In 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Applications in Plant Sciences (APPS) published a special issue titled “Conducting botanical research with limited resources: Low-cost methods in the plant sciences” (Dean et al., 2020). The goal of that collection was to highlight robust, low-cost methods that could be used by researchers in under-resourced settings. Plant scientists face resource limitations for many reasons. In some countries, inadequate national funding is a major issue, as well as limited long-term investment in research infrastructure. At the same time, factors contributing to low-resource settings are also experienced by researchers in countries where research funding is more abundant. For example, although national research programs in the Global North are generally well funded, these funds may be difficult to access for investigators who hold positions at smaller institutions, such as predominantly undergraduate institutions.
Regardless of geographic location, lack of training and access to expensive and specialized equipment can be limiting, and funding to acquire expensive equipment often does not include salary for maintenance and operation by trained personnel after the initial purchase and set up. In addition, research may be performed by new investigators such as undergraduate or graduate students, or when established labs wish to explore new areas of research or techniques without committing significant resources.
Globally, substantial and significant scientific research is performed in these under-resourced settings. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated this situation by disrupting supply chains and forcing researchers to work from home or in isolation at their workplace, resulting in dynamic adaptations in their approaches to generating or collecting data. Suddenly confronted with an inability to travel, many scientists looked to their local environment to leverage their skills to continue research closer to home. In light of these challenges, this APPS special issue, titled “Resilient botany: Innovation in the face of limited mobility and resources,” showcases the creative ways that plant scientists carried on with research during a global pandemic. The papers in this issue encompass a variety of fields and scales of research, ranging from investigations of plant structure at the microscopic level to utilizing big data to understand biodiversity, but they all have one thing in common: they are all accessible to researchers and practitioners challenged by funding or travel restrictions.
It has been well documented that cataloging global biodiversity is a daunting task that will take a concerted effort by many scientists and community scientists, especially given that much of the world's biodiversity is located in areas with under-resourced research communities. A large amount of data is already contained in herbaria, and digitizing this information is an impor