to allow the scientific community to verify, replicate, and/or re-visit prior research. Therefore, to ensure that adequate museum resources are available for future urban evolutionary biology research, the research community-from practicing biologists to funding agencies and professional societies-must make adjustments that prioritize the collection and deposition of urban specimens.

Building Natural History Collections for the Twenty-First Century and Beyond

Natural history collections (NHCs) are important resources for a diverse array of scientific fields. Recent digitization initiatives have broadened the user base of NHCs, and new technological innovations are using materials generated from collections to address novel scientific questions. Simultaneously, NHCs are increasingly imperiled by reductions in funding and resources. Ensuring that NHCs continue to serve as a valuable resource for future generations will require the scientific community to increase their contribution to and acknowledgement of collections. We provide recommendations and guidelines for scientists to support NHCs, focusing particularly on new users that may be unfamiliar with collections. We hope that this perspective will motivate debate on the future of NHCs and the role of the scientific community in maintaining and improving biological collections.

Museum specimens of terrestrial vertebrates are sensitive indicators of environmental change in the Anthropocene

Natural history museums and the specimen collections they curate are vital scientific infrastructure, a fact as true today as it was when biologists began collecting and preserving specimens over 200 years ago. The importance of museum specimens in studies of taxonomy, systematics, ecology and evolutionary biology is evidenced by a rich and abundant literature, yet creative and novel uses of specimens are constantly broadening the impact of natural history collections on biodiversity science and global sustainability. Excellent examples of the critical importance of specimens come from their use in documenting the consequences of environmental change, which is particularly relevant considering the alarming rate at which we now modify our planet in the Anthropocene. In this review, we highlight the important role of bird, mammal and amphibian specimens in documenting the Anthropocene and provide examples that underscore the need for continued collection of museum specimens.This article is part of the theme issue 'Biological collections for understanding biodiversity in the Anthropocene'.

The history and impact of digitization and digital data mobilization on biodiversity research

The first two decades of the twenty-first century have seen a rapid rise in the mobilization of digital biodiversity data. This has thrust natural history museums into the forefront of biodiversity research, underscoring their central role in the modern scientific enterprise. The advent of mobilization initiatives such as the United States National Science Foundation's Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections (ADBC), Australia's Atlas of Living Australia (ALA), Mexico's National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (CONABIO), Brazil's Centro de Referência em Informação (CRIA) and China's National Specimen Information Infrastructure (NSII) has led to a rapid rise in data aggregators and an exponential increase in digital data for scientific research and arguably provide the best evidence of where species live. The international Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) now serves about 131 million museum specimen records, and Integrated Digitized Biocollections (iDigBio) in the USA has amassed more than 115 million. These resources expose collections to a wider audience of researchers, provide the best biodiversity data in the modern era outside of nature itself and ensure the primacy of specimen-based research. Here, we provide a brief history of worldwide data mobilization, their impact on biodiversity research, challenges for ensuring data quality, their contribution to scientific publications and evidence of the rising profiles of natural history collections.This article is part of the theme issue 'Biological collections for understanding biodiversity in the Anthropocene'.