TIMAEUS. Studying climate change adaptations through herbaria

Over recent decades, climate change has accentuated the rate at which species are becoming extinct. Highland species are especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change and consequently have suffered the most: some have disappeared altogether, whilst the habitat of others has been significantly reduced. Those that can still be found have had to change and adapt to the new conditions in order to survive. The aim of the Timaeus project is to investigate the nature of these changes, seeking to understand how species have adapted, and in response to which stress factors.

Thousands of specimens preserved in the collections of the historical herbarium, collected over a period of two centuries by botanists, biologists, lovers of nature and explorers, offer a unique opportunity to explore and quantify the changes that have occurred over time in a given species. Collecting and studying fresh samples of species in their habitats as they are today, it becomes possible to compare genetic diversity, past and present, also to understand how and in what measure a species has changed, and what are the implications for its future survival.