1 / 35

Are herbaria useful in biodiversity? Implications for conservation

Are herbaria useful in biodiversity? Implications for conservation. Monier M. Abd El-Ghani The Herbarium, Department of Botany and Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Cairo University October 2016. Origin of the word "herbarium".

nberry
Download Presentation

Are herbaria useful in biodiversity? Implications for conservation

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Are herbaria useful in biodiversity? Implications for conservation Monier M. Abd El-Ghani The Herbarium, Department of Botany and Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Cairo University October 2016

  2. Origin of the word "herbarium" • Originally. the word "herbarium" referred to books about medicinal plants. • Around 1700, the French botanist de Tournefort used the word to describe a collection of dried plants. • In the early days of plant collecting, herbarium collections were often bound in volumes rather than as separate sheets as is done today.

  3. Bound herbarium of ferns and mosses

  4. What is the Herbarium • It is a store-house of botanical collections of valuable information • It is a vital reference for assessing the plant diversity of a particular region.

  5. Major types of Herbaria

  6. Kew herbarium

  7. l'herbier des Conservatoire et jardin botaniques, Geneve

  8. Cairo University Herbarium

  9. Books on herbaria and techniques of botanical specimens

  10. new TAXON approved the application of microwave ovens for drying herbarium specimens as a new preservation technique.

  11. Advantages of microwave ovens

  12. Largest herbarium collections around the world

  13. The value of herbarium collections • 3240 herbaria in the world (Index Herbariorum) • Reference collections at herbaria are gold mines of information. • Historical records of plant diversity of a region. • Comparative material for wide arrays of studies: taxonomy, ecology, anatomy, morphology, conservation biology, biodiversity, ethnobotany, and paleobiology, as well as being used for teaching and by the public.

  14. Taxonomy and herbaria in service of plant conservation

  15. Herbaria and biodiversity conservation

  16. Protected areas of Egypt Wadi Allaqi Biosphere Reserve Gebel Elba National Park

  17. Wadi Gemal Protected Area St. Katherine Protected Area

  18. Herbaria are sources of new plant species Time-lag: A herbarium specimen of Strobilanthes paniculiformis collected in 1885 in the Naga Hills (E India) was described and published only 121 years later (2006).

  19. Herbaria: tools forbiogeographical & environmental studies (Lavoie, 2013; Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 15)

  20. Herbarium specimens in Red Listassessments (species decline) Plectranthus herbarium specimens in E & S tropical Africa (Willis et al., 2003; Biodivers. & Conserv. 12)

  21. Herbarium collections and plant diversity maps Case study in Burkina Faso

  22. Species numbers of selected modelled diversity of Poaceae, Cyperaceae & Rubiaceae in Burkina Faso (Schmidt et al., 2005; Diversity and Distributions 11)

  23. Herbarium collections and fungal diversity Herbarium specimens of Silene virginica, S. caroliniana, S. rotundifolia, and S. latifolia were used to survey the incidence of anther-smut disease (caused by Microbotryum violaceum sensu lato) in the eastern USA.

  24. Imaging of herbarium collections: Global Plants Initiative (GPI) to conserve herbarium collections through digitization High-resolution flat-bed scanner used with the HerbScan system is the Epson Expression Model 10000XL, Graphic Arts, USB2 and Firewire interfaces. Epson Expression Model 10000XL HerbScan

  25. Digitized type specimens @ Cairo University Herbarium (E-Herbarium)

  26. Health hazards in herbaria:Mercury exposures in university herbarium collections

  27. W. Brent Webber, Lorie Jayne Ernest, Srikanth Vangapandu

  28. While staff was aware of the existence of HgCl2 treated sheets, they had no knowledge of the presence of high Hg (gas) concentrationsin the buildings.

  29. Ohio-Lumex RA-915+ Mercury Analyzer (highly sensitive atomic absorption spectrophotometer)

  30. In Brief • Collections that contain specimens treated with HgCl2 can possibly expose herbarium employees and visitors to mercury (gas). • HgCl2 continues to sublimate off herbarium specimens 50 or more years after their last treatment. • Airborne Hg levels briefly exceeded the ceiling limit when opening specimen storage cabinets that housed older specimens. • Children are not be allowed in the herbarium (more susceptible to the effect of Hg)

  31. Protective measures against Hg emissions • For institutions’ herbaria with specimens dating to 1960s or earlier: • Engineering controls • Training • Limited access(databases, e-herbaria) • Personal protective equipment

  32. Conservation of herbaria

  33. Thank You

More Related