Spatial and topical imbalances in biodiversity research.

The rapid erosion of biodiversity is among the biggest challenges human society is facing. Concurrently, major efforts are in place to quantify changes in biodiversity, to understand the consequences for ecosystem functioning and human wellbeing, and to develop sustainable management strategies. Bas...

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Main Authors: Laura Tydecks, Jonathan M Jeschke, Max Wolf, Gabriel Singer, Klement Tockner
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2018-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6033392?pdf=render
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spelling doaj-3314d54aadcd44619e602a517d71f37b2020-11-25T02:10:30ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032018-01-01137e019932710.1371/journal.pone.0199327Spatial and topical imbalances in biodiversity research.Laura TydecksJonathan M JeschkeMax WolfGabriel SingerKlement TocknerThe rapid erosion of biodiversity is among the biggest challenges human society is facing. Concurrently, major efforts are in place to quantify changes in biodiversity, to understand the consequences for ecosystem functioning and human wellbeing, and to develop sustainable management strategies. Based on comprehensive bibliometric analyses covering 134,321 publications, we report systematic spatial biases in biodiversity-related research. Research is dominated by wealthy countries, while major research deficits occur in regions with disproportionately high biodiversity as well as a high share of threatened species. Similarly, core scientists, who were assessed through their publication impact, work primarily in North America and Europe. Though they mainly exchange and collaborate across locations of these two continents, the connectivity among them has increased with time. Finally, biodiversity-related research has primarily focused on terrestrial systems, plants, and the species level, and is frequently conducted in Europe and Asia by researchers affiliated with European and North American institutions. The distinct spatial imbalances in biodiversity research, as demonstrated here, must be filled, research capacity built, particularly in the Global South, and spatially-explicit biodiversity data bases improved, curated and shared.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6033392?pdf=render
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Laura Tydecks
Jonathan M Jeschke
Max Wolf
Gabriel Singer
Klement Tockner
spellingShingle Laura Tydecks
Jonathan M Jeschke
Max Wolf
Gabriel Singer
Klement Tockner
Spatial and topical imbalances in biodiversity research.
PLoS ONE
author_facet Laura Tydecks
Jonathan M Jeschke
Max Wolf
Gabriel Singer
Klement Tockner
author_sort Laura Tydecks
title Spatial and topical imbalances in biodiversity research.
title_short Spatial and topical imbalances in biodiversity research.
title_full Spatial and topical imbalances in biodiversity research.
title_fullStr Spatial and topical imbalances in biodiversity research.
title_full_unstemmed Spatial and topical imbalances in biodiversity research.
title_sort spatial and topical imbalances in biodiversity research.
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
series PLoS ONE
issn 1932-6203
publishDate 2018-01-01
description The rapid erosion of biodiversity is among the biggest challenges human society is facing. Concurrently, major efforts are in place to quantify changes in biodiversity, to understand the consequences for ecosystem functioning and human wellbeing, and to develop sustainable management strategies. Based on comprehensive bibliometric analyses covering 134,321 publications, we report systematic spatial biases in biodiversity-related research. Research is dominated by wealthy countries, while major research deficits occur in regions with disproportionately high biodiversity as well as a high share of threatened species. Similarly, core scientists, who were assessed through their publication impact, work primarily in North America and Europe. Though they mainly exchange and collaborate across locations of these two continents, the connectivity among them has increased with time. Finally, biodiversity-related research has primarily focused on terrestrial systems, plants, and the species level, and is frequently conducted in Europe and Asia by researchers affiliated with European and North American institutions. The distinct spatial imbalances in biodiversity research, as demonstrated here, must be filled, research capacity built, particularly in the Global South, and spatially-explicit biodiversity data bases improved, curated and shared.
url http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6033392?pdf=render
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