Dear Tasmanian State Government Parliamentarians,

I am writing about the pending cuts to the Tasmanian Herbarium, part of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, which I understand will result in the loss of the Head of Herbarium (Dr Gintaras Kantvilas, a lichenologist) and the Curator of Bryology (Dr Jean Jarman).  Both are world-renowned researchers and the only people working on cryptogams (a term including both lichens and bryophytes) in public employment in Tasmania.  

I am an American, yet my primary research interests are in Australia.  I can personally vouch for how important and unique bryophytes and lichens are a part of the flora of Tasmania.

The world is in the middle of a vast biodiversity crisis due to climate change, habitat loss, and invasive species.  Natural history museums in general, and herbaria in particular, are at the center of any possible solutions.  Their collections are documentation of the primary evidence for understanding what biodiversity is (a research field called systematics), baseline conditions present in past centuries (historical ecology), the spatial distribution of biodiversity (key to all conservation planning), and physical reservoirs of potential data from genomics to anatomy to morphology that are vital to studies of adaptation (modern ecological and evolutionary studies).

Tasmania is widely known as an important refuge for biodiversity that is not found anywhere else on the globe.

I urge you to keep the Tasmanian Herbarium funded at full strength, to study and protect your wonderful flora.

Sincerely,

 

Brent D. Mishler

     Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Department of Integrative Biology

     Curator of Bryophytes, University and Jepson Herbaria

     University of California, Berkeley