2025/08/08 by Lucas Eckert, Isaac Eckert, Olivia Rahn +2 · 1 voice · 9 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Environmental Science · #Biodiversity #Biology #Climate change #Computer science #Data science #Ecology #Evolutionary biology #Genetic diversity and population structure #Geography #Global change #Herbarium #Plant and animal studies #Resource (disambiguation) #Species Distribution and Climate Change
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/nph.70454
published in New Phytologist 251(2), 637-644 (Wiley)
openalex publication_date 2025/08/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/03
Earth's c. 406 million herbarium specimens represent a largely untapped resource of genetic data that could transform our understanding of global plant populations. Advances in DNA sequencing have made the extraction of genetic data from these preserved specimens increasingly feasible, enabling new insights into plant biodiversity and evolutionary dynamics. However, researchers have only begun to leverage these historical genomes, and the vast majority of this resource remains unexplored. In this viewpoint, we discuss how herbarium collections can be used to study the genetic responses of plant populations to global change. Several promising areas of research include using herbaria for genetic monitoring, studying local extinction dynamics, identifying targets of selection under environmental change, and validating genomic predictions through hindcasting. Herbarium collections represent a unique and underutilized resource, the mobilization of which has the potential to enhance our understanding of plant responses to global change and inform conservation efforts.