Collections are truly priceless
成果类型：
Editorial Material
署名作者：
Davis, Charles C.
署名单位：
Harvard University
刊物名称：
SCIENCE
ISSN/ISSBN：
0036-13259
DOI：
10.1126/science.ado9732
发表日期：
2024-03-08
页码：
1035-1035
关键词：
摘要：
Last month, Duke University in North Carolina announced that it was shuttering its herbarium. The collection consists of nearly 1 million specimens representing the most comprehensive and historic set of plants from the southeastern United States. It also includes extensive holdings from other regions of the world, especially Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies. Duke plans to disperse these samples to other institutions for use or storage over the next 2 to 3 years, but this decision reflects a lack of awareness by academia that such collections are being leveraged as never before. With modern technologies spanning multiple fields of study, the holdings in herbaria and other natural history collections are not only facilitating a deeper and broader understanding of the past and present world but are also providing tools to meet both known and unforeseen challenges facing humanity. Science and society can hardly risk the loss of such an important resource.