Biodiversity: the chasm between what we know and we need to know.

Magnusson, William E.

doi:10.1590/0001-3765201920190079

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 12 publications

(10 reference statements)

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“…Biodiversity studies are increasingly expected to provide knowledge able to support decision making (e.g., Magnusson, 2019). And such task encompasses both the production of relevant idiographic and nomothetic knowledge (for a fine discussion on idiographic and nomothetic knowledge, see Currie, 2019; for a context more applied to biodiversity studies, see Gould, 1980; Cotterill & Foissner, 2010).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Haeckelian shortfall or the tale of the missing semaphoronts

Faria

Pie

Salles

et al. 2020

J. Zool. Syst. Evol. Res.

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When faced with the daunting and exciting task of studying biodiversity, one must necessarily come to terms with a few challenging knowledge gaps, the so‐called biodiversity shortfalls. Given that biodiversity is inherently multidimensional, it seems rather natural to admit that hitherto unrecognized shortfalls, on other distinct aspects of biodiversity, should be considered. Here, we introduce the Haeckelian shortfall, which has as its nexus organismal ontogeny, and refers to the relative scarcity of knowledge about the distinct semaphoronts of a substantial fraction of all known species. The Haeckelian shortfall has a profound relevance on the matter of total evidence, in the context of systematics, besides several indirect effects on the other shortfalls, as they all are intimately interconnected. The importance of studying distinct semaphoronts is crystal clear: Besides the purest and most descriptive access to the ontogeny of species (the idiographic aspect), assessing those semaphoronts will certainly promote the advancement of relevant nomothetic knowledge, contributing to an increasingly meaningful eco–evo–devo. Overcoming the Haeckelian shortfall is certainly a major challenge in our task of knowing and preserving biodiversity.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Haeckelian shortfall or the tale of the missing semaphoronts

Faria

Pie

Salles

et al. 2020

J. Zool. Syst. Evol. Res.

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“…Inventories based on plot data can greatly reduce such shortfalls of biological knowledge, especially when implemented through standardized and integrated sampling (Magnusson 2013). Combining efforts to build large databases can boost biodiversity research, reduce the aforementioned shortfalls and enable the macroscale analyses required to understand a world under global change (Magnusson 2019). Much of the progress in the understanding of tree, palm, and liana ecology in the last two decades has been due to the creation of collaborative networks, which have either applied standardized protocols to collect biodiversity and demographic data [e.g., CTFS (http://ctfs.si.edu/); PPBio (https:// ppbio.inpa.gov.br/); RAINFOR (https://rainfor.org/)] or have compiled existing but dispersed data into accessible repositories [e.g., ATDN (https://www.atdn.myspecies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

HERBase: A collection of understorey herb vegetation plots from Amazonia

André

Almeida

et al. 2023

Acta Amaz.

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Understorey herbs form a diverse and understudied plant assemblage in tropical forests. Although several studies and research teams have long been dedicated to the study of this conspicuous vegetation component in Amazonia, no effort to unify the data has been undertaken to date. In contrast to trees and other life forms for which major data compilations already exist, a unified database dedicated to herbs is still lacking. Part of the problem is in defining what is a herb and how to effectively sample herb assemblages. In this article, we describe the database HERBase, an exhaustive compilation of published and unpublished data on herb inventories in Amazonia. We also describe the structure, functioning, and guidelines for data curation and integration in HERBase. We were able to compile information from 1381 plots from all six Amazonian geographic regions. Based on this dataset, we describe and discuss sampling and knowledge gaps, priority areas for new collections, and recommend sampling protocols to facilitate data integration in the future. This novel database provides a unique biodiversity data repository on understorey herbs that will enable new studies on community ecology and biogeography.

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Biodiversity: the chasm between what we know and we need to know.

Abstract: How to cite: MAgNUSSON We. 2019. Biodiversity: the chasm between what we know and we need to know. An Acad Bras Cienc 91: e20190079.

Cited by 4 publications

References 12 publications

The Haeckelian shortfall or the tale of the missing semaphoronts

The Haeckelian shortfall or the tale of the missing semaphoronts

HERBase: A collection of understorey herb vegetation plots from Amazonia

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