Sampling completeness changes perceptions of continental scale climate–species richness relationships in odonates

Abstract

AimInsects are one of the least studied taxa, with most species lacking basic ecological and biogeographical information. This problem is particularly acute in the tropics, where low sampling effort hampers accurate estimates of species richness at scale and potentially confounds efforts to identify the drivers of biogeographical gradients. Here, we evaluate the quality of the data on the distribution and diversity of odonate species in the Neotropics, while also examining the influence of sampling completeness on climate–richness relationships using a comprehensive database of odonates.LocationThe Neotropics.TaxonOdonata.MethodsUsing 56,535 records collected from 1970 to 2021, we assess whether climate–species richness models vary under different scenarios of survey completeness.ResultsOur survey compilation revealed that most Neotropical diversity of Odonata likely remains unknown. Only 1% of the one‐degree cells covering the Neotropics held reliable information on odonate species richness, with particularly severe gaps in the Caribbean, Central America, northeastern Brazil and northern Chile. Temperature, precipitation and potential evapotranspiration exert consistent effects on Odonata richness across the entire Neotropics, regardless the level of survey completeness. Whereas seasonality‐related variables are less important predictors of species richness at the biogeographical scale.Main ConclusionsBy highlighting areas where inventories are more reliable and identifying regions that require increased data collection efforts and mobilization, our assessment offers a roadmap for improving the reliability of odonate inventories in the Neotropics. Furthermore, our findings underscore the importance of accounting for varying levels of survey completeness in macroecological models to reveal robust climate–species richness relationships. Simultaneously, they highlight strong climatic predictors of species richness, irrespective of survey effort intensity. These predictors provide a solid foundation for modelling and predicting odonate species richness in the Neotropics.

Assessing the spatial knowledge gaps of Odonata diversity and conservation in the South American Pampa

“…Despite covering only Our results showed that the current knowledge on the Odonata fauna covered less than 2% of the grid cells of the Pampas (Figure 1). These results featured the huge spatial knowledge gap on the odonate fauna in this biome, despite the steady increase in the amount of scientific research published on Odonata in the last decades, especially in Brazil and Argentina (Lozano et al, 2020;Miguel et al, 2017;Muzón et al, 2023;Oliveira-Júnior et al, 2022), and agree with reviews describing the current lack of data on the distribution of Neotropical Odonata (Alves-Martins et al, 2024;Beatty et al, 2022). This result is similar to the shortfall in tropical forests-a previous study showed that mayfly distribution covered less than <5% of the range of the Brazilian Amazon territory (Cardoso et al, 2023).…”

“…Although Odonata is one of the most taxonomically well-resolved insect orders, with a sharp increase in the number of species descriptions recently (particularly in the Neotropics), estimates suggest that $500 Odonata species remain to be described in the world (Olaya, 2019;Parise Pinto et al, 2022). Nevertheless, significant knowledge gaps regarding biology and distribution of the order remain in the Neotropical region (Alves-Martins et al, 2024;Beatty et al, 2022). Although the number of odonate species listed as threatened in the IUCN red list continues to increase, conservation assessments of Neotropical aquatic insects are scarce (Sánchez-Bayo & Wyckhuys, 2019).…”