A new framework for global biodiversity information shortfalls

SémIdeev
 20/06/2025
 12:00:00
 Richard Ladle, Federal University of Alagoas, Brazil
 IDEEV - Salle Rosalind Franklin

Global biodiversity information suffers from gaps, biases, and uncertainty over time and space, afflicting all taxonomic groups. Incomplete or biased data feeds models of biodiversity trends with uncertainty, providing faulty inferences and potential knock-on effects on conservation efforts. In this seminar I will present a new framework for understanding the limitations of global biodiversity knowledge, identifying eleven shortfalls spanning taxonomic, ecological, evolutionary, and biocultural aspects, and providing a general definition for data quality, coverage and bias in each category. Information gaps have been molded by scientists’ capacity and willingness to collect data, which are constrained by a series of impediments: financial, taxonomic and technological that vary across regions and taxonomic groups. Addressing these challenges is crucial for understanding biodiversity patterns and processes, and developing effective conservation actions.