Botanic gardens science for conservation and global change

Area of Science:

• Botany
• Conservation Biology
• Global Change Research

Background:

• Botanic gardens possess traditional strengths in herbarium and living collections, alongside public engagement.
• Understanding these strengths is crucial for evaluating their contributions to scientific research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose how botanic gardens can expand their research contributions in conservation biology and global-change studies.
• To identify opportunities for botanic gardens to utilize their collections more effectively in research.

Main Methods:

• Leveraging existing strengths in herbarium and living collections.
• Adapting research to include studies on threatening processes and global-change impacts.
• Integrating conservation planning, species response modeling, and experimental global-change tests.

Main Results:

• Research in conservation planning, climate change modeling, threatened species conservation, and global-change experiments can build on core botanic garden strengths.
• Some botanic gardens are adapting research to study threatening processes and monitor global-change impacts.
• There is potential for botanic gardens to enhance the use of living collections in global-change research.

Conclusions:

• Botanic gardens are well-positioned to contribute significantly to conservation biology and global-change research.
• Integrating living collections into research can advance understanding of climate change impacts.
• Botanic gardens can play a key role in connecting biodiversity conservation with ecosystem services.