The research infrastructure of the National Biodiversity Collection of Recent and Fossil Organisms at W. Szafer Institute of Botany, Polish Academy of Sciences (NBC IB PAS) is based on unique in the country’s scale and known in the world collections of contemporary and fossil organisms from various systematic groups, collected and studied for 65 years. However, the origins of the regular botanical collection go back to 1867 and the former Museum of the Physiographic Commission of the Academy of Sciences and Letters. The oldest specimens stored in the Institute’s herbaria date back from the turn of 18th and 19th century. The collections, with a total number of specimens of approximately 1.5 million, include palaeobotanical objects, vascular plants, bryophytes, fungi, lichens, algae and slime molds from all continents. They are acknowledged in the international databases as Index Herbariorum, Index Fungorum, Algae Base. Traditionally, IB PAS collections have been documentation of research and source of reference material in studies on biodiversity and systematics. In connection with the development of modern research methods, incl. genetics, bioinformatics, museum and environmental genomics as well as isotope techniques, it is possible to use these traditional collections in problem-oriented research. They may concern, among others, evolution, molecular biogeography (like analysis of migration pathways of the invasive plants threatening natural biota), biodiversity in the aspect of monitoring climate change as well as ecology and nature protection.
Belarus