BU biologist extrapolates record of environmental change from historical data

In a paper recently published in the journalBioScience, Richard B. Primack, professor of biology at Boston University, and Abraham J. Miller-Rushing, science coordinator at the Acadia National Park and the Schoodic Education and Research Center, National Park Service, show how unconventional sources of data, including historical documents, can be used to extend investigations of environmental change back to the 19th century.

Historical records are an important resource for understanding the biological impacts of climate change. Such records include naturalists’ journals, club and field station records, museum specimens, photographs, and scientific research. Primack and Miller-Rushing explain that finding records and overcoming their limitations are serious challenges to climate change research. In the present article, the authors describe their efforts to locate data from Concord, Massachusetts, and provide a template that can be replicated in other locations. Analyses of diverse data sources, including observations made in the 1850s by Henry David Thoreau, indicate that climate change is affecting the timing of flowering and bird migration, and even the presence and abundance of wildflower species in Concord.

Primack and Miller-Rushing note that despite recent work on historical records, many sources of historical data are underutilized. Analyses of these data may provide insights into climate change impacts and techniques to manage them. Moreover, the results are useful for communicating local examples of changing climate conditions to the public.

The article, “Uncovering, Collecting, and Analyzing Records to Investigate the Ecological Impacts of Climate Change: A Template from Thoreau’s Concord,” appears in the current issue of the journal BioScience (February 2012 / Vol. 62 No. 2;www.biosciencemag.org).

Source: Boston University College of Arts & Sciences