National Museum of Natural Science and NCKU Co-host “Spatiotemporal Surveyors” Special Exhibition: Turning Cross-Century Collections into Key Evidence of Climate Change
How is global climate change reshaping the fate of living organisms? The special exhibition “Spatiotemporal Surveyors: Reading Climate Change Through Natural History Collections,” jointly launched by the National Museum of Natural Science and National Cheng Kung University, officially opened today (10th). The exhibition is organized in response to the 10th anniversary of the international conference “Species on the Move (SOTM),” which is being held in Taiwan for the first time. It guides visitors to explore how species migrate and adapt to climate change through scientific records dating back over a century.
Director-General Wen-Shan Huang of the National Museum of Natural Science stated that museums are not only static collections and exhibition spaces, but also valuable databases documenting Earth’s changes. In this exhibition, the museum plays a key role in “translation,” transforming cutting-edge research from the SOTM conference into content accessible to the public. This further strengthens Taiwan’s visibility and participation in global climate and ecological issues by connecting academic research with public communication.
Centered on “Resurvey Projects,” the exhibition invites visitors to revisit the foresight of early 20th-century American biologist Joseph Grinnell, who pioneered standardized recording and specimen collection methods. These historical collections now serve as critical baselines for comparing ecological change, demonstrating the profound meaning of the phrase “the greatest value of museums lies in the future.” The exhibition also highlights contemporary “all-female bird survey missions” conducted in Colombia and Brazil, echoing the enduring contributions of women in early natural history exploration. Curator and SOTM conference chair Professor Yi-Ching Chen of National Cheng Kung University noted that today’s records will become tomorrow’s evidence, and that current research and collections will gain increasing value over time, reflecting the core mission of museums.
The exhibition features field survey cases from five global regions: California’s Sierra Nevada (USA), Colombia’s tropical rainforests, Mount Kinabalu (Malaysia), the Nilgiri Hills (India), and Tanzania (Africa). Data shows that across diverse environments, species are generally shifting toward higher elevations and latitudes, accompanied by habitat contraction and ecosystem restructuring. While some species demonstrate adaptive responses such as earlier breeding, many alpine endemics are facing severe survival pressure due to “nowhere left to retreat.”
This exhibition holds significant international importance. SOTM is the most prominent interdisciplinary academic conference on biodiversity and climate change ever held in Taiwan, organized by National Cheng Kung University, with the main conference taking place at Sun Moon Lake in late April. Leveraging this opportunity, the museum and NCKU have collaborated across disciplines to translate global biodiversity issues into public education, fulfilling the social responsibility of scientific communication. The exhibition “Spatiotemporal Surveyors: Reading Climate Change Through Natural History Collections” runs from now until May 3, 2026, at the Oval Inner Corridor First and Second Micro Exhibition Rooms. Visitors are invited to explore the scientific journey through time at the museum.
For more details, please visit the official website