CLIMATE CHANGE & COLLECTIONS: Preparing now will give our living collections the best fighting chance

摘要

Although in some instances we have a good idea of how climate will be different in 50 or 100 years (or sooner), the ball is not truly crystal clear. What we do know is that things will be different. Those shifts in climate—elevated temperatures, altered precipitation patterns, or other changes in seasonality—will undoubtedly influence what and how we cultivate. What happens to a temperate arboretum in Boston will be different from a conservatory in Pittsburgh, or an alpine garden in Vail. It wouldbe fruitless for me to delve into specifics in a general essay, and also inappropriate for me to tell another garden what to do. However, I offer up a perspective that I hope is useful to curators as they prepare their collections for this oncoming maelstrom.