Potential of Herbarium-based Phenological Studies to Predict the Climate Change Impacts

Abstract

Herbarium records provide a valuable historical database for assessing plant phenology shifts in the context of global climate change. The herbarium specimens, collected from diverse locations and periods, offer comprehensive data illustrating how many plants are altering their blooming times in response to global climate change. The appropriate use and analysis of long-term herbarium records offer an additional dimension for the study of plant phenology through the application of advanced experimental methodologies such as bioinformatics and satellite imagery, statistics, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) which, coupled with field observations, will improve ecosystems evaluation. These efforts can significantly contribute to conservation strategies and climate change mitigation and further support the synchronization of scientific inputs for evaluating the impacts of climate change and its ecological implications.