Beyond maps: a review of the applications of biological records

Powney, Gary D.; Isaac, Nick J. B.

doi:10.1111/bij.12517

Cited by 84 publications

(86 citation statements)

References 122 publications

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“…These records are invaluable for plant ecology and conservationrelated research, as they provide information about key aspects of species identity, time and place (Powney & Isaac, 2015). However, taxonomic, geographical and temporal biases (Hortal et al, 2015;Meyer, Weigelt, & Kreft, 2016), as well as limited curation and standardization efforts and the lack of important meta-information, like, for example, the floristic status at a given location (native, non-native, naturalized, etc.…”

Section: Several National and International Initiatives Focus On Mobimentioning

confidence: 99%

GIFT – A Global Inventory of Floras and Traits for macroecology and biogeography

Weigelt

König

Kreft

2019

Journal of Biogeography

152

189

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Aim:To understand how functional traits and evolutionary history shape the geographic distribution of plant life on Earth, we need to integrate high-quality and global-scale distribution data with functional and phylogenetic information. Largescale distribution data for plants are, however, often restricted to either certain taxonomic groups or geographic regions. Range maps only exist for a small subset of all plant species and digitally available point-occurrence information is biased both geographically and taxonomically. Floras and checklists represent an alternative, yet rarely used potential source of information. They contain highly curated information about the species composition of a clearly defined area, and together virtually cover the entire global land surface. Here, we report on our recent efforts to mobilize this information for macroecological and biogeographical analyses in the GIFT database, the Global Inventory of Floras and Traits. Location: Global. Taxon: Land plants (Embryophyta).Methods: GIFT integrates plant distributions from regional Floras and checklists with functional traits, phylogenetic information, and region-level geographic, environmental and socio-economic data. It contains information about the floristic status (native, endemic, alien and naturalized) and takes advantage of the wealth of trait information in the regional Floras, complemented by data from global trait databases.Results: GIFT 1.0 holds species lists for 2,893 regions across the whole globe including ~315,000 taxonomically standardized species names (i.e. c. 80% of all known land plant species) and ~3 million species-by-region occurrences. Based on a hierarchical and taxonomical derivation scheme, GIFT contains information for 83 functional traits and more than 2.3 million trait-by-species combinations and achieves unprecedented coverage in categorical traits such as woodiness (~233,000 spp.) or growth form (~213,000 spp.). Main conclusions:Here, we present the structure, content and automated workflows of GIFT and a corresponding web-interface (http://gift.uni-goett ingen.de) as proof of concept for the feasibility and potential of mobilizing aggregated biodiversity data for global macroecological and biogeographical research.

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Section: Several National and International Initiatives Focus On Mobimentioning

confidence: 99%

GIFT – A Global Inventory of Floras and Traits for macroecology and biogeography

Weigelt

König

Kreft

2019

Journal of Biogeography

152

189

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“…Because the majority of the data used in the study were sourced from biological collections, it is a compelling demonstration of the value of specimen data from museums and other repositories for base-line ecological studies (Beck et al 2012;Powney and Isaac 2015). At the same time, our dataset has some intrinsic limitations typical for information assembled from biological collections: incomplete sampling both in terms of sampling effort and geographic extent, compounded by the lack of taxonomic revisions for areas such as Argentina, which limited data mobilisation (Isaac and Pocock 2015).…”

Section: Limitations Of the Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Key environmental determinants of global and regional richness and endemism patterns for a wild bee subfamily

et al. 2017

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Reports of world-wide decline of pollinators, and of bees in particular, raise increasing concerns about maintenance of pollination interactions. While local factors of bee decline are relatively well known and potential mitigation strategies at the landscape scale have been outlined, the regional and continental-scale threats to bee diversity have only been marginally explored. Here we document large-scale spatial patterns for a representative bee subfamily, the determinants of its species richness, and assess major threats to these pollinators. Using a comprehensive global dataset of Colletinae (genera Colletes, also called ''polyester'' or ''cellophane'' bees for their underground nests lined with a polyester secretion, and Mourecotelles), a species-rich subfamily whose organismal and physiological ecology is representative of many bees, we measured species richness and endemism on global to continental scales. We explored the relationships between bee species richness and potential environmental stress factors grouped into three categories: contemporary climate, habitat heterogeneity, and anthropogenic pressure. Bees of the subfamily Colletinae demonstrate the reversed latitudinal gradient in species richness and endemism suggested for bees; the highest species richness of Colletinae was found between 30°and 50°latitude in both the northern and southern hemispheres. Centres of endemism largely overlapped with those of species richness. The importance of the Greater Cape Floristic Region, previously identified as a centre of richness and endemism of bees, 123Biodivers Conserv (2018Conserv ( ) 27:287-309 https://doi.org/10.1007Conserv ( /s10531-017-1432 was confirmed for Colletinae. On the global scale, present-day climate was a significant predictor of species richness as was flowering plant diversity represented by vascular plant species richness and centres of plant diversity. Our main conclusion is that climate change constitutes a potential threat to bee diversity, as does declining diversity of vascular plants. However, a significant overlap between centres of bee richness and plant diversity might increase chances for developing conservation strategies.

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“…Primary biodiversity records (PBR) are essential in biogeography, trend assessment, climate change ecology or conservation biology (Rocchini et al, 2011; Powney & Isaac, 2015). At their most basic level, PBR provide fundamental data about location of living beings—what, where and when—(Ariño et al, 2012) and have been widely used for building maps and models of species distribution.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The relevance and utility of these data are both important for assessing priority areas for conservation and determining drivers of biodiversity loss (Willis et al, 2007; Powney & Isaac, 2015, Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), 2010). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biodiversity data obsolescence and land uses changes

Escribano

Ariño

Galicia

2016

PeerJ

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BackgroundPrimary biodiversity records (PBR) are essential in many areas of scientific research as they document the biodiversity through time and space. However, concerns about PBR quality and fitness-for-use have grown, especially as derived from taxonomical, geographical and sampling effort biases. Nonetheless, the temporal bias stemming from data ageing has received less attention. We examine the effect of changes in land use in the information currentness, and therefore data obsolescence, in biodiversity databases.MethodsWe created maps of land use changes for three periods (1956–1985, 1985–2000 and 2000–2012) at 5-kilometres resolution. For each cell we calculated the percentage of land use change within each period. We then overlaid distribution data about small mammals, and classified each data as ‘non-obsolete or ‘obsolete,’ depending on both the amount of land use changes in the cell, and whether changes occurred at or after the data sampling’s date.ResultsA total of 14,528 records out of the initial 59,677 turned out to be non-obsolete after taking into account the changes in the land uses in Navarra. These obsolete data existed in 115 of the 156 cells analysed. Furthermore, more than one half of the remaining cells holding non-obsolete records had not been visited at least for the last fifteen years.ConclusionLand use changes challenge the actual information obtainable from biodiversity datasets and therefore its potential uses. With the passage of time, one can expect a steady increase in the availability and use of biological records—but not without them becoming older and likely to be obsolete by land uses changes. Therefore, it becomes necessary to assess records’ obsolescence, as it may jeopardize the knowledge and perception of biodiversity patterns.

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Beyond maps: a review of the applications of biological records

Cited by 84 publications

References 122 publications

GIFT – A Global Inventory of Floras and Traits for macroecology and biogeography

GIFT – A Global Inventory of Floras and Traits for macroecology and biogeography

Key environmental determinants of global and regional richness and endemism patterns for a wild bee subfamily

Biodiversity data obsolescence and land uses changes

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