Mapping Change

Why build a biodiversity atlas?

The Earth’s climate is changing. Measuring any kind of change requires a baseline, a description of the way things were before conditions changed, or before the pace of change accelerated. In this case, the baseline is a map where animals, plants, and fungi occurred in the Midwest’s recent past. Museum collections are an invaluable source of this kind of baseline data.

In fact, the Bell Museum has more than one million specimens of wildlife, plants and fungi from the Mississippi and western Great Lakes region. However, most information on these specimens, including the locations where they were collected, is hand-written on labels that require transcription. By participating in Mapping Change, you’re making baseline data available and usable. The resulting biodiversity atlas (bellatlas.umn.edu) is available to the public as well as researchers, land managers, and conservation planners. The more complete these baseline maps are, the better we are able to measure, interpret, and plan for changes to climate and biodiversity.

How can you help map change?

Museum collections contain high quality records of where plants, animals, and fungi were distributed across our region in recent history. Specimens in the Bell Museum’s collections, for example, have been collected over the past 125 years. Many specimens were collected at times prior to the development and alteration of the land and therefore represent the way things were before extensive European settlement.

Historical distribution data allow us to learn more about what environmental conditions are suitable for different organisms. Combining knowledge of those suitable conditions (known as an organism’s fundamental niche) with predictions about how environmental conditions will change in the future, allow us to predict where organisms may occur in the future. For example, scientists at Audubon predict that by the 21st century, the summer range of Minnesota’s state bird, the iconic Common Loon, will shift north and will no longer include Minnesota. Furthermore, evidence that range shifts are already underway includes the Ruby-throated Hummingbird’s winter range.

Why focus on change in the midwestern US?

The upper midwest of North America is unique because it contains three of the world’s largest terrestrial ecosystems. The convergence of the eastern broadleaf forests, the prairies of the Great Plains, and the coniferous forests of Canada means that this region is characterized by a remarkable array of plant and animal species.

Many of these species are already at the extremes of their ranges, occurring close to where one ecosystem borders another, significantly different system. When we consider how ecosystems and species will respond to climate change, models indicate that change will happen fastest at the extremes of ranges. Documenting, predicting, and understanding those changes depends on accurate and complete records of species distribution.

Funding

Funding for this project was provided in part by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR). The Trust Fund is a permanent fund constitutionally established by the citizens of Minnesota to assist in the protection, conservation, preservation, and enhancement of the state's air, water, land, fish, wildlife, and other natural resources.