GBIF SECRETARIAT

2021

Foreword

JOE MILLER

About the Science Review

Welcome to the latest issue of the GBIF Science Review!

GBIF Executive Secretary

The avid reader will no doubt have noticed that the Science

DANIEL NOESGAARD

Review in your hands looks quite different from previous

Science Communications

Enclosed you’ll find summaries for 53 peer-reviewed

years’ editions, largely thanks to the latest addition to thearticles published in 2020 that made substantive use of

Secretariat communications team, Javier Gamboa, and hisdata from the GBIF network. These cross-disciplinary

outstanding visual design skills.

exemplars are only a fraction of the year’s nearly 1,000
such papers. Together they represent “the promisingThis year, we’ve chosen a more uniform design, giving

directions” highlighted by GBIF governing board chaireach article an entire spread to accommodate more de-

Tanya Abrahamse in February 2021, upon publication of

tailed summaries, better-structured metadata and a

Mason Heberling’s review in the Proceedings of the Na-beautiful wide image accompanying each story. The left-

tional Academy of Sciences analysing more than 4,000

hand page of each spread highlights the topic, the number

GBIF-enabled peer-reviewed articles.

of occurrences used and the geographic focus, while theright-hand has the bibliographic details, including the

The Science Review also introduces a feature section,

particulars about the authors and the journal in which

this time focused on marine research, which cuts acrossthe article appeared.

several topics while highlighting our partnership with
OBIS, the Ocean Biodiversity Information System. As al-

We hope you enjoy reading the new Science Review—as

ways, we encourage you to visit GBIF.org, where you canmuch as we’ve enjoyed putting it together!

keep track of the latest finds from our literature tracking
programme.

Coordinator

2021

Uses and trends

Peer-reviewed articles by region

These visualizations of the use of GBIF-mediated data

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2021

reveal more than the growing number of peer-reviewed

2020

publications supported each year. The overlay on the

1000

graph below emphasizes authors’ increasing use of DOI-

1300

800

based citations, a crucial practice for maintaining data

984
724

provenance and scientific transparency. At right, the

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102

600
400

charts reveal the expanded geographic distribution of200

institutions whose researchers apply the data in theirresearch. Each trend highlights GBIF’s widening sphereof influence and impact on scientific research.

987
445
381

398
332

Annual number of peer-reviewed articles
using GBIF-mediated data
743
696

# Total citations

437
324

676

# DOI citations

Peer-reviewed uses by country
553

438

407

331

2021

238
227

2020

168
142
123
140
109
131

350

229

309

249

85

148

130
93
102

161
117

77

99

78
53

41
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2
2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

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TopicsCITIZEN SCIENCETAXONOMY
BIOGEOGRAPHY
SPECIES DISTRIBUTION
BIODIVERSITY SCIENCEDATA MANAGEMENTINVASIVESECOSYSTEM SERVICESCONSERVATIONAGRICULTURE
ECOLOGYEVOLUTION
CLIMATE CHANGEPHYLOGENETICSHUMAN HEALTHDNAMARINE

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2021

The effects of climate change in Colombia
1

on virus-carrying mosquito
occurrences of A. aegypti combined with environmental

Portilla Cabrera CV anddata to model the distribution of the species now and in

Selvaraj JJ

future climates.
The

prediction of areas currently suitable for themosquito corresponds largely with the known casesof dengue, chikungunya and zika found mainly in the
Caribbean and Andean regions. Significant overall reductions of up to 30 per cent, however, are predicted by

Colombia
Geographic shifts in thebioclimatic suitability for Aedes
aegypti under climate change
scenarios in Colombia
Heliyon2050 and 2070. Changes will affect regions differently,

doi.org/10.1016/

as some departments such as Nariño and Cauca arej.heliyon.2019.e03101

likely to face expansions.
Aedes aegypti observed in Houston, TX, USA by pisum (CC BY-NC 4.0)

While the models may accurately predict reduced climatic suitability of the vector, warming climates may

HEALTH
CLIMATE CHANGE

128
SPECIES OCCURRENCES
Colombia

Study shows decreases in overall bioclimatic
suitability for Aedes aegypti under climatechange scenarios in Colombia, but highlights
other effects of warming that might increaserisk of disease

shorten time required for larval maturing and also leadto faster and more frequent feeding of the female adultmosquito, thus increasing overall transmission risk.
The study concludes that more occurrence data is needed
and that future studies should take into consideration not
only climate, but also socioeconomic variables and data on

Climate change has the potential to significantly altervirus transmission dynamics.

the range of human disease vectors, such as the Aedes
aegypti mosquito, responsible for the transmission of
dengue, chikungunya and zika viruses.
In this study, researchers in Colombia—a country with
abundant mosquito proliferation and limited resources
for medical care and vector control—used GBIF-mediated
8

9

2021

Habitat loss due to land conversion in US2southwest deserts
Using GBIF-mediated occurrences of ten Ashmeadiellaspecies combined with data from the authors’ own collections, they created ecological niche models predicting

Land Conversion for Solar

scape layers and locations of solar power facilities, they

Facilities and Urban Sprawl

ment of plants.

reflect the sunlight to boilers atop three tall power towers. Photo by National Renewable Energy Lab (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

USA

the potential distribution of the species. Assessing landestimated land conversion directly related to develop-

At the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in California, 300,000 mirrors track the sun in two dimensions andMcCoshum SM and Geber MA

in Southwest Deserts Causes
Different Amounts of Habitat
Loss for Ashmeadiella Bees

While the results suggested that land conversion due

Journal of the Kansas

to development of solar facilities leads to direct habi-

Entomological Society

tat loss for all investigated species, the impact of urban

doi.org/10.2317/

sprawl as a whole is much greater. The study recom-

0022-8567-92.2.468

mends incorporating pollinator conservation practices
directly into the permitting processes to mitigate theeffects of land conversion.

ECOSYSTEM SERVICESCONSERVATION

21,556
SPECIES OCCURRENCES
USA

Study finds urban sprawl the bigger culprit incausing potential habitat loss for desert bees
With high potential for renewable energy production,
the Southwest deserts of the United States have beenpromoted for solar facilities to meet increasing demands and green energy targets. Development andproduction, however, affects habitats and may threaten
desert biodiversity.
In this study, researchers from Cornell University investigated the potential habitat loss for Ashmeadiellabees in Southwestern deserts due to land conversion
associated with solar power plants compared withgeneral urban sprawl.

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3

Data on the origins of food crops
with detailed information about taxonomic and geographic origins, aimed at stimulating new, comparative
analyses on the origins of food crops.

Milla R
Spain
Crop Origins and Phylo Food:

Using GBIF-mediated species occurrences of the mostA database and a phylogenetic
tree to stimulate comparative

likely wild progenitors of all crops, the author derived

analyses on the origins of foodnative ranges for which they described climate based on

crops

19 variables from WorldClim, and assigned ecoregions
based on the location of the highest number of occurrences for each progenitor.

Global Ecology and
Biogeography
doi.org/10.1111/

In addition, the paper also introduces Phylo Food, a new
Pouteria sapota (Jacq.) H.E.Moore & Stearn observed in Mexico by Hannia Ayerim Tec Tuyub (CC BY-NC 4.0)

geb.13057

phylogeny derived from a time-calibrated molecular mega-tree of nearly 75,000 plants pruned for the crop taxa.
Exploring the phylogenetic patterns of the tree shows that

AGRICULTUREPHYLOGENETICS

355,597
SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Paper describes a new database and phylogenetic tree to stimulate research on the macroecological and macroevolutionary patterns ofcrop origins

crop species are widely distributed across major clades—with about half being rosids, 25 per cent superasterids
and the remaining monocots and magnoliids.
The datasets with accompanying metadata and code arefreely available online, and interested colleagues are in-Domestication and cultivation of a few hundred wild

vited to provide feedback and report inaccuracies to theplant species has formed the basis of our current foodauthor.

system. Detailed knowledge on the history of thesecrops, however, is limited to a few species, and researchon the macroecological and macroevolutionary patternsof crop origins is scant.
This paper introduces Crop Origins, a comprehensive
database on identities and usage of 866 food crop species
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2021

The West African Plants Initiative:a model for need-driven specimen
4

digitization
By connecting motivated researchers across West Africa

Asase A, Sainge MN, Radji RA,

with herbaria in Europe and North America with a desire

Ugbogu OA and Peterson AT

to have their collections digitized, WAP has enabled—at

Ghana, Cameroon, Togo, Nigeria,

an average cost of $0.50 per sheet—the mobilization ofUSA

more than 190,000 primary biodiversity records in 16
countries in the region. Not all of these have been sharednational d’Histoire naturelle, Paris (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

driven progress in generating

through GBIF yet, but as a whole represent an increaseprimary biodiversity informationin digital accessible knowledge of West African flora byresourcesmore than 50 per cent.

Crepidomanes africanum collected in Cameroon. Photo by Germinal ROUHAN / Vincent DEBLAUWE via Museum

A new model for efficient, need-

Applications in Plant Sciences

The study further assessed 57 million GBIF-mediateddoi.org/10.1002/

records of plant specimens globally to calculate the pro-aps3.11318

portion of records by country provided by institutions inother countries as a means for exploring the model of theinitiative in different regions of the world.

BIODIVERSITY SCIENCEDATA MANAGEMENT

57 MILLION
SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Empowering data users—rather than specimen
holding institutions—to drive digitization of
herbarium sheets
The global distributions of wealth and biodiversity,

Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia,

respectively, are uneven and often inversely propor-

Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra

tional. Similarly, the availability of biodiversity data

Leone, Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire,
Ghana, Mali, Burkina Faso,

tends to be highest in the wealthiest but least biodiverse

Togo, Benin, Niger, Nigeria,

regions of the world.

CameroonThis study presents the West African Plants (WAP)
Initiative, exploring a general model of empowering
users in countries who wish to have access to data tocapture and mobilize it, rather than relying on institutions in other countries holding the collections.
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2021

A sticky story: modelling bird
5

distributions at La Brea tar pits
Maximum (LGM) for more than 90 per cent of the iden-

Zink RM, Botero-Cañola S,

tified species, suggesting reasonably accurate modelMartinez H and Herzberg KM

range estimates.
The models also predicted suitable conditions at the LGM
for more than 90 per cent of the species not present in tar

USA
Niche modeling reveals life
history shifts in birds at La Breaover the last twenty millennia

remains but known to occur at La Brea, possibly because
these were less likely to become trapped in the tar due tobehavioural patterns or migratory habits—or they simply
haven’t been recovered yet.

PLOS ONE
doi.org/10.1371/
journal.pone.0227361

Combined, the analyses revealed a small decrease in
Illustration of Smilodon californicus and Canis dirus fighting over a Mammuthus columbi carcass in the La Brea Tar
Pits. By Robert Bruce Horsfall, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

ECOLOGY

Niche modelling reveals life history shifts inbirds at La Brea over the last twenty millennia

8,603,971

The La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles, California, provide

CLIMATE CHANGE

SPECIES OCCURRENCES
USA

species richness from the LGM to today, likely due to
distribution shifts following warming climates.

a unique opportunity to test ecological niche models
and shifting distributions. This study modelled the
distribution of bird species known to occur in the area,
86 of which have already been identified from skeletal
remains entombed in the sticky tar for up to 40,000
years, and 97 for which remains from the pits have yet
to be found.
Built using breeding survey data and GBIF-mediatedoccurrences for wintering and migrant species, the resulting models predicted presence at the Last Glacial

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2021

Rapid Least Concern: towards automating
6

Red List assessments
tool, takes advantage of free and open biodiversity data

Bachman S, Walker B, Barrios S,

from GBIF to perform fast analyses of single or multiple

Copeland A and Moat J

plant species, outputting files compliant with direct sub-UK, Bermuda

mission to the IUCN database.
Rapid Least Concern:

Based on a species, the tool derives the number of

towards automating Red List
assessments

unique, native occurrences and the number of regionsin which the species is present while calculating the extent of occurrence (EOO) and area of occupancy (AOO).
Set thresholds for each of these values determine

Biodiversity Data Journal
doi.org/10.3897/
bdj.8.e47018

whether a species can be designated LC.

Euphorbia blodgettii Engelm. ex Hitchc. observed in Bermuda by Mike Oldham (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Using Bermuda as a case study, the authors compiled
a list of 172 native plant species, of which only 38 hadbeen previously assessed. Using RLC on the remaining

CONSERVATION

BermudaPrize-winning tool simplifies and automatesplant Red List assessments and enables direct
submission to IUCN

134 species, they were able to increase the number ofassessed species to 85 per cent, of which 109 species
could be designated LC and were thus submitted to
IUCN for inclusion in the Red List.

Supporting global conservation planning and safeguarding critical habitat, the IUCN Red List of Threatened
Species™ is a crucial resource for protecting biodiversity worldwide. While coverage among vertebrates isgood, plants, fungi and invertebrates represent major
gaps—potentially due to complicated and time-consuming procedures involved in assessing species.
Addressing the challenge of accelerating the generationof Least Concern (LC) Red List assessments, Rapid Least
Concern (RLC), a simple but prize-winning web-based
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2021

Global drivers of marine and terrestrial
7

biodiversity
environmental features in each domain. Quantifying

Gagné TO, Reygondeau G,

contributions of environmental drivers, the produced

Jenkins CN, Sexton JO, Bograd

models identified sunlight and temperature as themost important factors shaping biodiversity acrossdomains. In the ocean, depth and oxygen were also
important, while terrestrial biodiversity was more influenced by precipitation and primary production.
The study also confirmed known latitudinal gradients,

SJ, Hazen EL and Van Houtan KS
USA, Canada, Brazil
Towards a global understandingof the drivers of marine andterrestrial biodiversity
PLOS ONEbut pointed out that latitude in itself is not a mechanism

doi.org/10.1371/

but a proxy for, e.g. sunlight and temperature. Attempts

journal.pone.0228065

to forecast impacts of climate change should, therefore,
Stenopus hispidus observed in Indonesia by Erik Schlogl (CC BY-NC 4.0)

model these mechanisms directly.
Not all patterns of biodiversity could be explained by envi-

ECOLOGYEVOLUTION

Study models species richness across marine
and terrestrial domains to identify prevailingenvironmental featuresronmental drivers. The models under-predicted richness
in several coral reefs and montane forests while tending toover-predict richness in regions with steep biogeographic
boundaries and on isolated islands.

Drivers of biodiversity are often studied with specifictaxonomic or geographical focuses, and while manysuch studies have significantly advanced ecology andconservation, until now, limited data availability hashindered truly global studies.
In a massive study analysing distribution data from
GBIF and other sources of more than 67,000 vertebrate
and invertebrate species across terrestrial and marine
domains, researchers used artificial neural networks
to predict global species richness and how it relates to
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21

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8

The ghost fruits of Madagascar(mouth) size to predict anachronistic species where noapparent extant disperser is available.

Albert-Daviaud A, Buerki
S, Onjalalaina GE, Perillo S,
Rabarijaona R, Razafindratsima
OH, Sato H, Valenta K, Wright PC

Their results find only 179 plant species with direct
evidence of dispersal by extant frugivores in Madagascar. Based on seed size and disperser groups, two

UK, USA, Madagascar, Japan

species, Erythrina hazomboay and Borassus madagas-

The ghost fruits of Madagascar:cariensis appear to have completely lost their main

Identifying dysfunctional seeddispersers to extinction.
With more than 100 species, lemurs are the main
mammal disperser in Madagascar. Sixteen per cent
Propithecus verreauxi observed in southern Madagascar by figschool (CC BY 4.0)

and Stuppy Wof the analysed plant species, however, lacked co-oc-

dispersal in Madagascar’s
endemic flora
Biological Conservation
doi.org/10.1016/
j.biocon.2020.108438

curring lemur species with an appropriate gape size,
suggesting that local extinctions are leading to dys-CONSERVATIONEVOLUTION

Study analyses seed dispersal in Madagascar’s
endemic flora to identify plants whose dispersal
partners may be extinct

functional dispersal.

ECOLOGY487,759

With extreme levels of endemism, Madagascar is home

SPECIES OCCURRENCES

to plants and vertebrates, of which more than 80 per

Madagascar

cent exist nowhere else on the planet. Some plants have
evolved in mutualistic relationships with frugivore lemurs as seed dispersers, almost all of which are severely
threatened.
In this study, authors explore seed dispersal on the island,
analysing more than 3,000 flowering plants, identifying
disperser animal groups, animal co-occurrences basedon GBIF-mediated data, and comparing seed and gape

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Improving legume crops by mapping
9

stress resilience in wild relatives
Analysing intercrossing studies combined with genomic

van Zonneveld M, Rakha M, Tanand phylogenetic data, the authors defined four delineat-

S yee, Chou Y-Y, Chang C-H, Yen

ed Vigna gene pools. Using GBIF-mediated occurrences

J-Y, Schafleitner R, Nair R, Naito
K and Solberg SØ

they modelled the distribution of 84 taxa to score theirlevels of resilience against heat and drought.

Mapping patterns of abiotic andtance in 75 per cent of taxa, abiotic stress resilience occurs

biotic stress resilience uncovers

conservation, the authors recommend prioritizing the collection of these rare, resilient species for breeding before
they are extirpated.

CONSERVATIONAGRICULTURE

India, Japan, Norway

While the study found high levels of pest and disease resisin less than 30 per cent. Combined with poor germplasm

Mung bean (Vigna radiata) observed in Maharashtra, India by swanand kesari (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Chinese Taipei, Egypt, Malaysia,

conservation gaps and breeding
potential of Vigna wild relatives
Scientific Reports
doi.org/10.1038/
s41598-020-58646-8

Study assesses abiotic and biotic stress resilience in legume gene pools to uncover breeding
potential of wild relatives

CLIMATE CHANGE

26,210Vigna is a tropical legume with more than 88 taxa, in-

SPECIES OCCURRENCES

cluding important crops such as mung bean and cowpea—
cheap and excellent sources of proteins in human diets,
but also attractive soil improvement crops due to symbiotic nitrogen-fixing properties.
With climate change and increased stressors, thisstudy examines the Vigna gene pool to identify patternsof resilience in wild relatives in order to improve varieties that will better sustain legume crop production in
the future.

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Impact of deforestation on endangered
10

mammals
on environmental variables and used satellite data to
determine recent changes to forest cover.
With overall good performance, the models showed
distributions determined particularly by elevation,

Laze K
Albania
Insights on the role of forest
cover and on the changes
in forest cover on thirty-five

distance to the nearest protected area and forested

endangered mammal species

landscape, the latter a significant factor predicting

distributions

occurrence in a third of carnivore species and more thanhalf of non-carnivores.

European Journal of Ecology
doi.org/10.2478/

For the large Bornean bay cat Catopuma badia, changes

eje-2019-0016

in forest cover meant changes in distribution with aSatellite photo of Borneo showing smoke from burning peat swamp forests. By Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land
Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC, Public domain, via Wikimedia CommonsCONSERVATIONAGRICULTURE

tendency of occurrence mainly in areas with dense
forests of more than 90 per cent coverage.

Study provides insights on the role ofchanging forest cover on the distribution of 35
endangered mammals

ECOLOGY

2,000

Expanding agricultural croplands and pastures lead to

SPECIES OCCURRENCES

deforestation, a major cause of habitat loss and biodiversity
decline, affecting dozens of already endangered species
relying on forests for hiding, feeding and breeding.
This study by a researcher from the Polytechnic Universityof Tirana examines the role of changing forest cover on
the distribution of 35 endangered terrestrial mammals.
Using GBIF-mediated occurrences combined with IUCN
range data, the author modelled the distributions based

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Regional biosecurity is essential in
stopping the spread of invasive alien
11

species
invasion threats, modelling potential distributions based on
GBIF-mediated occurrences to inform invasion scenarios.

Faulkner KT, Robertson MP and
Wilson JRU
South Africa

Predicting more than 2,500 future invasions, the study
finds that most invaders–around 60 per cent—are likely
to establish in one country but not spread to neighbour-

Stronger regional biosecurity isessential to prevent hundreds ofharmful biological invasions

ing countries. Many of these invasions, however, are unlikely to be prevented due to the low response capacity of
the countries in which they are predicted to occur.

Global Change Biology
doi.org/10.1111/
gcb.15006

More than a third of the predicted invasions are likely
to spread beyond the country of introduction, with the
Hiptage benghalensis, native to South and Southeast Asia, observed in Réunion by Jean Philippe BASUYAUX (CC BY-NC 4.0)

majority of invasions causing impact in more than one
country. With low preventive/responsive capacity inmany countries, these scenarios call for regional coop-

INVASIVES

7,242,902
SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Study predicts thousands of potential invasions
and calls for stronger regional biosecurity measures to be included in global biodiversity targets

eration around biosecurity to prevent harmful effects
of future biological invasions.

Invasive alien species are among the greatest threats
to biodiversity and may easily spread from one country
to another once established, as countries differ in theircapacity to prevent invasions, biosecurity protocols
and implementation of international standards.
This study explores the biosecurity implications in six scenarios of invasions in contiguous countries with varying
levels of impact and spread. Based on the list of the world’s
worst invaders in the Global Invasive Species Database,the study analysed 86 species assessing introduction and
28

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Rapid sampling to inform conservation in
12

remote Alaskan wildlife refuges
and terrestrial arthropods, designed to take less than
one hour per visit.

Bowser M, Brassfield R,
Dziergowski A, Eskelin T, Hester
J, Magness D, McInnis M, Melvin
T, Morton J and Stone J

Documenting 4,700 species occurrences within 200 m
from plot centres, the project sampled more than 700 for-USA

mally described species and an additional 274 assigned

Towards conserving natural

Barcode Index Numbers (BINs) based on DNA analysis. The

diversity: A biotic inventory byresearchers found 102 arthropod species newly reported
from Alaska and five species new for North America. All occurrences were published to GBIF via VertNet.

observations, specimens, DNAbarcoding and high-throughput
sequencing methods
Biodiversity Data Journal

Among three non-native species detected, DendDichelotarsus laevicollis collected in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge by Matt Bowser.

robaena octaedra was the most widespread. Based on

doi.org/10.3897/
bdj.8.e50124

existing GBIF-mediated occurrences, non-native species appear to originate in the area near roads and the

CONSERVATIONSPECIES DISTRIBUTION

40,342
SPECIES OCCURRENCES
USA

Study presents a biotic inventory of an Alaskan
Refuge by observations, specimens, DNA barcoding and high-throughput sequencing methods

KNWR Visitor Center.

Conserving biodiversity requires the ability to routinely
document species distributions and assemblages. With awide conservation mandate, the Kenai National Wildlife
Refuge (KNWR) in Southcentral Alaska has been inventoried but lacks spatially and temporally repeated sampling.
This study tests novel biomonitoring methods in KNWR,
complementing past efforts while addressing previous
shortcomings. In a study area of around 900 hectares
split into 42 plots, researchers used a rapid scheme tocarry out sampling of plants, lichens, birds, earthworms

30

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13

Global patterns of stony coral diversity
Their results showed relatively consistent sampling

Kusumoto B, Costello MJ, Kubota

completeness across degrees of spatial resolutions, but

Y, Shiono T, Wei C, Yasuhara M

varying geographically with high levels in coastal areasof Australia and Central America and low levels around
Madagascar and some Pacific Islands.

and Chao A
Japan, UK, New Zealand,
Chinese Taipei, China
Global distribution of coralThe richness estimates found both latitudinal and longi-

diversity: Biodiversity knowledge

tudinal gradients, particularly at finer spatial resolutions,

gradients related to spatialdiffering from previous range-based studies. The highest
number of coral species was predicted in the western In-

resolution
Ecological Researchdian Ocean—with greater diversity than the Indo-PacificCoral Triangle.
Acropora valida observed in New Caledonia by damienbr (CC BY-NC 4.0)

doi.org/10.1111/
1440-1703.12096

Simulations revealed sampling priority areas on thenortheastern coast of Australia, central Coral Triangle

CONSERVATIONBIOGEOGRAPHY

109,296
SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Study explores global stony coral distributions,sampling completeness and diversity to identify
priority areas for improving knowledge gaps

and coast of Madagascar to fill knowledge gaps and tohelp future conservation planning.

Shortfalls in biodiversity knowledge can lead to false
estimates of global biodiversity patterns, and fillingthese knowledge gaps is therefore critical.
To identify areas of priority for improving shortfalls, thisstudy focused on tropical stony corals (Scleractinia), a
foundational taxon in coral reef ecosystems. Compiling
occurrences of 697 Scleractinia species from GBIF and
OBIS, researchers used a rarefaction and extrapolation
technique based on sampling completeness to estimate
species diversity patterns.

32

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2021

Large herbivores lead to taller, denser and14

spinier tropical plants
denser than Neotropical species, particularly in the savannas. Species with spines were more frequent in Africa,
while the presence of geoxyles (underground growth) was
more frequent in the Neotropics.

Dantas VL and Pausas JG
Brazil, Spain
Megafauna biogeography
explains plant functional trait

Using GBIF-mediated occurrences, they created models tovariability in the tropics

describe climatic conditions, finding that biogeographicalGlobal Ecology andpatterns in traits could not be explained by differences in

Biogeographyenvironmental variables.

doi.org/10.1111/
geb.13111

Taken together, these results point to more fire-adapted
species in South America and a megafauna effect on seAdansonia digitata observed in Tanzania by cookswell (CC BY-NC 4.0)

EVOLUTION
BIOGEOGRAPHY

2,851,679
SPECIES OCCURRENCES

lection for more herbivory-adapted species in Africa.

Study finds megafauna effect on selection offunctional plant traits in the tropics
While tropical biomes sharing climate and soil characteristics exist in several parts of the world, functional plant
traits and disturbance regimens vary between continents.
In this study comparing the tropical forests and savannas ofAfrica and South America, researchers tested the hypothesis that the extinction of megafauna in the Neotropics may
explain such differences between the two regions.
Assessing functional traits of thousands of plants, theauthors found significant differences when comparing
biomes and continents. African species were taller and

34

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2021

Long-term and large-scale evolutionary
15

effects of hurricanes
in the Turks and Caicos Islands found enlarged toe pads

Donihue CM, Kowaleski AM,

in post-hurricane lizards, thought to increase clinging

Losos JB, Algar AC, Baeckens

performance—a useful trait during extreme winds.

S, Buchkowski RW, Fabre A-C,
Frank HK, Geneva AJ, Reynolds
RG, Stroud JT, Velasco JA, Kolbe

When revisiting lizard populations 18 months later, they

JJ, Mahler DL and Herrel A

analysed hurricane survivor offspring and found that

UK, USA, Belgium, Australia,

toepad size was unchanged, suggesting that trait shifts

Mexico, Canada, France

transcended generations. Broadening their focus, theauthors sampled brown anoles (Anolis sagrei) across 12
Caribbean islands and found that hurricanes events in

Hurricane effects on Neotropicallizards span geographic andphylogenetic scales

the past 70 years significantly predicted toepad size.
Proceedings of the National

Anolis sagrei observed in Turks and Caicos Islands by David Kaposi (CC BY-NC 4.0)

EVOLUTION
CLIMATE CHANGE

6,851
SPECIES OCCURRENCES
Turks and Caicos Islands

Study in lizards suggests that severe climate
events can assert selective pressure withlong-lasting evolutionary impact

Expanding toepad analyses to the entire Anolis genus, theAcademy of Sciences

authors used GBIF-mediated occurrences and climate

doi.org/10.1073/

event data to quantify hurricane activity per species,

pnas.2000801117

finding a significant correlation between toepad size andhurricane activity. Together, these results show that extreme climate events can assert severe selective pressure
with long-lasting evolutionary impacts.

Extreme weather phenomena such as hurricanes anddroughts can act as acute agents of natural selection,differing from the normal selective pressures affecting organisms. Being rare, such disruptions arethought to be temporary and not to have long-lasting
evolutionary impacts.
Following hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017, researchers paired a cross-generational and spatial
approach to study potential evolutionary impacts on
Caribbean anoles (Anolis scriptus). Initial investigations

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2021

16

How long does it take to discover a species?
This study attempts to flesh out the steps associatedGoodwin ZA, Muñoz-Rodríguez

with species discovery and measure time lags between

P, Harris DJ, Wells T, Wood JRI,

each stage. The authors recognized three key stages in
the process: 1) collection of first specimen, 2) publicationof name, and 3) when 15 accurately named specimens—considered the minimum for a reasonable level of un-

Filer D and Scotland RW
UKHow long does it take to discovera species?

derstanding—are available.
Systematics and Biodiversity

Analysing 40 years of Kew Bulletin publications, the authors found 3,305 new seed plants described between

doi.org/10.1080/
14772000.2020.1751339

1970 and 2010, citing a mean of 4.9 specimens each.
Only 6.2 per cent of these protologues cited more thanAframomum atewae Lock & J.B.Hall, specimen collected in Ghana in 1972.

15 specimens.

Photo: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY-NC 4.0)

For the time lags, the authors first explored the
TAXONOMY

22,601,556
SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Study measures time lags between the discovery of a new specices, the publication of its
name, and subsequent collection of specimens
required for a reasonable level of understanding
and knowledge

Aframomum genus, finding an average lag between
first specimen and publication of name of 40.8 years,
while gathering 15 specimens took on average 65 years
from the first specimen.
Expanding their scope, the authors further used GBIFmediated specimen records of more than 82,000

The health and welfare of humans and the planet

taxa belonging to the 20 largest angiosperm families,

as a whole is tied to food security and biodiversity

logging time lags for the collection of 15 specimens

conservation, which in turn rely on knowledge andranging from 58 to 74 years. Gathering the first three

understanding of species, their characteristics andspecimens usually took more than 30 years.

distribution. The discovery and description of newplants, however, is a lengthy process, often taking
decades from the first specimen to publication.

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2021

Climate change alters the global risk of17

invasive weeds
the authors created species distributions models based

Shabani F, Ahmadi M, Kumaron the MaxEnt algorithm to visualize the current state

L, Solhjouy-fard S, Shafapourof the invasive species compared to a prediction in the

Tehrany M, Shabani F, Kalantar B
and Esmaeili A

year 2050.
Australia, Iran, Switzerland,

Current climatic conditions predicted the largest spatial overlaps of species in coastal Australia, South
Africa,Madagascar,

western

Iberianpeninsula,

Morocco, Mexico, and southern Brazil, with the largest
potential co-occurrence of 28 species.
By 2050, the models predicted overall suitability deSphagneticola trilobata (L.) Pruski observed in Macao by Jeremy J Busfield (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Japan
Invasive weed species’ threats
to global biodiversity: Futurescenarios of changes in thenumber of invasive species in achanging climate
Ecological Indicators

creases at the global scale, but that large regions of

doi.org/10.1016/

both Africa and South America will be highly suitablej.ecolind.2020.106436

and at great risk for invasions. Most of Europe will also
INVASIVES
CLIMATE CHANGE

32
SPECIESStudy finds overall decrease in global climatic
suitability for 32 invasive species, but at theexpense of some regions facing higher risk ofinvasion by the year 2050

be suitable for several invasive species and the only
continent with a net gain in suitable area.
On the other hand, certain regions, like central Australia
and parts of Angola, Botswana, Iran and Argentina, arepredicted to be free of any risk from the 32 investigatedInvasive weeds are a global threat with the potential tospecies.

cause ecological and economic losses. Impacts of anthropogenic climate change are likely to include shifts inranges of not only native but also invasive species.
This study focused on 32 invasive weed species and future changes to distributions and overlaps on a global
scale. Using GBIF-mediated occurrences coupled withWorldclim climatic projections at varying severities,
40

41

2021

Finding new sources of antibiotics
using phylogenetic, spatial, and18

phytochemical dataof the world’s megadiverse countries. They then searchedfor phylogenetic signals of anti-infective properties, identifying “hot” clades of overrepresentation and “cold” clades ofunderrepresentation.
Using GBIF-mediated occurrences of Javanese seed plants,

Holzmeyer L, Hartig A-K, Franke
K, Brandt W, Muellner-Riehl AN,
Wessjohann LA and Schnitzler J
Germany
Evaluation of plant sources forantiinfective lead compound

the authors then constructed distribution models to assess

discovery by correlating

the spatial patterns of plants with anti-infective properties

phylogenetic, spatial, andin relation to total plant diversity on the island.

bioactivity data
Proceedings of the National

Their phylogenetic analysis identified 26 “hot” clades,
including 25 whole families, e.g. daisies/sunflowers
Anaphalis javanica observed in East Java by Cheryl Gilbert (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

(Asteraceae), and 24 “cold” clades, including 16 entire

Academy of Sciences
doi.org/10.1073/
pnas.1915277117

families, e.g. grasses (Poaceae) and orchids (Orchidaceae). The spatial analysis showed that regions with the

HUMAN HEALTH

720,861
SPECIES OCCURRENCES
Indonesia

Studies of Javanese seed plants combines phylogenetics and species distribution modelling
to identify “hotspots” of potential drug sources

highest diversity correlated with the highest probability of finding novel antibiotic compounds.

Just 90 years after the discovery of penicillin, the world
may soon be facing a post-antibiotic era, as emerging
multidrug-resistant bacteria are threatening global
public health. Plants have been used medicinally forthousands of years, but only a fraction have been evaluated for biological activity.
To facilitate the discovery of novel plant compounds withpotential as antibiotic agents, this study classified more than
16,000 metabolites according to bioactive properties from
more than 7,500 seed plant species in Java, Indonesia, one

42

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2021

Descriptive power of ecoregions varies
19

across regions and taxa
nearly all organisms, the authors modelled abiotic andbiotic predictors of ecoregion distinctness.

Smith JR, Hendershot JN, Nova
N and Daily GC
USA

In their results, they find evidence that ecoregion
distinctness is best predicted by temperature andseasonality (presence of variations occurring at

The biogeography of ecoregions:
Descriptive power acrossregions and taxa

specific, regular intervals, i.e., seasons). With highaverage temperatures and rainfall combined withlow seasonality, tropical ecoregions more strongly
differentiate communities. Also, ecoregions are most

Journal of Biogeography
doi.org/10.1111/
jbi.13871

distinct in regions with steeper slopes.

Anaphalis javanica observed in East Java by Cheryl Gilbert (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

From a biotic perspective, ecoregion distinctivenessis more pronounced for reptiles and amphibians thanmammals or birds and, in general, more pronounced

BIOGEOGRAPHYCONSERVATION

915,738,761
SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Study finds evidence that ecoregions are
more distinct for small-bodied, less vagile
and tropical taxa
Ecoregions are large areas of land or water containing geographically distinct assemblages of naturalfor smaller-bodied species.
Overall, the study shows that ecoregions, while apowerful tool for conservation planning, do notnecessarily describe communities uniformly acrossregions or taxa.

communities sharing species, ecological dynamics,
and environmental conditions. Used in ecological research and conservation, ecoregions need to captureand describe communities well.
Integrating maps of ecoregions with data on environmental conditions, biodiversity and species traits,
this study aimed to quantify the descriptive powersof ecoregions. Using GBIF-mediated occurrences of
44

45

2021

Black skin protects birds against harmful
20

ultraviolet radiation
species by skin colour, finding black skin on the headNicolaï MPJ, Shawkey MD,

to be a widespread trait, present in at least 138 genera.

Porchetta S, Claus R and

The trait appeared to have evolved more than 100 times
independently, but has been frequently lost, indicatinga costly specialization only evolved when serving aparticular function.

D’Alba L
Belgium
Exposure to UV radiancepredicts repeated evolution ofconcealed black skin in birds

Lumping GBIF-mediated occurrences of black-skinned
bird species together, the authors modelled the pre-Nature Communications

dicted distribution of the bird trait, which followed thedoi.org/10.1038/

so-called Gloger’s rule with skin melanization increas-s41467-020-15894-6

ing towards the equator. The best predictor of black
Pseudibis papillosa (Temminck, 1824) observed in Koonthakulam, Tamil Nadu, India
by Murugesh Nateshan (CC BY-NC 4.0)

skin in birds was exposure to UV radiation, while theauthors found little support for hypotheses related tothermal regulation and bacterial protection.

EVOLUTION

2,259
SPECIESStudy of more than 2,200 bird species finds blackskin a widespread trait, evolving independently
more than 100 times, most likely as a protection
against UV radiation

In addition, black skin was most common in species
with thin, very bright or no plumage and even morecommon in hatchlings. These findings together suggest that melanin-rich darkening of the skin evolved asa protection against damaging UV radiation.

The extraordinary variety of bird colours has fascinatedscientists since Darwin, but research has mainly been
focused on plumage colouration. As with other vertebrates, some birds have developed black skin, but thisevolutionary mechanism and its drivers have received
little attention in the scientific community.
In this study, researchers examined specimens of morethan 2,200 species across all bird families, categorizing
46

47

2021

Animal invaders threaten protected21

areas worldwide
Initial assessments found that more than half of the in-

Liu X, Blackburn TM, Song T,

vestigated species currently occur in PAs. Only 10 per

Wang X, Huang C and Li Y

cent of PAs are home to any alien species, but at least

China, UK

one established alien population is found within 10 km
boundaries of ~90 per cent of PAs.
Modelling the climatic niches of the alien species, theauthors find that more than 95 per cent of PAs are environmentally suitable for establishment by several of theinvestigated species.

Animal invaders threaten
protected areas worldwide
Nature Communications
doi.org/10.1038/
s41467-020-16719-2

The predicted richness of alien species in global PAs is
Lymantria dispar (Linnaeus, 1758) observed in Dunstable, MA, USA by Eli Tal. (CC BY 4.0)

nearly 200 times higher than what is observed, suggesting that PAs may be very sensitive to incursions but are
currently effective at keeping invaders at bay.

INVASIVES

33,040,139
SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Study shows that terrestrial protected areas
are vulnerable to invasive alien species but so
far effective at preventing invasions
Protected areas (PAs) are important for conserving endemic and endangered species. Invasive alien species,
however, have been identified as a serious threat to
global terrestrial PAs. To mitigate, a worldwide assessment of current and potential invasion status and risk
in PAs is needed.
Analysing 894 alien animal species, including amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals and invertebrates, thisstudy used GBIF-mediated occurrences to quantify current establishment across nearly 200,000 PAs worldwide.

48

49

2021

Assessing the capacity of ecosystems toretain biological diversity under climate
22

changeOccupying the middle ground between modelling

Ferrier S, Harwood TD, Ware C

of shifts in species distributions and analyses basedand Hoskins AJ

on spatiotemporal patterns in climate alone, BERI

Australia

is calculated based on input from three sources: 1)
compositional-turnover models derived from species

A globally applicable indicatorof the capacity of terrestrial

occurrences of all all terrestrial species (including

ecosystems to retain biological

GBIF-mediated data for vascular plants, reptiles anddiversity under climate change:

insects) combined with climate and environmental

The bioclimatic ecosystemdata, 2) scenarios of plausible future climates, and 3)
data on observed changes in habitat condition result-resilience index
Ecological Indicators

ing from ecosystem degradation, conservation andrestoration.
Senna reticulata (Willd.) H.S.Irwin & Barneby observed in Manaus, Brazil by crax (CC BY-NC 4.0)

doi.org/10.1016/
j.ecolind.2020.106554

As an example, the authors apply the approach to calculate and assess changes in BERI to a single forest

CONSERVATION
CLIMATE CHANGE

79,512,379
SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Bioclimatic Ecosystem Resilience Index (BERI)
a new indicator addressing key aspects of ecosystem resilience under Aichi target 15
A wide range of indicators has been developed to trackprogress towards achieving the 20 Aichi Biodiversity
Targets adopted in 2010 by the Conference of theParties (COP) of the Convention on Biological Diversity(CBD). Target 15 on ecosystem resilience and degradation, however, was poorly served by existing indicators.
In this paper, researchers from Australia introduce the
Bioclimatic Ecosystem Resilience Index (BERI), tailored specifically to assess change in the capacity of
ecosystems to retain biological diversity under climate

biome (tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests) using turnover models for all vascular plants
and habitat conditions for four different years.
The results show that in general, larger expanses ofintact forest have higher BERI values, suggesting that
overall levels of habitat loss and fragmentation are key
determinants of the capacity of ecosystems to retain
biodiversity under climate change. Projected changes in certain climate variables, however, also play animportant role as some otherwise intact areas, such asparts of the Amazon, exhibited much lower BERI values than expected, potentially due to future reductionin precipitation.

change, thus addressing a key aspect of Aichi Target 15.
50

51

2021

Improving the accuracy of Red List
assessments using open-access species
23

occurrence data
In this paper, authors from Indonesia re-evaluated aprevious assessment of the fern Cibotium arachnoideumthat relied only on specimens from a single herbarium,

Robiansyah I and Wardani W
Indonesia

categorizing the species as endangered (EN). Adding

Increasing accuracy: The

additional occurrence data from GBIF, the present study

advantage of using open accessmore than tripled the number of records included in thespecies occurrence database in
the Red List assessment

assessment.
Biodiversitas

Using just 41 occurrences, the authors calculated
Extent (EOO) and Area of Occurrence (AOO) using thedoi.org/10.13057/
biodiv/d210831

GeoCAT tool, reaching values far higher than the previous assessment, qualifying C. arachnoideum for a Near
Cibotium arachnoideum (C.Chr.) Holttum collected on Mt. Kinabalu, Borneo, Malaysia. Cropped specimen photo via
the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.

Threatened (NT) designation. They further assessed thespecies under other criteria, and by modelling the suitable habitat of the fern, they showed that future habitat

CONSERVATION

128
SPECIES OCCURRENCES
Indonesia, Malasya

Study uses GBIF-mediated occurrences tore-assess conservation status of rare fern,
dropping suggested designation from Endangered to Vulnerable

conversion is unlikely to be a serious threat.
Based on the combined results, the authors disagreewith the previous EN designation and instead suggestthat C. arachnoideum be included in the Red List as
Vulnerable (VU), a lower risk category.

Assessing the conservation status and extinction riskof species for inclusion in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species requires high-quality species occurrence data to apply criterion B, measuring the extent
and area of occurrence of assessed species. With morethan 1.6 billion records readily available, assessors are
increasingly using GBIF-mediated data for species
red-listing.

52

53

2021

Mapping the geographic extent of
24

tungiasis in sub-Saharan Africa
the parasite based on known occurrences from literatureand GBIF-mediated data.

Deka MAUSA

The models identify suitable conditions for the parasite

Mapping the Geographic

in nearly all of sub-Saharan Africa—with the exception ofDistribution of Tungiasis in Sub-

Namibia, Botswana and southern Mauritania. About halfof the 44 countries with a high probability of occurrence
already have reported cases of tungiasis.
An estimated total of 668 million people live in environ-

Saharan Africa
Tropical Medicine and Infectious
Diseasedoi.org/10.3390/
tropicalmed5030122

mentally suitable areas covering 8.1 million km². In East
Africa alone, the suitable area is home to 217 million
Tunga penetrans specimen collected in Gabon—slide (left) and magnification (right). Photos (merged) belonging to
The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London (CC BY 4.0)

HUMAN HEALTH

Study uses GBIF-mediated species occurrences
to model the environmental suitability of tropical disease-causing parasite

people, with many living in poor rural communities witha high risk of increased suffering from tropical diseases.
While the study does not directly measure or predicttungiasis incidence, it provides insights into the potential
distribution of the disease-causing parasite—valuable for
future public health interventions in the region.

Tungiasis is a tropical disease caused by the burrowingof a tiny parasitic flea, Tunga penetrans, in the skin of
the patient leading to painful and debilitating lesions.
Despite representing a significant health burden, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, knowledge of the distribution of the parasite and disease in the region isextremely limited.
Based on various variables, including data on climate,soil, vegetation, land cover and livestock densities, thisstudy models and maps the environmental suitability of
54

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2021

Global assessment of human influence on
25

modelling of bird invasions
native and alien distributions of 150 bird species using
SDM predictions based on eight bioclimatic variables(e.g. temperature, precipitation, etc.) and/or two humanimpact variables: the Global Human Influence index, and,degree of urbanization.

Cardador L and Blackburn TM
Spain, UK
A global assessment of human
influence on niche shifts and risk
predictions of bird invasions

The performance of SDMs improved significantly with

Global Ecology andthe addition of human impact variables as opposed to

Biogeography

bioclimatic variables alone. For most species, the native
and alien niches were similar both in terms of climate

doi.org/10.1111/
geb.13166

and human impact, however, some alien expansions
were registered—mostly involving colonization of colder
Callonetta leucophrys (Vieillot, 1816) observed in South Africa by tjeerd (CC BY-NC 4.0)

climates and more disturbed environments.
In addition to highlighting the importance of human in-

INVASIVES

395,161,334
SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Study demonstrates that incorporating variables
measuring human impact in distribution models
significantly increases accuracy of predictions
Species distribution modelling (SDM) is a powerfultool used to estimate the invasion potential of alien

fluence on modelling distributions of invasive species,
the overall results showed that alien birds tend to invade
areas with similar climatic and human impact conditions
to their native range. When differences in niches are observed, these are typically related to species tolerance tohuman-modified habitats and time since introduction.

species in adventive regions—areas where species
have been introduced but are not yet fully established.
Often based solely on macroclimatic variables, however, SDMs may overlook other conditions allowing
alien species to overcome limitations imposed bybroad-scale climate.
In this study, researchers explored the effect of human
influence on niche conservatism and shifts by comparing
56

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2021

A cross‐scale assessment of productivity–
26

diversity relationships
Overall, higher values of species richness and productivity

Craven D, Sande MT, Meyer C,

were reported in the eastern USA than in the western USA.

Gerstner K, Bennett JM, GilingAt intermediate and coarse scales, species richness andproductivity were positively correlated.
The structural equation models found a direct effectof richness on productivity and vice versa—of similar
strength, increasing with spatial grain.

DP, Hines J, Phillips HRP, May F,
Bannar‐Martin KH, Chase JM
and Keil P
Germany, Australia, USA,
Netherlands, Canada
A cross-scale assessmentof productivity–diversity

Richness, however, was found to be a relatively weak

Calocedrus decurrens (Torr.) Florin observed in California, USA by Jonny Sperling (CC BY-NC 4.0)

relationships

predictor of productivity compared to other variables

Global Ecology andsuch as forest age, management and biomass. With pro-

Biogeography

ductivity and richness sharing many environmental anddoi.org/10.1111/

geographical drivers, the study is unable to distinguishgeb.13165

between causation and correlation in the relationships.
ECOLOGY

344
SPECIESUSA

Machine learning approach shows that spatial
grain mediates relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem-level productivity
This study attempts to assess the strength and directionsof relationships between ecosystem-level productivity
and species richness through modelling at three different
spatial scales (fine, intermediate and coarse).
The models of the study were based on a large dataset ofwoody plant species in forests in the contiguous UnitedStates, filtered against GBIF-mediated occurrences toeliminate non-forest and alien species and to account forvariation in climate, management and age.

58

59

2021

Biases in raw opportunistic observation
data may produce unreliable richness
27

estimates
visited wetland sites in Sweden, this study examined the

Ruete A, Arlt D, Berg Å, Knape J,

effects of varying species inclusion criteria on measuresŻmihorski M and Pärt Tof α-diversity (species richness) and β-diversity (com-Sweden, Poland

munity dissimilarity) when relying on raw high-density
opportunistic observational data vs corrected estimatesusing a site-use occupancy model.

Cannot see the diversity for all
the species: Evaluating inclusion
criteria for local species lists
when using abundant citizen

Applying thresholds of 1–30 days for inclusion, theyfound both α and β diversity to be highly sensitive tothe criteria used. Estimates of richness generated from

Tadorna tadorna (Linnaeus, 1758) observed in Sweden by Ulf Teghammar (CC BY-NC 4.0)

science data
Ecology and Evolution

raw data, however, were consistently lower than when

doi.org/10.1002/

based on occupancy models. The effect was even more

ece3.6665

pronounced under the criteria of consecutive days.
These results suggest that occupancy model estimates

ECOLOGYCONSERVATIONCITIZEN SCIENCE

Study evaluates effects of inclusion criteria on
measures of α-diversity and β-diversity whenusing citizen science data

1,184,984

Measures of biodiversity are crucial to understanding

SPECIES OCCURRENCES

community assembly and for conservation planning.

Swedenare more stable and accurate and that, despite its abundance, raw opportunistic observation data may not
produce reliable local richness estimates.

Separating transients from core species in standardized
surveys is possible by applying specific inclusion criteria, but with abundant citizen science observation data
available, when do we consider a species part of a local
community?
Extracting occurrences published by Artportalen(Swedish Species Observation System) of 77 bird species during a 90-day breeding season at 107 frequently

60

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2021

28

Bats as likely Ebolavirus reservoir hosts
Using the maximum entropy approach, the authors

Koch LK, Cunze S, Kochmann J

derived the potential distributions of the nine batsand Klimpel S

based on climatic conditions and landcover at theGermanysites of occurrences.
Bats as putative Zaire ebolavirus

The resulting habitat suitability maps aligned wellreservoir hosts and their habitat
suitability in Africawith IUCN range maps and predicted distribution ina broad transect across most of Central Africa.
Binary modelling results of the three RNA-positive

Scientific Reports
doi.org/10.1038/
s41598-020-71226-0

species alone covered nearly all known spillover
events and outbreak sites, adding evidence to the
Putative Ebolavirus reservoir: Hypsignathus monstrosus observed in DR Congo by Dérozier Violette (CC BY-NC 4.0)

importance of these particular species—Epomops
franqueti, Hypsignathus monstrosus and Myonycteris
torquata—as ZEBOV reservoirs.

HUMAN HEALTH

Habitat suitability modelling of nine Ebolavirus-associated bat species fully encompasses all
known disease outbreaks and provides further
support to bats as prime reservoir candidates
Ebola virus disease (EVD) is caused by infections withspecies of the genus Ebolavirus with Zaire Ebolavirus(ZEBOV) being one of the deadliest. While the transmission cycle of ZEBOV is largely unknown, studies havepointed to bats as potential reservoirs.
This study uses GBIF-mediated occurrences to model
the ecological niches of nine bat species that have tested
positive for either virus RNA (three spp.) or antibodies
against the virus (six spp.).

62

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2021

Origin of protected contraband leeches
29

determined using metabarcoding
protection of two Hirudo species and as the source of theWilliams KM, Barkdull M, Fahmyleeches was unclear, the Canadian authorities detained

M, Hekkala E, Siddall ME andthe animals for identification and determination of
their source.
Researchers at the American Museum of Natural History
identified the leeches as H. verbana (protected by CITES)
using morphological and molecular techniques. To
determine the origin of the animals, the researchers used
genomic metabarcoding targeting vertebrate DNA fromthe blood meal in the guts of the leeches.

Kvist S
USA, Canada
Caught red handed: iDNA points
to wild source for CITESprotected contraband leeches
European Journal of Wildlife
Researchdoi.org/10.1007/
s10344-020-01419-5

Hirudo verbana observed near Lytkarino, Russia by Marina Gorbunova (CC BY-NC 4.0)

The analysis identified 16 distinct species—10 birds,
four fish and two amphibians—none of which weredomesticated animals, suggesting a wild origin.

CONSERVATIONDNA

How molecular analysis and metabarcoding
can be used to identify protected species andtheir potential origin

Canada, Russia

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered

Using IUCN range maps combined with GBIFmediated occurrences of the identified vertebrates,
the researchers created a heat map of overlapping
distributions, pointing to the Volga or Danube deltas aspotential collection sites.

Species (CITES) oversees the movement of protected
and endangered species across international borders.
Some species can be traded provided necessary
permits are obtained, and the source of the specimen
is documented.
Travelling from Russia to Canada in October 2018,a passenger was discovered at Toronto International
Airport carrying more than 4,000 live European
medicinal leeches (Hirudo spp.). As CITES provides
64

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2021

Using citizen science observations to30

monitor urban biodiversity
a remote sensing infrared imaging dataset—as a proxyfor urban tolerance.

Callaghan CT, Ozeroff I,
Hitchcock C and Chandler M
USA, Australia

Among the most urban species were Japanese creeper(Parthenocissus tricuspidata) and northern seaside goldenrod Solidago sempervirens, while the least tolerant were

urban biodiversity: A multi-taxa

Canadian bunchberry (Cornus canadensis) and frosted

framework

whiteface (Leucorrhinia frigida). The analysis highlighted
a clear difference between native and non-native species, as the mean urban score was almost three times
higher for non-natives.

Japanese creeper (Parthenocissus tricuspidata) (Siebold & Zucc.) Planch.
Observed in Boston, USA by jiahuachen (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Capitalizing on opportunistic
citizen science data to monitor

Biological Conservation
doi.org/10.1016/
j.biocon.2020.108753

Using the species-specific urban scores, the study thenassessed 87 towns in the region by the community of
species observed, ranking them by “biodiversity urban-

CONSERVATIONCITIZEN SCIENCE

643,000
SPECIES OCCURRENCES
USA

A multi-taxa framework scoring species by theirurban tolerance and towns by their “biodiversity
urbannness”
Monitoring the response of biodiversity both to threats
and to restoration efforts, is essential but expensive.
Broad-scale citizen science may play an important rolein understanding how to best preserve and manage
biodiversity in the future.

ness”. This analysis revealed no bias among observers
for more urban species but showed that biodiversity
urbanness is negatively correlated with EVI (enhanced
vegetation index) but positively correlated with themean impervious surface of a town.
Overall, the study showcases how citizen science data
can be leveraged for monitoring urban biodiversity andits responses to increased urbanization.

This study uses 643,000 observations in the Boston
Metropolitan region, shared through iNaturalist andpublished in GBIF, to study the effects of urbanization
on biodiversity, scoring more than 1,000 species bynight-time light levels at occurring sites—derived from
66

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2021

Poleward shifts in mangrove ranges over31

the past 70 years
Their analysis revealed significant poleward shifts innine out of ten species examined, averaging 1.3 degrees
latitude per decade in North America and 1.7 degrees

Fazlioglu F, Wan JSH and Chen L
China, Türkiye

in Australia. The authors described higher mean shift

Latitudinal shifts in mangrove

rates in seaward zones compared to other zones, andspecies worldwide: evidence

among crypto-viviparous species (where seeds germi-

from historical occurrence
recordsnate while still attached to the parent tree) compared to
non-viviparous.
The climate data indicated that changes in tempera-

Hydrobiologia
doi.org/10.1007/
s10750-020-04403-x

ture and precipitation in the past 70 years were themain drivers behind the mangrove range shifts. These
Rhizophora mangle L. observed in Levy County, FL, USA by Bill stitt (CC BY-NC 4.0)

CLIMATE CHANGE

25,176
SPECIES OCCURRENCES

results can help guide conservation and management
to mitigate the effects of climate change in the future.

Study examined historical mangrove records
and described significant latitudinal shifts inspecies worldwide, possibly driven by shifts intemperature and precipication
Adapted to live in harsh coastal conditions, mangrovestolerate saltwater immersion and wave action. Climatechange brings not only increasing temperatures andshifting precipitation, but also potential changes to sea
level and salinity.
To quantify global mangrove response to climatechange, this study used GBIF-mediated occurrences often mangrove species combined with climate data andquantified the rate of latitudinal shift since the 1950s.

68

69

2021

Current status of plant and fungi
32

collections worldwide
digital accessibility and identifying main taxonomic

Paton A, Antonelli A, Carine M,

and geographical gaps.

Forzza RC, Davies N, Demissew
S, Dröge G, Fulcher T, Grall A,
Holstein N, Jones M, Liu U, Miller

As of December 2019, there were 3,324 active herbaria
across 178 countries containing more than 390 million
specimens, though more than 45 per cent are found in Eu-

J, Moat J, Nicolson N, Ryan M,
Sharrock S, Smith D, Thiers B,
Victor J, Wilkinson T and Dickie J

ropean herbaria. In addition, around 107,000 plant species

UK, Sweden, Brazil, Ethiopia,

are represented in nearly 3,000 botanic gardens worldwide,

Germany, Denmark, USA, South

with significant latitudinal bias as more than 90 per cent areheld in northern, temperate institutions.

AfricaPlant and fungal collections:
Current status, future

There are about 850,000 fungal strains available from
Sciodaphyllum weberbaueri collected in Peru by Sebastián Riva Regalado (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

793 culture collections in 77 countries, but data from81,975,817
SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Paper reviews the state of worldwide plant andfungal collections in herbaria and botanic gardens, while assessing specimen coverage in GBIF
While citizen science observations outnumber digitized
specimen records from museum collections in GBIF,
the opposite is true for taxonomic representation, as
the most speciose citizen science datasets only contain
about 20 per cent of the taxa represented in the largest
museum collection datasets.
Recognizing the importance of digitizing natural
history museum collections, this study provides an
overview of the current state of plant and fungi col-PLANTS, PEOPLE, PLANET

high-throughput sequencing suggests that millions of species are yet to be described. Only 17 per cent of described

BIODIVERSITY SCIENCE

perspectives

fungal species are cultured and publicly available. The study

doi.org/10.1002/
ppp3.10141

highlights initiatives such as UNITE for better understanding microbial diversity.
In terms of digitally accessible data, the study points to 85
million preserved specimens of plants and fungi available
in GBIF, representing only around 21 per cent of all herbarium specimens (NB: since the publication of the study, morethan 10 million specimens have been added to GBIF).
The study finds that data in GBIF covers 90 per cent of vascular plant species but only 55 per cent of fungi. The main
geographical gaps are in Northern Africa and South andCentral Asia.

lections worldwide while assessing the degree of
70

71

2021

Cold and dark: evolution of colouration in
33

Eurasian vipers
ascertain associations with ecogeographic variables de-Martínez-Freiría F, Toyama KS,

rived from GBIF-mediated occurrences of each species.

Freitas I and Kaliontzopoulou A
Portugal, Canada

Analyses revealed that dorsal pigmentation correlated
positively with maximum precipitation and latitude, andnegatively with minimum solar radiation and elevation.

Thermal melanism explains
macroevolutionary variation of
dorsal pigmentation in EurasianvipersCombined, these results highlight the colouration patterns of vipers as adaptive traits matching parameters ofcold environments, irrespective of phylogeny, supporting
the so-called thermal melanism hypothesis.

Scientific Reports
doi.org/10.1038/
s41598-020-72871-1

Vipera berus (Linnaeus, 1758) observed in Sanok, Poland by olka-milosnik-robakow (CC BY-NC 4.0)

BIODIVERSITY SCIENCE

39

Study of dorsal pigmentation finds evidence ofthermal melanism in snakes

SPECIESHaving fascinated biologists for centuries, animal colouration is involved in many aspects of animal ecology—including regulating temperature, attracting mates,
hiding from and warning predators—and is consideredan adaptive trait under strong selective pressure.
This study explores the macroevolutionary variationand drivers of dorsal pigmentation in Eurasian vipers(subfamily Viperinae), exhibiting characteristic zigzag
patterns in all species. By measuring two colouration
traits in 39 species, the authors quantified the dorsal pigmentation and performed phylogenetic tests to
72

73

2021

Agricultural intensification—the main
34

driver of wild bee decline
flight period started nine days earlier, but the duration

Duchenne F, Thébault E, Michez

was shortened by 15 days. The distributions of more thanD, Gérard M, Devaux C, Rasmont

60 per cent of species had decreased.

P, Vereecken NJ and Fontaine C
France, Belgium

Turning to traits, including two temperature indiceschange on occupancy and flightbined with bioclimatic data, the authors found that

period of wild bees in Belgium

species in southern Belgium advanced their flightperiod more than species in the north. The social behaviour and size of bees were also associated withtrends in both occupancy and flight dates.

Andrena cineraria (Linnaeus, 1758) observed in Belgium by Stefan (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Long-term effects of global

calculated using GBIF-mediated occurrences com-

Global Change Biology
doi.org/10.1111/
gcb.15379

The study concludes that the main driver behind thedecline of bee populations is changes in land use, notclimate, with agricultural intensification being the

BIODIVERSITY SCIENCE

1,776,749
SPECIES OCCURRENCES
Belgium

Exploring 70 years of wild bee data in Belgium,
study describes declines in occupancy and activity, likely driven by changes in land-use

main culprit.

Drivers of global change, including climate warming, urbanization and agricultural intensification,affect abundance, distribution and activity of many
species worldwide.
In this study, researchers examined how drivers ofglobal change affect biodiversity from individual species
to species assemblages by exploring 70 years of data of
more than 200 bee species in Belgium. They discoveredthat occupancy had decreased on average by 33 per centand that bees were active earlier in the year. Overall, the

74

75

2021

Evaluating lichens as climate change
35

indicators
Europe. Only 17 species, however, had sufficient historic
data for modelling.

Nelsen MP and Lumbsch HTUSA

The resulting models revealed that half the investigated

A data-driven evaluation of

species had substantial fractions of their modern occur-lichen climate change indicators

rences in areas previously considered unsuitable, while
the majority of records for just under half of the species
were found in suitable climates.
While data was lacking for many proposed indicatorin Central Europe
Biodiversity and Conservation
doi.org/10.1007/
s10531-020-02057-8

species, the results of modelling for half the species
with sufficient data showed that distributional shifts
Punctelia jeckeri (Roum.) Kalb observed in Brunswick, Germany by Jakob Fahr (CC BY-NC 4.0)

occurred within areas historically considered suitable,
indicating that taxa may be responding to other, more
local drivers such as shifting pollution.

CLIMATE CHANGE

10,855SPECIES OCCURRENCES
Germany

Study reveals lack of lichen data and suggeststhat range shifts for some species may be driven
by changes in pollution, not climate
Well-known bioindicators of forest health, air and soil

These results question whether the remaining taxa areindeed strong positive indicators of climate change, andthe authors call for more quantitative, evidence-based
derivations of indicators​​.

quality, lichens are also considered potential indicators of climate change. Drivers of changes to lichen
proliferation and distribution, however, may be linked,
and disentangling effects is necessary to understandthe true impact.
To explore the validity of lichens as indicators of climatechange, this study used GBIF-mediated occurrences coupled with Worldclim bioclimatic data to model habitat
suitability of 45 designated indicator species in Central
76

77

2021

Shade-grown coffee helps preserve avian
36

insectivore richness
layers to model the current and future distributions of 77
species from 20 families.

Schooler SL, Johnson MD,
Njoroge P and Bean WT
USA

To explore the effects of shade, they conducted a fieldstudy using temperature sensors at 13 coffee-growing
sites with varying shade levels. The results were used
to adjust the data from the climatic data layers used in
the Maxent models.

Shade trees preserve avian
insectivore biodiversity on
coffee farms in a warming
climateEcology and Evolution

Their analysis showed that in 50 years, avian diversity

doi.org/10.1002/

might decrease by 25–62 per cent (depending on theece3.6879

climate scenario) on East African coffee farms. If all
Ploceus baglafecht (Daudin, 1802) observed in Tanzania by Catarina Lobato (CC BY-NC 4.0)

shade trees were removed immediately, the effect onbird diversity would be similar to 50 years of climatechange.

CLIMATE CHANGE
AGRICULTURE

77
SPECIESStudy shows that shade trees on coffee farms
are able to mitigate effects of warming corresponding to 50 years of climate change

shade trees, bird diversity on farms would be reduced
to about 20 per cent of the current level.

Coffee is a multibillion-dollar industry and an import-

Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania,

ant export product in many developing countries. Rising

United Republic of Uganda,

temperatures threaten production, but growing coffee

Burundi, Rwanda

In the most extreme climate scenario in 2075, with noamong larger shade trees may help not only to mitigate
the effects of climate change on cultivation, but also tosustain avian insectivore diversity.
In this study, researchers explored potential distributionsof insect-eating birds in coffee-growing regions of East
Africa. They used the Maxent algorithm on GBIF-mediated occurrences combined with Worldclim temperature

78

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2021

Composition and function of the alien
37

flora of New ZealandTo support a contemporary management strategy ofBrandt AJ, Bellingham PJ,

naturalized plants, this study summarizes the cur-Duncan RP, Etherington TR,

rent knowledge of traits and distribution of the alien
flora of New Zealand.

Fridley JD, Howell CJ, Hulme PE,
Jo I, McGlone MS, Richardson
SJ, Sullivan JJ, Williams PA and
Peltzer DA

By mapping GBIF-mediated occurrences of 1,798 natu-

New Zealand, Australia, USAralized species, the authors showed that alien plants are
distributed mainly in larger, more northerly and more
populated regions, with Auckland and Canterbury having the highest numbers.

Naturalised plants transform thecomposition and function of the
New Zealand flora
Biological Invasions

Overall, these plants, currently comprising 43.9 per
Aeonium arboreum (L.) Webb & Berthel. observed in Wellington, New Zealand by weedy1 (CC BY-NC 4.0)

cent of the vascular flora, add 67 families and 649

doi.org/10.1007/
s10530-020-02393-4

genera to the total vascular flora. The naturalizedgroup is more taxonomically diverse than the native

INVASIVES

184,378
SPECIES OCCURRENCESNew Zealand

Study summarizes the current knowledge of
traits and distribution of naturalized plants in
the Pacific archipelago
Ranked among the world’s top 25 biodiversity
hotspots, New Zealand is an isolated archipelago in
the South Pacific with very high endemism, including more than 80 per cent of reptiles and flowering

population and has a much higher proportion of herbaceous and annual species—but a lower proportionof perennials.
Combined, such knowledge of taxonomic and functional differences between native and alien may
guide the management of naturalized species fromlocal to national scale.

plants.
The islands, however, have also been “ravaged by biological invasions” (Simberloff, 2008), and today, morethan half of the land area consists of ecosystems
dominated by non-native plants.
80

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2021

Global reliance on agriculture shapedby ecological opportunity and cultural38

transmission
animal species domesticated by humans to determine
the effects of ecological opportunities.
Creating a map of local environments supporting early

Brazil, Germany, Canada, USA

domesticates, the study found the highest suitability in

RD, Gavin MC and Botero CA

Cultural transmission andtropical regions. Coupled with data on location and sub-ecological opportunity jointly

sistence techniques of 1,200 traditional cultural groups,

shaped global patterns of

the models suggested that early-twentieth-century

reliance on agriculture

farming practices were shaped by local species richness,and that reliance on farming continued to be significantly
predicted by how suitable the environment was for thoseearly domesticates.
Sus scrofa Linnaeus, 1758 observed in Florida, USA by moliverna (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Vilela B, Fristoe T, Tuff T,
Kavanagh PH, Haynie HJ, Gray

Evolutionary Human Sciences
doi.org/10.1017/
ehs.2020.55

Using proxies for processes of transmission of cultural
knowledge, the study also suggested that both popula-

EVOLUTIONAGRICULTURE
ECOLOGY

Ecological forces shaped the geography ofagriculture by biasing human movement andthe dispersal of domesticates

116

Agriculture has affected humanity like no other

SPECIES

human development, and while food security hastion expansion and inter-group contact are likely to haveshaped the spread, adoption and continued evolution ofagricultural practices.

improved significantly since the first attempts at
plant and animal domestication some 12,000 years
ago, the adoption of agriculture as a main mode ofsubsistence has varied across societies well into thetwentieth century.
As an attempt to explain the global patterns of reliance on agriculture, this study used GBIF-derived
ecological niche models of the first 116 plant and
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2021

Impacts of agriculture on Philippine
39

biodiversity
By combining data on plantations, protected areas (PA),Important Bird Areas (IBA) and GBIF-mediated occurrences of threatened species, the authors mapped

Ortiz AMD and Torres JNV
UK, Singapore

the current interactions between agriculture andAssessing the Impacts of

biodiversity. To account for varying size and spillover

Agriculture and Its Trade on

effects from intensive agricultural production, the authors added a 10-km buffer to plantations.
The resulting maps revealed many overlaps between
plantations, ecologically important areas and threatened

Philippine BiodiversityLand
doi.org/10.3390/
land9110403

species, including direct threats to the critically endangered Philippine eagle, Peregrine falcon and Philippine
Philippine eagle (Pithecophaga jefferyi) by Sinisa Djordje Majetic (CC BY-SA 2.0 via Flickr)

naked-back fruit bat.
In total, the study identified 83 threatened species of

CONSERVATIONAGRICULTURE

717,508
SPECIES OCCURRENCES
Philippines

Study assesses interactions between agriculture and biodiversity, finding direct threats toseveral critically endangered species

animals and plants at risk of exposure to the impacts ofintensive agriculture in the Philippines.

One of the world’s largest exporters of pineapple andbanana, the Philippines has experienced critical declines
in biodiversity due to land-use change and agriculturalintensification as a result of poor resource management
and overexploitation.
In this study, researchers reviewed current Philippine
policies while analysing data on agriculture, trade andbiodiversity to assess risks to species caused by intensive,
export-oriented production of bananas and pineapples.

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2021

Bryophyte dispersal rates too slow to40keep up with changing climates
The authors used species-specific traits and environ-

Zanatta F, Engler R, Collart F,

mental variables (e.g. spore size, canopy height and wind

Broennimann O, Mateo RG, Papp

speed) to build mechanistic dispersal models simulating

B, Muñoz J, Baurain D, Guisan A
and Vanderpoorten A

potential migrations in the future.
Belgium, Switzerland, Spain,

The suitability models for 2050 predicted the highest rates of range loss for Arctic-alpine species, while

Bryophytes are predicted to lag

Mediterranean species had the highest range gain.

behind future climate change

The dispersal simulations showed that less than 30

despite their high dispersal

per cent of species would be able to colonize newly
suitable areas fully by 2050.

Cyrtomnium hymenophyllum Holmen, 1957 observed in Vågå, Norway by Anders Breili (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

Hungary

Simulations beyond 2050 predicted that most species

capacities
Nature Communications
doi.org/10.1038/
s41467-020-19410-8

would need up to 500 years to successfully colonize
newly suitable areas fully, signifying that even highly

CLIMATE CHANGE

174,335
SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Despite their high dispersal capacities, bryophytes may be centuries behind future climatechangedispersive species may not be able to compete with therates of climate-induced range loss.

In response to warming climates, organisms may adapt
by shifting their range, but the extent to which species canmitigate the effects of climate change remains somewhat
unexplored. Highly efficient wind-dispersers, bryophytes
are potentially excellent candidates for keeping up withshifts in areas of suitable climate.
This study used GBIF-mediated occurrence data of 40
European bryophyte species combined with climatic
variables to produce suitability models calibrated underpresent and projected under future climatic conditions.
86

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2021

Climate change: buzzkill for North
41

American tomato pollinators
Carrasco L, Papeş M, Lochner

The authors built ecological niche models based on
current climatic conditions at GBIF-mediated occurrences of 15 buzz pollinator species associated withtomato crops. They then used greenhouse gas emission
scenarios to project these models into future climates.

EN, Ruiz BC, Williams AG and
Wiggins GJ
USA
Potential regional declines in
species richness of tomato
pollinators in North America

All future predictions revealed net losses of pollinatorspecies richness across North America by 2050 and 2080.
Losses in 394 identified tomato-producing counties in

Bombus vosnesenskii Radoszkowski, 1862 on Orange Paruche tomato flowers in San Diego, CA, USA.
Photo by ghazard (CC BY 4.0)

CLIMATE CHANGEECOSYSTEM SERVICES

1,245
SPECIES OCCURRENCES
USA

under climate change
Ecological Applications

the US were 80 per cent higher than the continental aver-doi.org/10.1002/

age of 1.25 species by 2050. The most significant declines

eap.2259

in richness were seen in the eastern and northeastern
US, with some areas standing to lose up to 11 species.

Study reveals regional declines of up to 11
species of tomato pollinators under climatechangeThirty-five per cent of the world’s food supply stems fromcrops dependent on insect pollination. Evidence suggests that diversity and abundance among pollinators
are declining globally due to climate change, habitat loss,
pathogens and pollution.
Specialized “buzz” pollinators, such as bumblebees, use
muscle vibrations to release pollen from flowers. In thisstudy, researchers assessed the potential impacts ofclimate change on the buzz pollinator communities oftomato crops in the United States.

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2021

Mapping Africa’s biodiversity: More of the42same is just not good enough
Initially, the authors mapped GBIF-mediated occurrences

Farooq H, Azevedo JAR, Soaresof amphibians, mammals and birds to 100x100 km cells to

A, Antonelli A and Faurby S

identify the number of estimated sampling events by taxa
and country.
By applying a logistic model between sampling completeness, events and year, they discovered that acrossmost of Africa, previous sampling of amphibians andmammals strongly increased the likelihood of resam-

Sweden, Portugal, Mozambique,Brazil, UK
Mapping Africa’s biodiversity:
More of the same is just notgood enough
Systematic Biology

pling. For bird sampling before 1940, however, there wasdoi.org/10.1093/

a higher tendency to visit unsampled areas, indicating a

sysbio/syaa090

preference for discovering new species.
Otocyon megalotis (Desmarest, 1822) observed in Kenya by Yvonne A. de Jong (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Modelling sampling rate, the authors predicted that it
would take between 171 and 273 years to obtain 90 per

BIODIVERSITY SCIENCE

40,457,393
SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Study estimates that using current practices
may take up to three centuries to achieve sampling completeness in Africa

cent coverage. To record 50 per cent of species within acell would take on average 11.5 visits for amphibians, 12.7
visits for mammals and 27 visits for birds.

Biodiversity data availability is growing, but data is affectedby temporal, spatial and taxonomic biases. Understanding
these and what causes them is important to preventing future bias and filling data gaps.
In this paper, researchers present a novel approach toquantifying sampling effort in Africa by exploring theinfluence of existing knowledge about a site on attracting researchers, while estimating the time needed tocomplete sampling.
90

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2021

Crop wild relatives of the United States
43

require urgent conservation action
Using GBIF-mediated occurrences, the authors modeled

Khoury CK, Carver D, Greene

the potential distributions of more than 500 prioritized

SL, Williams KA, Achicanoy HA,

CWR taxa—including wild relatives of apples, barley, grapes,

Schori M, León B, Wiersema JH
and Frances A

onions, potatoes and zucchini—according to bioclimaticand topographic predictors, showing the highest CWR richness in the Northeast, Midwest and Pacific Northwest.

USA, Colombia, Peru
Crop wild relatives of theUnited States require urgent

Preliminary threat assessments identified only 23 taxa asof least concern (LC), while more than 500 taxa were nearthreatened (NT) or worse, including 42 taxa potentiallyconservation action
Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences

critically endangered (CR).
doi.org/10.1073/

Solanum elaeagnifolium Cav. observed in Texas, USA by moonmist (CC BY-NC 4.0)

While 400 institutions hold accessions of at least one US

pnas.2007029117

native CWR, 14 per cent of the assessed taxa are completely absent from seed banks and botanic gardens. The study

CONSERVATIONAGRICULTURE

396,355
SPECIES OCCURRENCES
USA

National inventory of US crop wild relatives
find most taxa to be vulnerable or threatened
and nearly all urgent or high priorities for exsitu conservation

further assessed more than 75 per cent of taxa as urgent
collection priorities to address gaps in ex situ conservation.

With important crops being threatened by globalchange in their current areas of cultivation, food security may depend on the conservation and accessibilityof crop wild relatives (CWR) to contribute genetic traits
for plant breeding.
In this paper, US researchers present a national inventoryof CWR, classifying taxa by relation to agricultural crops
and significance as a wild food source.

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2021

44

Making species data open and FAIR
into FAIR data to be ingested and shared through GBIF.
Combining source data management, reproducible
data transformation according to accepted standards,

Reyserhove L, Desmet P, Oldoni
D, Adriaens T, Strubbe D, Davis
AJS, Vanderhoeven S, Verloove F
and Groom Q

version control, and data documentation, the approachprovides a holistic solution to FAIR checklist publication.

Belgium
A checklist recipe: making

Takingadvantageofcollaborative

platformsformanaging content, code and metadata, such as Google
Docs, GitHub, and the Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT),

species data open and FAIR
Database

the authors provide proof of concept by employing thedoi.org/10.1093/

proposed workflow to publish the Manual of the Alien

database/baaa084

Plants of Belgium containing all invaders in the country
Aucuba japonica Thunb. observed in Belgium by toftof (CC BY-NC 4.0)

DATA MANAGEMENT

396,355
SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Paper proposes a reproducible and semiautomatic workflow for turning traditional
checklists into FAIR datasets discoverable
through GBIF

since 1800, thoroughly documenting each step of theprocess.
The code and examples described in the paper are freely
available for anyone to copy, modify, use and distributeas they see fit, provided the copyright and license notices
are preserved.

Lists of taxa typically sharing a geographic or temporal
distribution, checklists are important sources of
information for use in research and policy. Publishingchecklists to GBIF allows for open and FAIR (Findable,
Accessible, Interoperable and Reproducible) sharing ofdata about species.
This paper proposes a reproducible and semi-automatic
workflow for transforming traditional checklist data
94

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2021

About this special section

MARINEThe summaries included here only hint at the full range

KYLE COPAS

of cross-cutting marine science studies enabled by

Communications Manager

open data from the GBIF network. While emerging andprojected impacts of climate change provide a common
thread in this corpus, the analyses in such studies often
extend into specific applied questions like food security,
invasive species, conservation and biogeography.
Likewise, authors frequently highlight—explicitly or
implicitly—the critical importance of cross-network
collaboration between GBIF and OBIS, the Ocean Biodiversity Information System. Through the renewal of a second
multi-year agreement, GBIF and OBIS remain committed
to exchanging data, knowledge and skills between their
networks and improving the usability, interoperability andoverall fitness-for-use of FAIR and open data on marine
biodiversity available through both infrastructures.

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2021

Bryozoan hitch-hikers launching45

invasions on Antarctic islands
passenger organisms, including the non-native and eco-

Avila C, Angulo-Preckler C,

logically harmful bryozoan Membranipora membranacea.

Martín-Martín RP, Figuerola B,

Using GBIF-mediated occurrences, the authors mapped

Spain, UK

the distributions of the passenger species found on kelp

Griffiths HJ and Waller CL

Invasive marine species

rafts at Deception Island to assess the potential of these

discovered on non–native kelp

species for becoming established. M. membranacea

rafts in the warmest Antarctic

is found as far north as northern Scandinavia in theislandArctic, where other studies have found algal substrate
may be more important than temperature in limiting
its spread. With widespread macroalgal substrates, therisk of invasion in the Southern Ocean may be high.

Scientific Reports
doi.org/10.1038/
s41598-020-58561-y

Membranipora membranacea observed in Malibu, CA, USA by Andrea Kreuzhage (CC BY-NC 4.0)

INVASIVES
MARINE

20,128SPECIES OCCURRENCES
Antarctica

Invasive marine species discovered on non–native kelp rafts in the warmest Antarctic island
Remote and isolated ecosystems in the Southern Ocean
and Antarctica have been thought to be relatively protected from invasive species carried in ballast water, due
to the strong circumpolar winds and currents. A new
study, however, finds evidence of a non-anthropogenic
mechanism for introduction to the continent.
Seventy million kelp rafts are estimated to be afloat in
the Southern Ocean at any one time. Making its way onto
an Antarctic beach inside the flooded caldera of a small,
relatively warm volcanic island—Deception Island—one
such raft was found by researchers to carry “hitch-hiking”

98

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2021

Climate change increases the extent and46

richness of invasion hotspots in the Arctic
corridors will open. In this study, researchers aimed to

Zanatta F, Engler R, Collart F,

identify potential high-risk species and predict current

Broennimann O, Mateo RG, Pappand future invasion hotspots in the Canadian Arctic.
Through a stepwise vetting process, the authors iden-

and Vanderpoorten A
Canadatified 23 known marine invasive or harmful species for

What and where? Predicting

which they gathered occurrences mediated by GBIF andinvasion hotspots in the Arctic

OBIS for use in MaxEnt modelling of current and futuremarine realm

distributions. The models identified four hotspots in theregion with overlapping suitability for up to 20 species:
Hudson Bay, Northern Grand Banks/Labrador, Chuckchi/
Eastern Bering seas and Barents and White seas.
Sargassum muticum (Yendo) Fensholt observed in West Sussex, England by Jarvo (CC BY-NC 4.0)

B, Muñoz J, Baurain D, Guisan A

Global Change Biology
doi.org/10.1111/
gcb.15159

In future projections for 2050 and 2100, both the geographic extent of hotspots and the potential richness of

INVASIVES
CLIMATE CHANGE
MARINE

Study in the Canadian Arctic identifies 23
high-risk invasive species and four invasion
hotspots, predicted to increase significantly infuture climatesinvasive species in the Arctic are predicted to increase—and at a much larger scale than globally.

63,923SPECIES OCCURRENCES
CanadaConsidered one of the main drivers of biodiversity loss andrecent extinctions, invasive species are a global threat withgreat ecological, economic and even human health impacts. Invasion risks are believed to increase with global
warming, particularly in high latitude regions.
In the Arctic, shipping activities are responsible foralmost half of all known marine invasions, and withpredicted future ice-free conditions, more shipping

100

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2021

Climate-driven shifts to alter bothliving resources and lives in the Eastern
47

Tropical Pacificfor 505 fishes and invertebrates commonly caught in the

Hastings RA, Rutterford LA,

region’s shrimp trawl, small-scale, small pelagic and large

Freer JJ, Collins RA, Simpson SD

pelagic fisheries.

and Genner MJ
Canada, Costa Rica, Panama,

The results showed similar geographic trends acrossGuatemala, Spaineach fishery, though changes in direction and depth

Climate Change Drives Poleward

varied more widely. Variables with the greatest impact

Increases and Equatorward

on shifts in suitable habitats turn out to be rising tem-

Declines in Marine Species

peratures and falling oxygen levels, as many species
seem likely to shoal in shallower and more oxygen-richwaters, rather than departing for deeper ones.

Current Biology
doi.org/10.1111/
ddi.13181

Holacanthus passer Valenciennes, 1846 observed near Marietas Islands, Mexico by Ricardo Arredondo T. (CC BY-NC 4.0)

The Central American coast and small-scale fisheries
likely face the most severe local losses of species andsuitable habitat, though colonization by range-shifting

CLIMATE CHANGE
MARINE718,202
SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Small-scale fisheries likely face the most severe
local losses of species and suitable habitat
Wind-driven ocean upwelling systems along the coastof the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP) enrich the warmer

Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador,surface waters with nutrients from cooler depths. The

Nicaragua, Costa Rica,

complex dynamics and cycles of these highly productive

Panama, Colombia, Ecuador,Peru

species from elsewhere may in part compensate in areasof high species turnover. In such a complex region, evenpositive outcomes like gains for shrimp fisheries may
signal deprivation elsewhere, as increased pressures on
bycatch species exert higher economic and social costs
in a region of underreported catches, employment andincomes.

environments support several key fisheries for the human communities that extend from the Gulf of California
to northern Peru.
To understand how future impacts of climate change
might alter both the marine biogeography of and foodsecurity within the ETP, the authors used GBIF-mediatedoccurrence data to create environmental niche models

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2021

Measuring the effectiveness of protecting
Southern Ocean sea floors with Antarctic48

sea urchins
The seabeds of Antarctica are home to more than 40

Fabri-Ruiz S, Danis B, Navarro

highly diversified and widely distributed species of sea

N, Koubbi P, Laffont R andurchins. This richness provides the foundation for thisstudy, as the authors combined environmental nichemodels for each individual echinoid species with climate
scenarios to generate a set of 12 Antarctic and sub-Antarctic benthic ecoregions.

Saucède T
France, Belgium
Benthic Ecoregionalization
based on echinoid fauna of
the Southern Ocean supports
current proposals of Antarctic

The resulting first-ever dynamic ecoregional map of theSouthern Ocean’s entire seafloor reveals the likelihood ofMarine Protected Areas under
IPCC scenarios of climatechangefar-reaching environmental changes in East Antarctica,on the Antarctic Peninsula and sub-Antarctic islands—
Ctenocidaris perrieri Koehler, 1912 collected east of Smith Island, Antarctica
photo via National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

Global Change Biology

each surpassed in severity by the prospect of the possible

doi.org/10.1111/

disappearance of the Campbell Plateau ecoregion. The

gcb.14988

future-facing findings also highlight the underrepresenCONSERVATIONMARINE

Study offers approach for preserving Antarctica’s
most unique marine environments from impactsof climate change

Antarctica

Challenges abound in understanding, much less anticipating, the impacts of climate change on inhabitantsof the Antarctic seafloor. But with implementation of atation of the current Antarctic ecoregions from the MPA
network.
By offering a flexible multidecadal framework for regional
conservation and monitoring, this study offers a usefuland responsive approach for preserving Antarctica’s mostunique marine environments from the changes ahead.

network of marine protected areas (MPAs) underway,
this study applies nearly 7,000 Antarctic sea urchin records from the GBIF network as the basis for assessing
the new conservation system’s potential to protect theunique ecosystems and species of the Southern Ocean
through the changes detailed in scenarios from theIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
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2021

Warming seas power the shifting
abundance of marine species from the49

equator to the poles
study examined impacts of other critical variables affecting

Hastings RA, Rutterford LA,

species ranges, including oxygen levels, salinity, storminess

Freer JJ, Collins RA, Simpson SD

and food availability. The use of widely distributed species
enabled a hemisphere-wide analysis of latitudinal range
shifts across a quarter century, from 1991 to 2016.

and Genner MJUK
Climate Change Drives Poleward
Increases and Equatorward

Despite some variation in the resulting models as wellas variability in the connection between thermal andlatitudinal gradients, the results reveal that a species’
physiological thermal niche is the strongest predictor ofrecent changes in abundance.

Enoplosus armatus (White, 1790) observed in Cabbage Tree Bay, NSW, Australia by petemcgee (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Declines in Marine Species
Current Biology
doi.org/10.1016/
j.cub.2020.02.043

With populations declining at the equatorward edge of
species’ ranges and increasing on the poleward side, thestudy highlights the fact that adaptation alone cannot

CONSERVATIONMARINE

4,567,028
SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Study confirms that adaptation alone cannot
buffer the negative effects of warming oceanson species abundance

buffer the negative effects of warmer equatorial season species abundance, with major implications for local
marine resources and the coastal industries that depend
upon them.

The average temperature of the world’s oceans has risen by 1°C since the start of the Industrial Revolution. To
assess the impact of this incessant heat wave on marine
species abundance, the British author team marshalled
the evidence (including more than 4 million GBIF-mediated occurrence records) on how 304 relatively common
marine species from nine taxonomic groups have adapted to warmer seas.
Recognizing that temperature is not the only factor for
determining the abundance of marine organisms, the

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2021

Mariculture on the move: climate change
impacts on species diversity and richness
50of salt-water farming
fjords, inshore and open waters, and saline inland seas.

Oyinlola MA, Reygondeau G,

These 55 chordates and 30 mollusks are economicallyWabnitz CCC and Cheung WWL

and nutritionally important, accounting for 70 per centCanada, USAof all taxa used in mariculture.
Projecting global mariculture

Using multispecies distribution models that leveraged
more than 680,000 GBIF-mediated occurrences with records from OBIS, FishBase and IUCN, the study calculated
likely changes to the cultivated species’ suitable habitat
under both strong and no mitigation policy emissions

diversity under climate change
Global Change Biology
doi.org/10.1111/
gcb.14974

scenarios across the 2000s, 2050s and 2090s.

Fish farming near Amarynthos, Euboea, Greece. Photo by Jebulon via Wikimedia Commons.

While models suggest the expansion of suitable areas insome locations and relatively modest overall reductions ina global-scale index of “marine species richness potential,”

MARINE

681,878
SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Study of 85 important mariculture species
suggest varied and regional effects of climatechange with major declines in diversity fortropical and subtropical farming locations

direct effects of climate change will be much more varied
and stronger regionally. For example, changes to the conditions needed for optimal growth in current tropical andsubtropical farming locations could see 10 to 40 per centdeclines in the number of suitable species. Likewise, suitable marine areas for top-producing countries of Atlantic

In recent decades, marine aquaculture has played an in-salmon, cobia and European bass may be lost.

creasingly important role in supplying nutrition and foodsecurity, particularly to the 3.2 billion people who rely onWith such changes ahead, this study provides a basis forseafood for at least 20 per cent of their protein intake.

informing planned adaptation and minimizing potential
local-scale environmental impacts and cross-sectoral

To understand the impacts of climate change on theseconflicts.

critical yet undervalued resources, a Canadian author
team examined the potential reduction and redistribution of 85 species commonly farmed in the world’s
108

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Nature and nurture: considering theecological and evolutionary origins of fish51

migration
potamodromy) defy clear and precise distinctions. As a

Alò D, Lacy SN, Castillo A,

result, revealing possible explanations for migration de-Samaniego HA and Marquet PA

mands a holistic approach—such as the one delivered by

Chile

the Chilean authors of this study.
The macroecology of fish

To review current understanding of patterns of migra-

migration

tory fish diversity, they developed a set of global species

Global Ecology andrichness matrices relying on all available native-range

Biogeography

records from OBIS and GBIF for migratory species in theclass Actinopterygii. The decision to limit their analysis to

doi.org/10.1111/
geb.13199

ray-finned fishes equipped them to include evolutionary
data, in the form of an extensive phylogeny for ActinopteOncorhynchus tshawytscha (Walbaum, 1792) observed in Chico, CA, USA, by sujiar (CC BY-NC 4.0)

rygii, alongside climate and environmental data.
Testing for direct relationships between migration and

MARINEEVOLUTION

Study of migratory fishes reveals the deep history of genetic predispositions in shaping andinforming migratory species richness

ECOLOGY

33,096

Why do some fish migrate? This complex adaptive be-

SPECIEShaviour is uncommon—migratory fishes are unevenly
distributed around the world and represent less thanseven per cent of all species—and, as for humans, it cancome with heavy costs on the individual.
Describing migratory strategies is itself a challenge.

productivity (provisioning, scarcity and precipitation), thestudy found links between dynamic, resource-rich settingsand migratory species richness, except for anadromous
species that ascend rivers to breed and potamodromous
freshwater migrants. Meanwhile, temperature appears
less important when considered with other variables. And
while no single factor can explain the “migratoriness” of agiven species, the authors’ inclusion of evolutionary signals from phylogenetic data reveals how critical the deep
history of genetic predispositions is in shaping and informing migratory species richness.

Organized with reference to feeding and reproduction
and the environments in which they occur, the life histories characterized within the five accepted categories(amphidromy, anadromy, catadromy, oceanodromy and
110

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2021

The depths of life: assessing 3D model
performance for circumpolar marine
52

speciesfamily (Myctophidae) of offshore fish in the Southern

Freer J, Tarling G, Collins M,

Ocean. Using a total of 2,918 GBIF-mediated occurrenc-

Partridge J and Genner M

es aligned to environmental baseline data for the period

UK, Australia

1960–2010, the authors produced three models for comparison across each myctophid species.

Estimating circumpolar
distributions of lanternfish using
2D and 3D ecological niche

Two “simplistic” 2D models stick to the surface, processing both the full dataset and the subset containing depth
information while omitting consideration of depth. The

modelsMarine Ecology Progress Series

third “depth-integrated” 3D model enriched the analysis

doi.org/10.3354/

of the latter subset by retaining the biological bathyme-

meps13384

try to place occurrences in one of seven layers of vertical
Electrona antarctica (Günther, 1878) collected in Antarctica by Karsten E. Hartel, R/V Polar Duke S-011. Photo via

habitat.

Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)

After accounting for differences in the sample size of data
MARINEECOLOGY

2,918
SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Study of Southern Ocean lanternfish explores
potential of using depth as a third dimension
for modelling ecological niches
From lightless depths to sunlit surfaces, the species
that inhabit Earth’s oceans display preferences for different segments of the water column. But most studies
of marine species distribution fail to consider thesesubsurface variations in the seas’ vertical ecology.

for each species, the study found considerable overlap
between 2D and 3D models across all depth predictions,particularly for depths less than 200 metres. 3D models
may be more useful in revealing unrecognized suitable
habitat and latitudinal changes in habitat, as species appear to move between shallower waters in the south anddeeper ones equatorward. The conclusion echoes a callfor well-designed surveys that collect high-quality data,
including depth of catch, particularly for species of the
middle depths.

Seeking to understand potential benefits and tradeoffs
from integrating depth as a third dimension in environmental niche models, this research team developed
the results of two- and three-dimensional models for 10
species of lanternfish, the most diverse and abundant
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Cover illustration: blue flying fish, Exocoetus volitans Linnaeus, 1758,
by James Forbes and Sir Willian Jackson Hooker, included in Oriental
memoirs: selected and abridged from a series of familiar letters written
during seventeen years residence in India. Via Biodiversity Heritage
Library.
Back cover illustration: spotted sea hare, Aplysia depilans Gmelin, 1791,
From The royal natural history. Edited by Richard Lydekker, 1896. Via theInternet Archive Book Images.
Marine background illustration: The sea-monster, as Mr. C. Renard
supposed to have seen it. From The great sea-serpent, an historical andcritical tratise by A. C. Oudemans, 1832. Via Biodiversity Heritage Library
Inner cover illustration: humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae(Borowski, 1781), by Charles M. Scammon, included in The marine mammalsof the North-western coast of North America, 1874. Via Biodiversity
Heritage Library.
Back flap illustration: horsefish, Hippocampus hippocampus(Linnaeus, 1758), by Gottlieb August Lange, included in Gemeinnüzzige
Naturgeschichte des Thierreichs, 1873. Via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
Last page illustration: common flying fish by W.H. Lizars, included in The
natural history of fishes, particularly their structure and economical uses,
1840. Via Biodiversity Heritage Library.

GBIF Secretariat (2022) GBIF Science Review 2021
https://doi.org/10.35035/w3p0-8729
CC BY 4.0