Mark Spencer Botany, Ryde, U.K.
Emerg Top Life Sci. 2021 Sep 24;5(3):475-485. doi: 10.1042/ETLS20200329.
Forensic botany is a diverse discipline that spans many aspects of plant sciences, particularly taxonomy, field botany, anatomy, and ecology. Internationally, there is a significant opportunity to expand the application of forensic botany in criminal investigations, especially war crimes, genocide, homicide, sexual violence, serious physical assault, illegal trade in endangered species and wildlife crime. In civil proceedings, forensic botany may, for example, be called upon in trade disputes such as accidental contamination of commodities. Despite the potential, there are barriers to the wider application of forensic botany in criminal cases; there is a widespread need to improve the efficiency of botanical trace evidence identification. This could partly be addressed by embracing innovations in image recognition and by accessing the huge quantity of specimens and images housed in natural history collections worldwide. Additionally, the recent advances in DNA sequencing technologies and the expansion of environmental DNA (eDNA) and forensic ecogenomics, offers opportunities to more rapidly provide species-level identifications. The impact of taphonomic processes upon vegetation, and vice versa, remains poorly understood; improved understanding of these interactions and their ecological impacts may be invaluable in improving clandestine burial search protocols.
法庭植物学是一个跨越多门植物科学领域的多元化学科，尤其涉及分类学、野外植物学、解剖学和生态学。在国际上，有很大的机会可以将法庭植物学应用于刑事调查，特别是战争罪、种族灭绝罪、杀人罪、性暴力、严重人身攻击、濒危物种非法交易和野生动物犯罪。在民事诉讼中，例如在商品意外污染等贸易纠纷中，法庭植物学也可能被调用。尽管有潜力，但在刑事案件中更广泛地应用法庭植物学仍存在障碍；需要提高植物痕迹证据鉴定的效率。这在一定程度上可以通过采用图像识别创新以及利用全球自然历史收藏中存储的大量标本和图像来解决。此外，DNA 测序技术的最新进展和环境 DNA(eDNA)和法医生态基因组学的扩展，为更快速地提供物种水平鉴定提供了机会。埋藏后植物和植被之间的化石作用过程及其相互作用仍然知之甚少；更好地理解这些相互作用及其生态影响，对于改进秘密埋葬搜索协议可能是非常宝贵的。
