Global natural history infrastructure requires international solidarity, support, and investment in local capacity

Abstract

Amid global challenges like climate change, extinctions, and disease epidemics, science and society require nuanced, international solutions that are grounded in robust, interdisciplinary perspectives and datasets that span deep time. Natural history collections, from modern biological specimens to the archaeological and fossil records, are crucial tools for understanding cultural and biological processes that shape our modern world. At the same time, natural history collections in low and middle-income countries are at-risk and underresourced, imperiling efforts to build the infrastructure and scientific capacity necessary to tackle critical challenges. The case of Mongolia exemplifies the unique challenges of preserving natural history collections in a country with limited financial resources under the thumb of scientific colonialism. Specifically, the lack of biorepository infrastructure throughout Mongolia stymies efforts to study or respond to large-scale environmental changes of the modern era. Investment in museum capacity and training to develop locally-accessible collections that characterize natural communities over time and space must be a key priority for a future where understanding climate scenarios, predicting, and responding to zoonotic disease, making informed conservation choices, or adapting to agricultural challenges, will be all but impossible without relevant and accessible collections.

Keywords: Mongolia; collections; colonialism; infrastructure; natural history.

Fig. 1.

(A) (Top) Geographic points of origin for Mongolian fossil specimens in PBDB (The Paleobiology DataBase), by geologic era. (B) (second from Top) Geographic points of origin for Mongolian biological specimens in GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility). (C) (third from Top) Mongolian museum specimens digitized in GBIF, by country of curation. (D) (Bottom) Mongolian occurrence records in GBIF, by decade.

Fig. 2.

The impact of Mongolian collections, and solutions for realizing their potential.