Natural history museums are being taken for granted.
They are known as places for parents to take their kids to see dinosaurs, mummies and taxidermic feats, but few people have any idea what goes on behind the scenes.
Faced with a natural world that is rapidly degrading, natural history museums are transcending their traditional roles by working aggressively to conserve the world’s rich biodiversity. They deserve recognition and support for this increasingly important role.
At the Field Museum, we are coupling our enormous collections with our extensive scientific expertise to fight on behalf of the environment. One example is the launch of Chicago Wilderness, an unprecedented coalition devoted to the restoration and conservation of significant natural communities in the Chicago region.
Only through solid science can a natural history museum expect to preserve the world’s natural riches. We base our strategic conservation efforts on three core scientific capabilities: collections, fieldwork and research.
Natural history museums maintain and grow enormous collections representing the biological and cultural diversity of life on Earth. The world’s four largest natural history museums house 248 million specimens. But these specimens are not collected for their own sake. Their value comes from helping scientists understand the biological, geographical and evolutionary patterns of life. This museum expertise can be harnessed to advance conservation. Although the size and scope of museum collections are impressive, they pale in the face of the richness and diversity of life itself. Only a small fraction (2 percent to 15 percent, depending on the estimate) of all living organisms have been described.
That’s why museums continue to conduct biological inventories and other fieldwork. We want to identify new species, learn how organisms function and better understand the interconnectedness of the web of life. Field Museum scientists are active in 93 countries around the world, from Australia to Uganda.
Last year, in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund, our scientists initiated the first modern, comprehensive inventory of Bhutan’s flora and fauna. Nestled in the heart of the Himalayan Mountains, that remote kingdom has retained about 70 percent of its natural forests and may have the highest concentration of biodiversity in Asia. Next fall we will begin to work with the Natural History Museum of Cuba to survey four areas with critical biological diversity.
When scientists return from the field, data analysis and laboratory research kick in. Newly collected specimens, as well as existing collections, hold vast amounts of anatomic, morphologic and genetic data. This information can be used to study patterns of life and death, evolution, and extinction.
Eggshell’s thinness
To understand the environment better and promote conservation, scientists mine these data for purposes as varied as correlating eggshell thinness to pesticide levels, measuring plant carbon dioxide levels to plot the rate of global climate change, and determining the genetic variability of species located in forest fragments in order to test the effectiveness of conservation strategies.
Researchers at the Field use sophisticated laboratories to study the Earth and the life it holds from many different angles. For instance, researchers at the Pritzker Lab for Molecular Systematics and Evolution have collected more than 40,000 frozen tissue samples of DNA in order to analyze genetic data, infer evolutionary relationships among species, trace evolutionary change, and chart the biological and geological histories of particular regions.
In addition, the Paleomagnetics Lab helps scientists study plate tectonics, meteorites and environmental change. A scanning electron microscope allows researchers to examine fine surface details of everything from fossils to fungi at more than 20,000 times life-size. The High Performance Computer Cluster for Molecular Studies, which is used to analyze large amounts of data, quickly and efficiently, helps scientists test hypotheses and analyze evolutionary patterns. And the mass spectrometer in the new Isotope Geochemistry Lab helps scientists determine the age and isotopic composition of meteorites and geological samples to understand the solar system’s history.
Work in Peru
There are also other avenues for advocating on behalf of the environment.
Studying and documenting the richness of life where it is most threatened creates a comprehensive scientific basis for action, for example. This work can be done quickly and rigorously to stave off environmental degradation from mining, logging, road building or unplanned development. In 2001, Field scientists and Peruvian colleagues, including the Asociacion Peruana para la Conservacion de la Naturaleza, conducted a rapid biological inventory in Peru that helped to convert a virgin forest in the foothills of the Andes into the 5,212-square-mile Cordillera Azul National Park, the size of Connecticut.
Museums can also advise governments and conservation organizations on establishing conservation priorities, allocating resources and monitoring protected areas.
Asset mapping undertaken by the Field’s Center for Cultural Understanding and Change yields important information about the skills, desires and concerns of local community members in areas of high conservation priority to ensure that conservation efforts are truly community-based and thus sustainable. In Ecuador, Field scientists have been partnering with members of the indigenous Cofan community in their project to help repopulate local rivers with endangered turtles.
Internet as tool
The Internet is a powerful tool natural science museums can use for sharing information, especially with colleagues in nations who might not be able to travel to museums or subscribe to expensive journals. For example, the Field Museum and the University of Dar es Salaam have developed an interactive Web-based key to the mammals of Tanzania, complete with images and descriptions, in both English and Swahili.
The institutions can also recognize the conservation work of leading or innovative scientists, which encourages similar work and shines a spotlight on critical environmental issues. The Field’s annual Parker/Gentry Award honors an outstanding individual, team or organization in conservation biology whose efforts have made a significant, practical impact and whose work serves as a model for others. Last year, Dr. Michael Lannoo won the award for his work investigating the decline and increasing malformations of amphibians.
Natural history museums also play a leading role in training new scientists in taxonomy, systematics and molecular genetics. They must relate these basic competencies to ecology and conservation. Furthermore, natural history museums can greatly increase the global capacity for conservation by training people who work in the trenches–forest rangers, park managers, policymakers and concerned citizens–how to identify species, interpret scientific data, develop management plans and monitor conservation targets.
The Field’s African Tropical Biodiversity Program, run with colleagues at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, is designed to help develop a corps of African field biologists and document the bird, mammal and botanical communities of select Ugandan forests. Over the last five years, 55 African nationals from eight countries have been trained in botanical and zoological survey techniques.
Spreading the message
Through exhibits, partnerships, educational programs and emerging digital connections, museums can reach large audiences. Natural history museums should capitalize on this opportunity to spread the conservation message, especially to non-traditional audiences and potential supporters.
By coupling the power of scientific research with local and international partners, natural history museums have become actively engaged in the struggle to understand, publicize and resolve threats to biologically and culturally important areas of the world. Time is running out. With public support, natural history museums can exercise scientific leadership in conserving priceless natural treasurers.
