Biodiversity Science: use of collections in phenology

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Robbirt et al (2011) looked at recent field records of flowering date and temperature (1975-2006) for the UK Early Spider Orchid, Ophrys sphegodes, and compared these with historical temperature records and dated flowering specimens in collections (1848-1958), including NHM collections. /...
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The orchids responded to temperature in the same way in the two periods, indicating the potential value of collections for investigating ecological responses to climate and as research resources for new scientific interests.

Karen M. Robbirt, Anthony J. Davy, Michael J. Hutchings and David L. Roberts (2011) Validation of biological collections as a source of phenological data for use in climate change studies: a case study with the orchid Ophrys sphegodes. Journal of Ecology, 99, 235–241 doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2745.2010.01727.x 
There is also a useful overview blog covering other studies and opinions on:
Themes: 
Biodiversity
Collections
climate change
phenology

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