Each week, 10-690 species go extinct, according to reports published via Nature. The responsibility for these extinctions rests predominantly on the shoulders of that enigmatic species, the Homo sapiens. Research published in Conservation Biology by senior authors Jurriaan de Vos and Stuart Pimm and their team reports that “extinctions are about 1,000 times more frequent now than in the 60 million years before people came along.” Conservation efforts around the world are striving to undermine this status quo. Species once near extinction (such as the Gray Wolf, California Blue Whales, and the Whooping Crane) are now thriving, and recent studies published in PLoS ONE by authors Bernard W. T. Coetzee, Kevin J. Gaston, and Steven L. Chown demonstrate that protected areas really do save biodiversity.

Whooping Crane, once near extinction is now recovering thanks to conservation efforts. Studer, Jacob Henry. The Birds of North America (1903). http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/35159491.

Not surprisingly, historic literature and archives play a crucial role in conservation initiatives.

Identifying Species to Protect

The first step in any conservation process is identifying what species and habitats to protect. This involves determining which are threatened, as evidenced by biodiversity changes over time like population and distribution declines. To truly understand the extent of these changes, scientists must examine the historical record.

Chaetodon trifascialis and Oxymonacanthus longirostris in The Fishes of Samoa (1906). As Dr. Joshua Drew explains, “This book was one of the first comprehensive records in the Southwest Pacific…In it, Jordan and Seale give a great look into what these reefs were like before widespread development. Reading their words is like going through a time machine, and allows us a glimpse into a world that will probably never be again.” http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/32055024.

“Having access to historical literature is essential to characterizing what ecosystems used to look like, what species were present and what peoples’ opinions of the health of the ecosystem were like throughout time,” explains Dr. Joshua Drew, a marine conservation biologist at The Field Museum. “Taxonomic literature allows me to see the whole history of a species laid out before me. I rely on [it] to get a glimpse of how these wonderfully diverse ecosystems used to look… before widespread development…[and use] those baselines to evaluate how current conservation measures are succeeding.”

Refining Conservation Initiatives

Historic literature and archives can also help scientists prioritize conservation efforts. Information about the relationships among organisms and the impacts of past extinctions reveals “keystone” species critical to the health of an ecosystem.

Climate change and biogeographic research can also further refine conservation strategies. NPR reports that climatology records in literature and fieldbooks help scientists predict future climate change patterns, which provide insight into what habitats (and thus resident species) may be at risk. By revealing how well species have adapted to external cues in the past (BioScience, Johnson et al), the historic record can also illuminate those unlikely to successfully cope with climate change (ScienceNews, Sarah Zielinski). With this knowledge, policy makers can prioritize conservation efforts, especially for the keystone species within these groups.

Indus River Dolphin, whose declines are linked to the proliferation of irrigation dams. Brehm, Alfred Edmund. Brehms Tierleben. 3rd rev. ed. v. 3 (1910). http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/32929419.

The historic record can also elucidate activities that threaten species and ecosystems. For example, according to a study published in PLoS ONE by Braulik et al, distribution reports from the nineteenth century helped researchers correlate declines in the Indus River Dolphin’s population with the proliferation of irrigation dams. This knowledge has led to appeals for water management reform as part of a conservation strategy for the dolphins. Similar correlations can be made between species decline and forest degradation (as evidenced via a 2014 World Resources Institute release), a heated topic within land management reform.

BHL and Big Data

Recently, big data has changed how scientists conduct research, allowing them to more easily access and link biodiversity information. “There’s no question that information about biodiversity now falls firmly in the realm of big data… and the greatest challenge facing biodiversity informatics now is the transition to 21st-century data-management tools,” reports the Natural Environment Research Council of the UK. “The first [phase] is the major task of digitizing over 200 years’ worth of information from libraries and collections around the world.”

One major application of big data within conservation activities involves assembling georeference data. “Knowing where to act is vital,” emphasizes Dr. Stuart Pimm, a biologist at Duke University, in a 2015 Vox article. Thanks to big data, “We can map out where species are. That puts us in a position to be very much smarter about how and where to do conservation.”

Species occurrence illustrated in JournalMap from geotagged content in Proceedings of The Biological Society of Washington on BHL, made available through BioStor.

Historic literature provides detailed information about the location of the species scientists have collected and observed throughout the centuries. By digitizing natural history literature under open access principles, the Biodiversity Heritage Library allows the embedded information (such as historic distribution records) to be integrated into big data initiatives.

BHL Helps Scientists Save Biodiversity. You Can Help!

Since the dawn of man, humans have been dramatically altering the biodiversity landscape, and not always for the better. Conservation is an ambitious endeavor “to preserve biodiversity, to restore diminished ecosystems, to advance the science of preventing extinctions, and to undo harm that humans have caused in the past” (Stewart Brand, National Geographic News). By providing evidence of population declines and habitat degradation, capturing distribution data, elucidating harmful activities, and revealing ecosystem interdependencies, historic literature and archives are integral to the formation of effective conservation strategies.

We rely on donations from users like you to help grow our library and keep it free and open. As you think about your holiday giving, we hope you’ll consider making a tax-deductible donation to help save biodiversity.

Learn more about the critical roles BHL and historic literature play in discovering new species, understanding past extinctions, and saving Earth’s biodiversity.

The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is revolutionizing the way scientific research is conducted by providing free and open access to biodiversity literature and archives representing over 500 years of scientific exploration, research, and discovery.

What’s so special about Historic Literature and Archives?

Historic literature and archival fieldbooks provide information that is critical to studying biodiversity. These documents are replete with data detailing the morphology, phylogeny and ethology of earth’s species. In many cases, this literature constitutes the only available knowledge for rare, endangered, and extinct species.

The Mascarene Parrot. Now Extinct. Rothschild, Lionel Walter Rothschild. Extinct Birds (1907). http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/38665729.

In addition to species data, published books and fieldbooks capture ecosystem profiles, distribution maps, inter-dependency observations, and geological and climatic records. They also provide an historical perspective on species abundance, habitat alteration, and human exploration, culture and discovery.

This information has a multitude of applications in modern-day science. It is used to populate species databases and datasets that inform present-day research. It not only allows scientists to study biodiversity, but also to save it by enabling new species identification and facilitating the development of holistic conservation methods that integrate all of the factors necessary for a species’ wellbeing into its overall protection strategy. Furthermore, the discoveries captured in historic literature provide the foundations upon which contemporary models, theories and disciplines are based.

Cane Toad. From the first published account of the flora and fauna of North America: Catesby, Mark. Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands (1729-47). http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/38993574.

Sadly, much of these publications and archival content are available in only a few select libraries in the developed world.

“Science is all about disseminating knowledge and building upon what has come before, yet so much of our knowledge of plants and animals has remained inaccessible to those who could make use of it,” laments Dr. John Sullivan, an evolutionary biologist with the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia and Cornell University. “This has been a big part of the ‘taxonomic impediment.’”

The Biodiversity Heritage Library is Alleviating the Taxonomic Impediment

The Biodiversity Heritage Library boasts a collection of over 45 million pages from over 150,000 volumes and has served more than 3.5 million people in nearly every country since its launch in 2007. Additionally, BHL has made over 93,000 of the illustrations within its collection available in Flickr, which in turn have been viewed over 80 million times. Services such as taxonomic name finding tools, custom PDF downloads, and open APIs allow users to easily locate and reuse these resources.

“BHL is radically changing the status quo and democratizing access to knowledge about biodiversity,” lauds Dr. Sullivan. “Now anybody in the world has instant access to the original species description in a couple of clicks!”

The first published illustration of the Duck-billed Platypus. Shaw, George. The Naturalist’s Miscellany, or Coloured figures of natural objects, Vol. 10 (1799). http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/40321089.

Of Global Importance

Open access to biodiversity data is beneficial on a global scale, advancing scientific fields more quickly and connecting scientists and their research more efficiently than ever before, especially in developing countries with traditionally limited access to vital resources. “[The Biodiversity Heritage Library] has done an enormous amount to enhance the capacity of developing countries to undertake taxonomic research on their biota,” asserts Dr. Dai Herbert, a malacologist at the KwaZulu-Natal Museum in South Africa.

The repatriation of knowledge can also help countries better assess, monitor, and protect their native biodiversity. Recognizing that “identifying the factors that shape biodiversity locally helps to preserve them better in the future,” the United Nations, through the Convention on Biological Diversity, requires every signatory country to “identify and monitor the biodiversity of the organisms within its borders.” Thanks to BHL, countries now have access to information about and catalogs of the species within their boundaries, which can be used to form the basis of national biodiversity indexes and direct local conservation efforts.

Insects. From Biologia Centrali-Americana. As this work contains all of the known information about the biodiversity of Mexico and Central America at the time of its publication, this title is still fundamental to the study of the biota of this region. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/594659.

Help Save Biodiversity

The Biodiversity Heritage Library is helping scientists save biodiversity, which in turn sustains our well-being as humans. “We need biodiversity to satisfy basic needs like food, drinking water, fuel, shelter, and medicine…Ecosystems provide services such as pollination, seed dispersal, climate regulation, water purification, nutrient cycling, control of agricultural pests” (Source: American Museum of Natural History website) and the “regulation and control of infectious diseases” (Convention on Biological Diversity).

Coffea arabica, which accounts for 75–80 percent of the world’s coffee production. It is also believed to be the first species of coffee to be cultivated. Köhler’s Medizinal-Pflanzen (1883-1914). http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/303146.

As we face a global biodiversity crisis that threatens the future of many species and habitats, unfettered access to biodiversity information has never been more important.

We rely on donations from users like you to help grow our library and keep it free and open. As you think about your holiday giving, we hope you’ll consider making a tax-deductible donation to help save biodiversity.

Learn more about the critical roles BHL and historic literature play in discovering new species, understanding past extinctions, and saving Earth’s biodiversity.