Three questions: How can taxonomists survive and thrive worldwide?

Orr, Michael C.; Ascher, John S.; Bai, Ming; Chesters, Douglas; Zhu, Chao‐Dong

doi:10.11646/megataxa.1.1.4

Cited by 36 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…A better approach is to use data of species localities sensibly to develop predictions of where species are known to occur, restrict extrapolation to the country or island where localities exist and use these predicted ranges as a replacement for “expert range maps”. Such initiatives could also be used to drive data aggregation and sharing, maximizing the availability of open data such as those made available through GBIF (although careful error checking is needed; Orr et al, 2020). Given that such data biases are well known in GBIF, further digitization and data‐sharing efforts will be key.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effectively and accurately mapping global biodiversity patterns for different regions and taxa

Hughes

Orr

Yang

et al. 2021

Global Ecol Biogeogr

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Aim The aim was to understand the representativeness and accuracy of expert range maps and to explore alternative methods for mapping species distributions accurately. Location Global. Time period Contemporary. Major taxa studied Terrestrial vertebrates and Odonata. Methods We analysed the biases in 50,768 animal International Union for Conservation of Nature, Global Assessment of Reptile Distributions and BirdLife species maps and assessed the links between these maps and existing political boundaries and various non‐ecological boundaries to assess their accuracy for certain types of analyses. We cross‐referenced each species map with data from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility to assess whether maps captured the whole range of a species and what percentage of occurrence points fell within the assessed range of the species. In addition, we used a number of different methods to map diversity patterns and compared these with high‐resolution models of distribution patterns. Results On average, 20–30% of the non‐coastal range boundaries of species overlapped with administrative national boundaries. In total, 60% of areas with the highest spatial turnover in species (high densities of species range boundaries marking high levels of shift in the community of species present) occurred at political boundaries, which was especially common in Southeast Asia. Different biases existed for different taxa, with gridded analysis in reptiles, river basins in Odonata (except the Americas) and county boundaries for amphibians in the USA. On average, up to half (25–46%) of the recorded range points of species fell outside their mapped distributions. Filtered minimum convex polygons performed better than expert range maps in reproducing modelled diversity patterns. Main conclusions Expert range maps showed high bias at administrative borders in all taxa, but this was highest at the transition from tropical to subtropical regions. The methods used were inconsistent across space, time and taxa, and the ranges mapped did not match species distribution data. Alternative approaches can reconstruct patterns of distribution better than expert maps, and data‐driven approaches are needed to provide reliable alternatives to gain a better understanding of species distributions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effectively and accurately mapping global biodiversity patterns for different regions and taxa

Hughes

Orr

Yang

et al. 2021

Global Ecol Biogeogr

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Such initiatives could also be used to drive data aggregation and sharing, maximizing the availability of open data such as that made available through GBIF (though careful error checking is needed, Orr et al, in review). To further grow these resources, mechanisms must also be developed to better fund taxonomic data verifications and museum data digitization, including also mandated data sharing for projects receiving this funding (Orr et al 2020). Such data are more likely to capture less-accessible areas and rarer species than that generated by citizen scientists, making them invaluable for generating a representative view of the natural world (Hughes et al, in review).…”

Section: Finding a Reliable And Accurate Solutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effectively and accurately mapping global biodiversity patterns for different regions and taxa

Hughes

Orr

Yang

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Understanding patterns of biodiversity is crucial for developing appropriate conservation and management plans. The IUCN RedList is looked upon as a source of globally-consistent assessment of species extinction risk, including range maps as part of the extinction risk assessment. Species ranges are a central criterion in determining extinction vulnerability, and consequently apportioning conservation and research efforts. Thus, the accuracy of these maps is crucial to the effective conservation of global biodiversity. Given difficulties in acquiring sufficient, reliable point data and the need for species or diversity maps within many studies, countless papers rely on these centralized expert range maps. However, such efforts are vulnerable to errors if not carefully checked, and the drive to assess as many species as possible rather than to ensure meaningful quality assessment may drive high error rates, with huge implications for species conservation. Recent efforts to account for the over-generalization of species ranges by trimming species ranges with landcover and elevation also makes a number of assumptions on the consistency and accuracy of global data, the lack of politically-driven biases. Here, we analyse the biases present in 50768 animal IUCN and BirdLife maps and provide suggestions on how such analyses could be improved, and flag spatial and taxonomic inconsistencies to enable analysis to acknowledge the limitations of data in further analysis based on these maps. We also discuss effective ways to overcome these biases, the limits of such applications and explore alternative means of mapping diversity patterns.

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“…This inaugural issue presents a collection of 15 papers on the top three questions/challenges in taxonomy from their perspective. In addition to the urgent task of describing new species and completing a full inventory of life on earth (Orr et al 2020…”

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confidence: 99%

Megataxa for big science questions in taxonomy

Zhang

2020

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I am delighted to announce the inaugural issue of Megataxa, a new journal designed for large monographic reviews and highly significant original papers reporting major advances in taxonomy. Megataxa aims to be a premium journal of high impact to encourage most important works in taxonomy. As a general journal of taxonomy, Megataxa will also include an editorial/correspondence section to allow announcements of major news, debates of highly significant issues, theory/method papers of general taxonomic significance, and biographic profiles for recently passed eminent taxonomists.

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Three questions: How can taxonomists survive and thrive worldwide?

Cited by 36 publications

References 61 publications

Effectively and accurately mapping global biodiversity patterns for different regions and taxa

Effectively and accurately mapping global biodiversity patterns for different regions and taxa

Effectively and accurately mapping global biodiversity patterns for different regions and taxa

Megataxa for big science questions in taxonomy

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