ago are a valuable new source of data for ecologists seeking to understand how climate change will affect the timing of flowering plants.

Scientists have used the carefully labeled and dated specimens of the early spider orchid, Ophrys sphegodes, to examine the affect of spring temperatures on flowering. The flowers were collected between 1848 and 1958.

The results, in Journal of Ecology September 21, found that for a 1.8 degree Fahrenheit increase in the spring temperature, the orchid flowered 6 days earlier.

The results are nearly identical to field observations collected between 1975 and 2006. The fact that the response to temperature changes has remained constant, despite accelerated temperature increases since the 1970s, lends support to the use of museum specimens for climate change studies.

“There is an enormous wealth of untapped information locked within our museums and herbaria that can contribute to our ability to predict the effects of future climate change on many plant species,” ecologist Anthony Davy of the University of East Anglia, co-author of the study, said in a press release. “It may well be possible to extend similar principles to museum collections of insects and animals.”

There are approximately 2.5 billion plant and animal specimens held in natural history collections in museums and herbaria. Some date back to the time of Linnaeus, who devised the system of naming plants and animals about 250 years ago.

Understanding how climate effects the timing of developmental and seasonal events for plants and animals — such as flowering, egg laying, or migration — is essential for predicting future impacts on individual species and ecosystems. The data required for these predictions must be gathered over a number of years, and little of it is available.

Images: 1) An herbarium sheet of the early spider orchid collected May 1, 1900./ K. Robbirt. 2) Early spider orchid.

See Also:

• Bats, Birds and Lizards Can Fight Climate Change
• Plan B: California Braces for Climate Change
• What Climate Change Means for Wine Industry
• Pakistan’s Climate Change Floods, Seen From Above
• Treating Climate Change as a Curable Disease

Authors: Jess McNally

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