AI could help win ‘race against extinction’ of vital plants, say botanists

Artificial intelligence and mass digitisation of plant specimens are accelerating the race to identify and protect species at risk of extinction, according to a report from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. [1] About 40% of the 70,000 plant species assessed are threatened with extinction, while an estimated 100,000 species remain unnamed by scientists. [1] Each year, roughly 2,000 new plant species are recorded, a pace that “barely scratches the surface,” said Prof Alexandre Antonelli, executive director of science at RBG Kew. [1] For fungi, the knowledge gap is wider: 90% of an estimated 2 million species are unknown to science. [1] RBG Kew, a non-departmental public body sponsored by the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, manages collections of 8.3 million plant and fungal herbarium specimens and the Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst Place in Sussex. [5] The institution has completed digitisation of all 7.4 million of its specimens, including those collected by Charles Darwin, making them freely available online. [1] The four-year imaging programme captured up to 20,000 high-resolution images per day at its peak. [1] Globally, 145 million digital specimens are now online, yet this represents less than 16% of the total held in herbaria, leaving “huge blind spots in understanding,” the report’s authors noted. [1] AI models trained on these digital collections can identify species whose distinguishing features are microscopic, such as sedges and peat mosses. [1] “These AI models can sometimes now identify better than specialists – that’s incredibly exciting,” Antonelli said. [1] One global study used an AI model to analyse 8 million digitised specimens and found that flowering times have shifted by an average of 2.5 days per decade over the past century due to the climate crisis. [1] Changing rainfall and rising temperatures have caused some flowers to arrive later and others earlier, disrupting relationships between plants and the pollinators that depend on them. [1] Digitisation is also unlocking access to collections in biodiversity hotspots. Landy Rajaovelona, a senior botanist at Kew Madagascar, said digitising 37,000 physical specimens “unlocked a treasure of knowledge spanning centuries, offering invaluable insights into today’s biodiversity.” [1] Separately, scientists are now producing high-quality genomes from fungus specimens up to 180 years old, which researchers described as a “genomic goldmine” for new medicines and disease prediction. [1] Dr Esther Gaya, senior research leader at RBG Kew, noted that some human fungal pathogens appear to be spreading from warmer regions as hot seasons lengthen in temperate zones. [1] The report, produced by 400 scientists across 40 countries, cautions that AI and digitisation could amplify existing biases unless the underlying data is expanded. [1] It calls for partnerships between technology companies and environmental organisations and for investment in plant and fungi collections. [1]