Spatial Gaps in Global Biodiversity Information and the Role of  Citizen Science

Amano, Tatsuya; Lamming, James D. L.; Sutherland, William J.

doi:10.1093/biosci/biw022

Cited by 199 publications

(204 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…The completeness of current sampling available on the GBIF database can be considered a limitation but GBIF bird data are disproportionately better sampled and curated than other taxon groups (Maldonado et al 2015, Amano et al 2016, Troudet et al 2017) and our results are consistent with the distribution and diversity of rails and patterns inferred for other vertebrates. in Africa and parts of central and northern Asia), the power of the approach will continue to increase as GIS records of taxon locations accumulate.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

Contrasting patterns of diversification in a bird family (Aves: Gruiformes: Rallidae) are revealed by analysis of geospatial distribution of species and phylogenetic diversity

2018

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Geospatial patterns in the distribution of regional biodiversity reflect the composite processes that underpin evolution: speciation, dispersal and extinction. The spatial distribution and phylogeny of a globally widespread and species rich bird family (Rallidae) were used to help assess the role of large-scale biogeographical processes in diversity and diversification. Here, we examine how different geostatistical diversity metrics enhance our understanding of species distribution by linking occurrence records of rail species to corresponding species level phylogeny. Tropical regions and temperate zones contained a large proportion of rail species richness and phylogenetic diversity whilst small islands in Australian, Oceanian and Oriental regions held the highest weighted and phylogenetic endemism. Our results suggest that habitat connectivity and dispersal were important ecological features in rail evolution and distribution. Spatial isolation was a significant driver of diversification where islands in Oceania were centres of neo-endemism with recent multiple and independent speciation events and could be considered as nurseries of biodiversity. Palaeo-endemism was mostly associated with older stable regions, so despite extensive long distance range shifting these areas retain their own ancient and distinct character. Madagascar was the major area of palaeo-endemism associated with the oldest rail lineages and could be considered a museum of rail diversity. This implies a mixture of processes determine the current distribution and diversity of rail clades with some areas dominated by recent 'in situ' speciation while others harbour old diversity with ecological traits that have stood the test of time.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

Contrasting patterns of diversification in a bird family (Aves: Gruiformes: Rallidae) are revealed by analysis of geospatial distribution of species and phylogenetic diversity

2018

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“…Using exact sequences in place of OTUs and a learned structure of microbial environments, we have shown that agglomerative sampling can work to reveal basic biogeographic patterns of microbial ecology, with resolution and scope rivaling data compilations currently available for ‘macrobial’ ecology 44,45 . Our results point to key organizing principles of microbial communities, with less rich communities nested within richer communities at higher taxonomic levels, and environment specificity becoming much more evident at the level of individual 16S rRNA sequences.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A communal catalogue reveals Earth’s multiscale microbial diversity

Thompson¹,

Sanders²,

McDonald³

et al. 2017

Nature

2,036

1,758

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A primary aim of microbial ecology is to determine patterns and drivers of community distribution, interaction, and assembly amidst complexity and uncertainty. Microbial community composition has been shown to change across gradients of environment, geographic distance, salinity, temperature, oxygen, nutrients, pH, day length, and biotic factors 1-6 . These patterns have been identified mostly by focusing on one sample type and region at a time, with insights extra polated across environments and geography to produce generalized principles. To assess how microbes are distributed across environments globally-or whether microbial community dynamics follow funda mental ecological 'laws' at a planetary scale-requires either a massive monolithic cross environment survey or a practical methodology for coordinating many independent surveys. New studies of microbial environments are rapidly accumulating; however, our ability to extract meaningful information from across datasets is outstripped by the rate of data generation. Previous meta analyses have suggested robust gen eral trends in community composition, including the importance of salinity 1 and animal association 2 . These findings, although derived from relatively small and uncontrolled sample sets, support the util ity of meta analysis to reveal basic patterns of microbial diversity and suggest that a scalable and accessible analytical framework is needed.The Earth Microbiome Project (EMP, http://www.earthmicrobiome. org) was founded in 2010 to sample the Earth's microbial communities at an unprecedented scale in order to advance our understanding of the organizing biogeographic principles that govern microbial commu nity structure 7,8 . We recognized that open and collaborative science, including scientific crowdsourcing and standardized methods 8 , would help to reduce technical variation among individual studies, which can overwhelm biological variation and make general trends difficult to detect 9 . Comprising around 100 studies, over half of which have yielded peer reviewed publications (Supplementary Table 1), the EMP has now dwarfed by 100 fold the sampling and sequencing depth of earlier meta analysis efforts 1,2 ; concurrently, powerful analysis tools have been developed, opening a new and larger window into the distri bution of microbial diversity on Earth. In establishing a scalable frame work to catalogue microbiota globally, we provide both a resource for the exploration of myriad questions and a starting point for the guided acquisition of new data to answer them. As an example of using this Our growing awareness of the microbial world's importance and diversity contrasts starkly with our limited understanding of its fundamental structure. Despite recent advances in DNA sequencing, a lack of standardized protocols and common analytical frameworks impedes comparisons among studies, hindering the development of global inferences about microbial life on Earth. Here we present a meta-analysis of microbial community samples collected by hundreds of r...

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“…Nevertheless, resources for collecting data on biodiversity are-and will always be-limited (Baan et al 2013;Rüdisser 2015). Public participation seems to be an interesting option to support the collection and processing of biodiversity data (Domroese and Johnson 2017;Amano et al 2016), and, at the same time, to generate authentic opportunities for environmental education (Chen and Cowie 2013). Such projects can lead to public engagement and can have transformative learning potential (Bela et al 2016;Dickinson et al 2012;Hobbs and White 2012;Lewandowski and Oberhauser 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simplified and still meaningful: assessing butterfly habitat quality in grasslands with data collected by pupils

et al. 2017

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Spatial Gaps in Global Biodiversity Information and the Role of  Citizen Science

Cited by 199 publications

References 31 publications

Contrasting patterns of diversification in a bird family (Aves: Gruiformes: Rallidae) are revealed by analysis of geospatial distribution of species and phylogenetic diversity

Contrasting patterns of diversification in a bird family (Aves: Gruiformes: Rallidae) are revealed by analysis of geospatial distribution of species and phylogenetic diversity

A communal catalogue reveals Earth’s multiscale microbial diversity

Simplified and still meaningful: assessing butterfly habitat quality in grasslands with data collected by pupils

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Spatial Gaps in Global Biodiversity Information and the Role of Citizen Science

Cited by 199 publications

References 31 publications

Contrasting patterns of diversification in a bird family (Aves: Gruiformes: Rallidae) are revealed by analysis of geospatial distribution of species and phylogenetic diversity

Contrasting patterns of diversification in a bird family (Aves: Gruiformes: Rallidae) are revealed by analysis of geospatial distribution of species and phylogenetic diversity

A communal catalogue reveals Earth’s multiscale microbial diversity

Simplified and still meaningful: assessing butterfly habitat quality in grasslands with data collected by pupils

Contact Info

Product

Resources

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Spatial Gaps in Global Biodiversity Information and the Role of  Citizen Science