For more than two centuries, biodiversity collections have served as the foundation for scientific investigation of and education about life on Earth. The collections that have been assembled in
the past and continue to grow today are a...

Pollination is fundamentally important to ecosystem function and human food security.
Recent reports of dramatic insect declines, and pollinator decline in particular,
have increased public awareness and political motivation to act to...

Crop wild relatives, the wild progenitors and closely related cousins of cultivated plant
species, are sources of valuable genetic resources for crop improvement. Persisting gaps
in knowledge of taxonomy, distributions, and...

Urbanization is a large driver of biodiversity globally. Within cities, urban trees, gardens, and residential yards contribute extensively to plant biodiversity, although the consequences and mechanisms of plant cultivation for biodiversity are...

The East of England is one of the richest regions for bees in Britain due to the diversity of
habitats present. This report aims to consolidate our knowledge of bees in the East of
England, highlight the species that are most threatened...

To understand and forecast biological responses to climate change, scientists frequently use field
experiments that alter temperature and precipitation. Climate manipulations can manifest in complex ways, however, challenging interpretations of...

Natural history museums are unique spaces for interdisciplinary research and for educational
innovation. Through extensive exhibits and public programming and by hosting rich
communities of amateurs, students, and researchers at all...

The Plant Conservation Alliance and the Smithsonian’s Department of Botany welcomed Chris Martine, David Burpee Professor of Plants Genetics & Research and Director of the Manning Herbarium at Bucknell University, to present “Plants are Cool, Too...

Drought‐tolerant plants are increasingly recognized as a resource to mitigate the consequences
of climate change. Succulent plants use stored water to sustain metabolism
during regular droughts; succulence is a highly successful...

In the Tropical Andes millions of people depend upon the use of wild and domesticated
biodiversity for their livelihoods, but the complex interactions between the
ecological and social components of the region’s ecosystems remain poorly...

A major challenge in articulating human dimensions of climate change lies in translating global climate forecasts into impact assessments that are intuitive to the public. Climateanalog mapping involves matching the expected future climate at a...

Sunflower is a unique model species for assessing crop responses and adaptation to climate change. We provide an initial assessment of how climate change may influence the abiotic and biotic environment of cultivated sunflower across the world. We find...

The report Climate Change in the American Mind documents a continued upward trend in Americans’ concern about global warming, as reflected in several key indicators tracked since 2008, including substantial increases in Americans’ certainty...

As researchers at North Carolina State University, we convened a workshop entitled, “Biotechnology, the American Chestnut Tree, and Public Engagement” on April 25-26, 2018 on our campus in Raleigh, NC. The workshop was supported by a National Science...

To address the growing interest and expressed need for pollinator management strategies a special pollinator symposium was held at the 2017 annual conference of the Natural Areas Association, curated by William Carromero of the US Forest Service and...

The future of the Earth and its inhabitants has never been more uncertain, but there
is still time for us to prevent further catastrophe. Plant scientists have a crucial role
to play in the preservation of plant biodiversity and crop...

They don’t make the headlines the way charismatic animals such as rhinos and elephants do. But there are thousands of critically endangered plants in the world, and a determined group of botanists are ready to go to great lengths to save them.

Authored by more than 200 scientists from the United States, Canada, and Mexico, the Second
State of the Carbon Cycle Report (SOCCR2) provides an up-to-date assessment of scientific
knowledge of the North American carbon cycle. This...

The impacts of climate change are already being felt in communities across the country.
More frequent and intense extreme weather and climate-related events, as well as changes
in average climate conditions, are expected to continue to...

For many species and seed sources used in restoration activities, specific seed germination
requirements are often unknown. Because seed dormancy and germination traits can be
constrained by phylogenetic history, related species are often...