Herrick Brown

Herrick Brown serves as Curator of the A. C. Moore Herbarium in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of South Carolina. Prior to his current appointment, he served as Assistant Botanist for the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources Heritage Trust Program and acted as an official liaison between the herbarium and SCDNR. In addition to his involvement with the South Carolina Plant Conservation Alliance, Herrick serves as a Member at Large for the South Carolina Exotic Pest Plant Council. Regionally, he serves as Data Manager for the (SouthEast Regional Network of Expertise and Collections portal and is actively engaged in related projects (Plants & Planter, Historic Southern Naturalists) aimed at the digitization of biodiversity collections and related archival materials.

Herrick’s research goals involve mobilizing biodiversity collections information for use in salient research applications. For example, herbarium specimens provide a snapshot of what plants were doing (flowering, fruiting, just growing a new leaf) at a particular place and time. This sort information, when considered across multiple specimens, can be used to understand patterns in species distrubtions or the seasonal timing of reproductive events. Since some herbarium specimens were collected many years ago during the 19^th century, it is possible to document changes in the timing of seasonal expression (phenology) in plants which has been attributed to changes in climate conditions. Specifically, Herrik's research interests involve dispersal potential for plant species endemic to the Southeastern United States, Species Distribution Modeling, and the potential impacts that forecast climate conditions may have on conservation efforts aimed at habitat preservation and plant community composition.