Digitization of the Greenland Vascular Plant Herbarium as a Unique Research Infrastructure to Study Arctic Climate Change and Inform Nature Management

Abstract

The Greenland Vascular Plant Herbarium at the Natural History Museum of Denmark represents the largest collection of botanical specimens from Greenland and includes some of the oldest known specimens collected in the Arctic, as well as voucher specimens collected over time from important botanical expeditions. High-resolution digital images for all specimens in this collection have recently been obtained and accompanying specimen label data have been transcribed. Digitizing this invaluable botanical collection from Greenland allows us to make nearly 170,000 Arctic plant specimens available online to researchers, amateur botanists, nature managers and advisers, as well as the general public. Improved access to this museum collection will facilitate global change research and nature management in Greenland’s rapidly changing Arctic environment and will help promote the value of digitizing Arctic specimens maintained in natural history collections worldwide. Current and potential applications of Arctic herbarium material in climate change studies, and the biases and limitations of such herbarium material for these studies are discussed.