Reducing the Darwinian Shortfall in Biodiversity Knowledge through Botanical Gardens and Herbaria Resources

Dear Colleagues,

The concept of a Darwinian shortfall describes the lack of fully resolved phylogenies for most groups of organisms and the consequential indetermination of trait evolution. Despite the massive advances in genetics, molecular sequencing technology, and bioinformatics of recent years, phylogenetic relationships among species are still poorly known for most groups of organisms or have often been established for only a few species representing higher taxa. Furthermore, investigations regarding trait evolution and macroevolutionary patterns depend on robust phylogenetic hypothesis, leaving an even larger gap in the literature. Acquiring specimens has historically been an impediment to taxon coverage in generating phylogenetic hypotheses, but recent advances in molecular techniques has brought historic specimens into the genomic age. Similarly, gains in museum databasing have brought the drawers and sheets out of the cabinets and into the computer age. Botanical gardens and museum specimens exist as a repository of Earth’s biodiversity and form a global asset with great potential and high significance for reducing Darwinian shortfalls. This special issue focuses on the use of preserved and living collections for resolving species phylogenies and describing lineage trait evolution by adopting comparative methods and combining morphologic and molecular techniques. In short, it is dedicated to recent advances in botanical gardens and herbaria research tackling Darwinian shortfalls. Scientific advances may be in the form of methodological growth, for example: in the validation of new molecular protocols to improve extraction of genomic data from museum specimens; the application of technological approaches to collect, preserve and access data of specimens deposited in botanical gardens and herbaria; or new guidelines to integrate and manage tissue samples, molecular and phylogenetics data on botanical gardens and herbaria databases. Scientific advances could also be in the form of content knowledge that explicitly uses botanical gardens and herbaria samples in phylogenies and trait evolution research. For example, empirical work that uses botanical gardens and herbaria data to advance our understanding of species evolutionary relationships and trait evolution. Contributions that report on advances that can be readily and simply applied in botanical gardens and herbaria to advance phylogenetic knowledge are especially welcome.

Prof. Dr. Thiago Andre
Dr. Shayla Salzman
Guest Editors

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• databases
• herbaria
• living collections
• molecular protocols
• museum specimens
• phylogenomics
• tree of life
• trait evolution