Citizen Science: Bioblitz guide
A revised Guide to Running a Bioblitz 2.0 has been produced by the Bristol Natural History Consortium, Natural History Museum, Stockholm Environment Institute York, and the Marine Biological Association
Organizations
@nhm_science
Natural History Museum London
Taxonomy: $200m, the cost of finishing the animals
A paper in Trends in Ecology and Evolution estimates costs of naming the remaining 5.4 million animal species, based on costs of taxonomy in Brazil - $200 million. The taxonomic impediment is seen as the most significant barrier to progress Nature blog post quotes the NHM's Chris Lyal.../reference
Fernando Carbayo and Antonio C. Marques The costs of
describing the entire animal kingdomTrends in Ecology & Evolution, 07
February 2011 doi:10.1016/j.tree.2011.01.004
Biodiversity and collections: NHM paper on the use of collections for climate change research
A paper by Johnson et al. has been published arising from a project at the Natural History Museum, London, that examined the research potential of natural history collections and makes recommendations for strategic development to meet research needs and take advantage of the development of climate change work. Reference.../more
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Kenneth G. Johnson, Stephen J. Brooks, Phillip B. Fenberg, Adrian G.
Glover, Karen E. James, Adrian M. Lister, Ellinor Michel, Mark Spencer,
Jonathan A. Todd, Eugenia Valsami-Jones, Jeremy R. Young, John R.
Stewart (2011) Climate Change and Biosphere Response: Unlocking the Collections Vault. Bioscience 61 147-153 DOI: 10.1525/bio.2011.61.2.10
Museums and Biodiversity: new species discovery in existing collections
A PNAS paper explores the way in which new species of plants are described from specimens that may already have been in herbarium collections for many years, and underlines the importance of collections for discovering diversity. Also on NHM science news blog.
Bebber, DP, Carine, MA, Wood, JRI, Wortley, AH, Harris, DJ, Prance, GT, Davids, G, Paige, J, Pennington, TD, Robson, NKB and Scotland, RW (2010) Herbaria are a major frontier for species discovery. PNAS. Published online before print, December 6, 2010, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1011841108
Museums UK: Collections Trust and Collections Link
Good talks from Nick Poole and Laura Whitton of the Collections Trust yesterday at the NHM. Nick spoke about the role of the Collections Trust, the changing role and strategies of museums in the UK, and the development of the new documentation and process standards in Spectrum 4. Laura spoke on Collections Link.
Natural history museums will need to engage on Spectrum 4 to ensure that the emerging consensus on standards and accreditation reflects the distinctive character, development and use of natural sciences collections: we need to develop a more energetic dialogue.
Nick made interesting points on likely political, policy and strategic changes for UK non-national museums as a result of funding cuts planned in local government. There will need to be more discussion on approaches to collections management, disposal, better use of collections and related issues.
