BUILDING A BASELINE FOR PLANT CONSERVATION

摘要

What is the role of natural history in contemporary conservation science? With the increasing focus on mechanisms of extinction, experimental adaptive management, and restoration, today's students of conservation may be forgiven for not considering the question. Yet that is precisely what we are forced to ponder when reading Plant Conservation: A Natural History Approach, edited by Gary Krupnick and W. John Kress (Department of Botany, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution). The book, to which some 48 authors contributed, attempts to address this broad issue and advocate for its importance by exploring the state of our understanding of biological diversity, drawing on the expertise and botanical resources available in herbaria, museums, and botanical gardens.