N o 10

GBIF SECRETARIAT

Foreword

JOE MILLER

About the Science Review

Welcome to GBIF Science Review No.10!

GBIF Executive Secretary

The careful reader may note that this issue has elimi-

DANIEL NOESGAARD

nated the year from its title. Let there be no doubt: we

Science Communications

Inside this compendium, you’ll find new selection ofremain committed to producing a new collection every

50 summaries of recent GBIF-enabled research. With

year that updates our visuals on the annual patterns,

almost five peer-reviewed papers published every day

trends and statistics. However, the featured papers

whose findings are based on data from the GBIF net-

themselves will no longer be limited to those publishedwork, both you and our communications team has aduring a single calendar year.

wider range of examples to review and explore thanever.

This change reflects the fact that each of these summaries appears first on GBIF.org, as well as our interest in

Science Review No.10 also includes a feature section

profiling important research as it appears. No longer

on research into invasive alien species (IAS), long one

will we let a calendar-year delay on our design and printof the most frequent use cases for GBIF-mediated data.

schedules keep the next Science Review from you.

Watch this space, as they say: with the release of thelatest IPBES thematic assessment on IAS this year, theGBIF community—including a new task group on invasives—will coordinate work to fill the data gaps it has
identified.
For those of you who wish to stay up-to-date on the latest GBIF-enabled research, visit GBIF.org/data-use.

As always, enjoy!

Coordinator

Uses and trends
These visualizations of the use of GBIF-mediated data
reveal more than the growing number of peer-reviewed
publications supported each year. The overlay on thePeer-reviewed articles by region

2022
2021

graph below emphasizes authors’ increasing use of DOIbased citations, a crucial practice for maintaining data
provenance and scientific transparency. At right, thecharts reveal the expanded geographic distribution of
institutions whose researchers apply the data in theirresearch. Each trend highlights GBIF’s widening sphereof influence and impact on scientific research.

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

# Total citations# DOI citations

Peer-reviewed uses by country

2022
2021

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TopicsAGRICULTURE
BIODIVERSITY SCIENCE
BIOGEOGRAPHYCITIZEN SCIENCE
CLIMATE CHANGECONSERVATIONDATA MANAGEMENTDNA
ECOLOGYECOSYSTEM SERVICESEVOLUTIONFRESHWATERHUMAN HEALTH
MARINEPHYLOGENETICS
SPECIES DISTRIBUTIONTAXONOMYINVASIVES

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Climate change expands future ranges of1

arbovirus vectors
Using mainly GBIF-mediated species occurrences, the au-

Outammassine A, Zouhair S andthors modelled the current ecological niches of each spe-

Loqman S (2021)

cies based on 19 bioclimatic variables at a 5x5 km resolution.

MorrocoBased on general circulation models with representative
concentration pathways (RCPs) of varying emission scenarios, they projected the modelled distributions into futureclimatic conditions.

Global potential distributionof three underappreciatedarboviruses vectors (Aedes
japonicus, Aedes vexans andAedes vittatus) under current

For Ae. japonicus, the models predicted high suitability across its native range of Japan, the Korean peninsula

Transboundary and Emerging

and southern China, as well as non-native ranges in the

Diseaseseastern United States and most of western Europe. Ae.
Inland floodwater mosquito [(Aedes vexans (Meigen, 1830)] observed in Osijek, Croatia
by Leomar Iglesias (CC BY-NC 4.0)

and future climate conditions.

vexans had a similar, but broader distribution, including

doi.org/10.1111/tbed.14404

high suitability in southern South America. The predicteddistribution of Ae. vittatus, however, showed suitability in

HEALTH
CLIMATE CHANGE

139,910SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Study of underappreciated carriers of disease-causing viruses reveals significant potential range
expansions under future climatic conditions
Mosquitoes carrying arboviruses pose serious healththreats to millions of people worldwide. The range of Aedes
mosquitoes is expanding, but research has focused mainly
on species Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus, known for theirrole in spreading dengue, chikungunya, and Zika viruses.
In this study, researchers from Morocco explored the global distribution under current and future climatic conditions of three understudied Aedes species (Ae. japonicus,
Ae. vexans and Ae. vittatus)—all confirmed transmitters ofseveral arboviruses.

8

lower latitudes with occurrence probabilities highest inCentral and South America, across Africa, India, Southeast
Asia and northern Australia.
Future models predicted range changes to all three species
under all RCP scenarios with broad increases observed for
low and intermediate pathways and small decreases forhigh and worst-case pathways.
By 2050, Ae. japonicus was predicted to expand its range
across much of Europe, the US, Russia and central Asia,
while the range of Ae. vexans was likely to also include
northern Africa and southern Australia. For Ae. vittatus,
future projections included expansion in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East.
9

Environmental and physiological drivers
2of global lichen distribution
In this study covering more than 10,000 lichenized fun-

Schweiger AH, Ullmann GM, Nürk

gal species, researchers explored the global distributions

NM, Triebel D, Schobert R andof trebouxiophycean and trentepohlialean photobionts,
while assessing the role of lichen substances and theirproperties driving these patterns.

Rambold G (2021)
Germany
Chemical properties of key
metabolites determine the

By combining GBIF-mediated occurrences of fungal spe-

global distribution of lichens.

cies and their associated photobionts with data on lichen
substances and derived properties, the authors modelled
a network of relationships between the environment, occurrence probabilities and chemical properties of metab-

Ecology Letters
doi.org/10.1111/ele.13930

olites. The model revealed a clear dominance of lichenized
Teloschistes exilis (Mich.) Vain. observed in Texas, USA by Michelle (CC BY 4.0)

Trebouxiophyceae at higher latitudes, while trentepohlialean lichens showed a higher occurrence probability inthe tropics. Both the potential for environmental dissolu-

ECOLOGY

11,114SPECIESStudy of more than 10,000 lichens show that the
UV absorbance capability of fungal metabolites
and their resistance to leaching in humid environments helped shape global distribution

tion and UV-B radiation showed maximum values at lower
latitudes.
The occurrence probability of Trebouxiophyceae photobionts was positively linked with the occurrence of lichen
substances, which decreased with probability for leach-

Seventeen per cent of the 110,000 described fungal species

ing and thus dissolution. Further, Trebouxiophyceae sub-sustain mutualistic relationships with mainly green algal

stances had higher UV-B absorbance and lower solvability

species in the lichen class Trebouxiophyceae or the orderthan those of Trentepohliales.

Trentepohliales. In their self-sustaining symbiotic relationship, the alga, or photobiont, supplies the fungal part-

Together, the study’s findings suggest that the overall envi-

ner, or mycobiont, with carbon through photosynthesis,ronmental drivers of lichen fungi and algae distributions,while receiving protection from ultraviolet (UV) radiationsuch as water availability and solar radiation, are medi-

through chemical metabolites produced by the mycobiont.

ated by chemical and UV-protective properties of lichen
substances.

1011

Downsizing protected areas intensifies
landscape fragmentation and potential
3

biodiversity loss
The authors showed that approval of the proposed legis-

Conceição EO, Garcia JM,

lation would reduce the area currently protected within

Alves GHZ, Delanira-Santos

DEEPA by more than 68 per cent. For remnants of natural

Batista-Silva VF, Bailly D, Ferreira

under protection, while the average distance between

JHD and do Couto EV (2022)

By leveraging GBIF-mediated occurrences in theiranalysis of the region, the authors found that the proposed downsizing would reduce species protection by
70 per cent. Among species classified as threatened,
the proposed reduction would eliminate protection forobserved in Campo Largo, PR, Brazil by Carlos Ferreira (CC BY-NC 4.0)

CONSERVATION

BrazilStudy assesses impacts of draft law proposing a
reduction of a large protected area in southern
Brazil, finding greater fragmentation and increased risk to threatened species

Pacifico R, Romagnolo MB,

vegetation within the area, only 36 per cent would remain
protected fragments would increase by 27 per cent.

Paraná pine (EN) (Araucaria angustifolia (Bertol.) Kuntze)

D, Corbetta D de F, Betiol TCC,

51 species currently classified as threatened under theBrazilThe impact of downsizing
protected areas: How a
misguided policy may enhancelandscape fragmentation andbiodiversity loss.
Land Use Policy

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™, of which one is

doi.org/10.1016/j.

Critically Endangered (CR), 19 Endangered (EN) and 31

landusepol.2021.105835

Vulnerable (VU).
The authors conclude the case under study shows thatwhen misaligned with national and global environmental goals, economic development may contradict
sustainable development, leading to increased carbon

The present study aimed to expose the damage thatemissions, greater loss of biodiversity and diminishedmisguided policies may have on conservation actions.

ecosystem services.

It assessed the impacts of a draft law that proposed todownsize the Devonian Escarpment Environmental
Protection Area (DEEPA). This site in southern Brazil’s
Paraná state features Atlantic Forest and Brazilian
Savanna (Cerrado) biomes, two highly diverse landscapes rich in endemic species and under intense pressure from human-made impacts.
1213Modelling Chagas disease in the Atlantic
4

Forest of south-eastern Brazil
Using data collected via citizens capturing insects in

Dario MA, Maranhão PHC,

their residences and submitting them for analysis at

Dos Santos GQ, Rocha M demunicipal public health agencies, the authors created models of vector occurrence and parasite infection
based on variables for soil, vegetation, elevation, climate and mammalian species richness. Derived fromM, Falqueto A, Da Silva LFCF,
Jansen AM and Das Chagas
Xavier SC (2021)
BrazilGBIF-mediated species occurrences, the mammalian

Environmental influence on

species richness was included as previous studies had

Triatoma vitticeps occurrence

identified a direct relationship between loss of mammal richness and increase of resilient T. cruzi reser-

and Trypanosoma cruzi infectionin the Atlantic Forest of southeastern Brazil

voirs and thus, infection risk.
Geospatial Health

Triatoma vitticeps (Stål, 1859) observed in Diamantina, Mina Gerais, Brazil by a_f_r (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Assessing correlations of vector occurrence and par-doi.org/10.4081/gh.2021.997

asite infection with environmental variables, the authors found that the patterns were best explained by

HEALTH

3,636

Study finds that humidity, temperature andmammalian richness influence vector occurrence
and infection rates of disease-causing parasite

SPECIES OCCURRENCES
BrazilTrypanosoma cruzi is a haemoflagellate protozoan with acomplex life cycle and the causal agent of Chagas disease,relative humidity, average temperature, soil type, altitude and mammalian richness. The central and southern regions of ES presented as transmission hotspots—with the highest distributions of T. vitticeps and T. cruzi
infections—with optimal conditions for all variables
present in these regions.

affecting millions of people in Latin America, especially in rural areas. Little is known about the transmission
patterns and the effect of the environment on this vector-borne disease.
This study based in the Atlantic Forest of Espírito Santo(ES) State, Brazil, explores the biotic and abiotic variables
that modulated the occurrence of a highly infected insect
vector, Triatoma vitticeps, and T. cruzi infections.
1415

Determining the drivers of genetic
5

variation in North American plants
and those that do not (gymnosperms), the authors de-López-Delgado J and Meirmans

rived summary statistics estimating levels of genetic

PG (2021)

diversity and population-specific differentiation.
They then used GBIF-mediated occurrences to produce
species distribution models (SDM) representing the current
climate and conditions at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM,~22,000 years ago). In addition to ecological suitability, themodels were used to quantify distances to range edges andpotential glacial refugia for each genetic population.

Netherlands
History or demography?
Determining the drivers ofgenetic variation in North
American plants
Molecular Ecology
doi.org/10.1111/mec.16230

Combining the genetic statistics with the output of theBlack hemlock (Tsuga canadensis (L.) Carrière) observed in Maryland, USA by Sara Rall (CC BY-NC 4.0)

SDMs, the authors found that genetic diversity significantly
decreased as distance to potential glacial refugia increased.
Likewise, as the suitability of a population’s LGM habitat in-

EVOLUTION

97,074SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Study coupling micro-satellite data with species distribution modelling reveals mechanisms that shape genetic diversity among 91
angiosperms and gymnosperms
In order to conserve biodiversity and predict responses toglobal change, understanding the drivers of genetic variation and their relative importance is essential. In this paper,
researchers presented a phylogeographic framework fortesting the contributions of historical climatic shifts versus

creased, so did the corresponding genetic diversity.
The analysis also demonstrated a clear relationship between distance to range edge and suitability under current
climatic conditions, accompanied by a significant increasein genetic diversity. While providing clear support for demographic effects related to the so-called “central marginal
hypothesis,” the study’s overall results suggest that history
and demography have roughly equivalent importance inshaping genetic variation.

the positions of populations within species ranges in shaping genetic diversity among North American plants.
By analysing genetic data from 1,400 populations of 91
native North American plants that flower (angiosperms)
16

17

Global decline in capacity of coral reefs to6

provide ecosystem services
2007. Analysing surveys of 3,500 reefs in 87 countries, researchers estimated a decline in coral coverage of ~5 percent per decade and a total of 50 per cent decline from the1957 baseline.
Using occurrences of more than 40,000 reef-associatedEddy TD, Lam VWY, Reygondeau
G, Cisneros-Montemayor AM,
Greer K, Palomares MLD, Bruno
JF, Ota Y and Cheung WWL(2021)
CanadaUnited States

macroalgae, macroinvertebrates and fish species mediated by OBIS, GBIF and other sources, the authors calculated
species richness by exclusive economic zone (EEZ). These
showed the greatest coral-associated biodiversity in Pacific countries and territories. Applying a regression model
they further revealed a positive relationship between esBlue-tooth groper (Cheilinus undulatus Rüppell, 1835) observed in Palau by Sora Yamaguchi (CC BY-NC 4.0)

timated reef area and the species richness among 94 EEZs.

Global decline in capacity ofcoral reefs to provide ecosystemservices
One Earthdoi.org/10.1016/j.
oneear.2021.08.016

The countries with the highest per-capita consumption of
MARINEECOSYSTEM SERVICES

Study of 50 years of reef surveys finds coral
coverage halved, which coupled with steep declines in catch numbers, suggests severe losses
in reef-associated species abundancecoral fish species among Indigenous peoples were Palau,
Micronesia and Kiribati. Global reef-associated catches increased from 1950 until peaking in 2002 after which they
declined. Global catch per unit effort (CPUE)—an indirect
measure of species abundance—peaked in the 1970s andthen dropped significantly. In the EEZs of many countries,

Millions of people worldwide rely on coral reefs and thethe decline over 50 years was close to 100 per cent.

ecosystem services they provide such as food, livelihoods
and buffering against extreme climate events. For coastal
Indigenous peoples in small-island developing states, seafood consumption is 15 times higher than non-Indigenous
populations, constituting up to 90 per cent of dietary animal protein in some Pacific nations.
This study examined how coral coverage, reef-associatedbiodiversity and fisheries changed globally from 1957 to18

19

Old vs. young: testing hypotheses for the7formation of the Amazon basin
Researchers used genetic sequence data for six mono-

Méndez-Camacho K, Leon-phyletic taxa across four animal classes—amphibians,

Alvarado O and Miranda-Esquivel

birds, insects and mammals—to reconstruct time-calibrated molecular phylogenies. Using GBIF-mediatedoccurrences they performed ancestral range inferences, testing different dispersal rates and potential
isolation barriers.

DR (2021)
Colombia, Brazil
Biogeographic evidence
supports the Old Amazon
hypothesis for the formation of
the Amazon fluvial system

Their results show evidence of initial dispersals to thebasin ranging from around 16 to 10 million years ago
with full taxa coverage between 12 and six million years

PeerJ
doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12533

ago. Not all taxa agreed with the temporal range, but in
Ortalis guttata (Spix, 1825) observed near Trinidad, Bolivia by Ruben D. Layme (CC BY-NC 4.0)

BIOGEOGRAPHY

780,843

general the results of the molecular and biogeographicalanalyses provide support for the “Old Amazon” model.

Study uncovers biogeographic evidence supporting the Old Amazon hypothesis for the formation of the Amazon fluvial system

SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Covering eight countries and one overseas territory, theAmazon ecosystem represents the largest continuous
tract of tropical rainforest in the world. The formation of
the Amazon basin rivers is believed to be a main contributor to the high biodiversity of the ecosystem.
This study examines the fit of phylogenetic and biogeographic data to two different hypotheses around thetiming of the formation of the Amazon fluvial system:
the “Old Amazon” (up to 10 million years ago) vs. the“Young Amazon” (around 2.5 million years ago).
20

21

Mapping the likely geography of SARS8

CoV-2’s evolutionary origins
In this study, researchers reviewed swabs and samples collected from bats in Yunnan province, China, between May
2019 and November 2020 and identified 24 novel corona-

Zhou H, Ji J, Chen X, Bi Y, Li J,
Wang Q, Hu T, Song H, Zhao R,
Chen Y, Cui M, Zhang Y, Hughes
AC, Holmes EC and Shi W (2021)

virus genomes from different bat species, among themfour SARS-CoV-2-like viruses present in nine samples. One

China, Australiaof the novel bat coronaviruses, RpYN06 (short for “Rhinol-

Identification of novel bat

ophus pusillus, Yunnan, sample no. 6”), exhibited 94.5 percoronaviruses sheds light on thecent overall sequence identity to SARS-CoV-2, making it theevolutionary origins of SARS-

closest relative identified to date in certain genomic regions.

CoV-2 and related viruses
Cell

Strikingly, the new viruses described in the study as well as
previously identified species with high genetic similarity to
Rhinolophus pusillus Temminck, 1834 observed in Shizuoka, Japan by Ryosuke Kuwahara (CC BY-NC 4.0)

HEALTH
AGRICULTURE

Study identifies novel coronaviruses closely
related to COVID-19 pathogen in hotspots ofhigh bat diversity

CLIMATE CHANGE

While millions of people have died as a result of
247,972

Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, the

SPECIES OCCURRENCES

precise origin of the disease-causing pathogen, the

China

SARS-CoV-2 virus, remains elusive. Massive scientificefforts have gone into sequencing viral genomes whilesampling potential wildlife in order to determine
hosts and/or reservoir species, as most human viralpathogens have zoonotic origins. So far, SARS-CoV-2
relatives have been identified in several species ofAsian horseshoe bat (genus Rhinolophus) as well as the

SARS-CoV-2 were all discovered within a relatively small

doi.org/10.1016/j.
cell.2021.06.008

area (11 km²) of Yunnan province.
In parallel, the authors also sought to narrow the geographic search for SARS-CoV-2’s origins by modelling ecologicalniches of 49 horseshoe bat species using GBIF-mediatedoccurrences. Their investigations showed suitable habitats
for Rhinolophus in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia,with as many as 23 species co-occuring in hotspots extending from South Vietnam into Southern China.
While the virus’s immediate progenitor remains unknown,these lines of evidence clearly show the enormous phylogenetic and genomic diversity of coronaviruses in Southeast
Asia. Increased surveillance of the region’s bats and otherwild mammals may help track spillovers of pathogenic viruses from animals to humans.

Malayan pangolin (Manis javanica).
22

23

Predicting the occurrence of mycetoma in
9

Sudan
Based on a database of locations of patients at the on-

Hassan R, Simpson H, Cano J,

set of symptoms, researchers constructed an ensem-

Bakhiet S, Ganawa E, Argaw D,

ble model using a wide range of candidate predictors,

Newport MJ, Deribe K and Fahal
AH (2021)

including data on climate, soil, livestock, waterways,
vegetation and GBIF-mediated occurrences of thorny

Sudan, UK, Switzerland, Ethiopia

trees—believed to be a major cause of wounds throughwhich infections can happen.

Modelling the spatial distributionof mycetoma in Sudan

For eumycetoma (caused by fungal infections) cases,

Society of Tropical Medicine andterway and greater diversity of thorny trees. The latter,

Hygienehowever, had no effect on probability of actinomycetoDichrostachys cinerea (L.) Wight & Arn. observed by Botswanabugs (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Transactions of The Royal

probability increased with proximity the nearest wa-ma (caused by bacterial infections), which in addition

doi.org/10.1093/trstmh/
trab076

to proximity to waterways was affected by mean temperature, aridity and soil sodium concentration.

HEALTH

20,993SPECIES OCCURRENCES
Sudan

Study links probability of neglected tropical disease to aridity, proximity to water, sodium in soil
and richness of thorny tree species
Mycetoma is a neglected tropical disease caused bybacterial and fungal infections leading to chronic in-

The maps produced for the study showed geographic
variation in the risk of mycetoma linked to environmental factors, predicting the highest occurrence inthe central and southeastern parts of Sudan and along
the Nile and its tributaries.

flammation and eventually deformities, if untreated.
The disease has been reported in 102 countries, but Sudan currently has the world’s highest case burden.
In hope of helping to detect and manage cases in Sudan,
this study sought to identify environmental predictorsof the disease while mapping probability and identifying potential hotspots.
24

25

Climate change and fungal pathogens
10threaten global tea productiontea (Camellia sinensis var. sinensis and C. sinensis var. assamica) as well as three disease-causing fungal species—atbaseline and three future climate scenarios.

Tibpromma S, Dong Y, Ranjitkar
S, Schaefer DA, Karunarathna
SC, Hyde KD, Jayawardena RS,
Manawasinghe IS, Bebber DP,
Promputtha I, Xu J, Mortimer PE

The models showed significant reductions in suitable habitat for both varieties of up to third of the baseline area by

and Sheng J (2021)
Nepal, China, Thailand, UK

2050. Overlaps in the suitable area for tea and pathogens
were predicted to range from 10 to 45 per cent—the worst
case being the overlap of Colletotrichum acutatum on C.
sinensis var. sinensis in southern China.

Climate-Fungal Pathogen
Modeling Predicts Loss of Up to
One-Third of Tea Growing Areas
Frontiers in Cellular andOverall, the models predicted that temperatures in current
Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze observed in Hangzhou, China by rhinolin (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Infection Microbiology

tea growing areas would reach optimum levels for the se-doi.org/10.3389/

lected fungal species, favouring the growth and spread of

fcimb.2021.610567

the pathogens. While tea cultivation may be moved into
AGRICULTURE
CLIMATE CHANGE

Study modelling effects of climate change predicts loss of a third of tea growing areas and increased exposure to fungal pathogens

more favourable climates, the wider climate tolerances ofpathogens mean that innovative approaches will be needed to protect future tea production.

The most widely consumed beverage in the world after
water, tea is a cultural staple playing a significant role inmany countries’ economies. Climate change may reduce
suitable tea-growing habitat and increase pathogen infectivity and susceptibility.
In this study, researchers examined the potential effects ofa warming climate on tea and important associated fungal pathogens. By combining GBIF-mediated occurrenceswith data from the literature, the authors modelled the potential distribution of the two main varieties of cultivated
26

27

11

The evolution of fruit colour
evolution, as contrastive colouring of fruits by anthocyanins

Sinnott-Armstrong MA,

could also imply a means of simply protecting the photo-

Donoghue MJ and Jetz W (2021)

synthetic apparatus against UV radiation—or the damaging

USAeffects of cold.
Dispersers and environment

The authors set out with a dataset of fruit colouration for
more than 3,100 fleshy-fruited plants. They used GBIF-mediated occurrences to determine the distributions of theplants and derive climatic factors. This was combined withbird and mammal breeding ranges and diet data to create adrive global variation in fruit
colour syndromes
Ecology Letters
doi.org/10.1111/ele.13753

model to test the various hypotheses.
Their results found evidence for both biotic and abiotic variHaemorhous mexicanus (P.L.Statius Müller, 1776) observed in Bonsall, CA, USA by Andrea Kreuzhage (CC BY-NC 4.0)

ables contributing to the evolution of fruit colour. Cryptic
colouration occurs largely in warm environments where

EVOLUTION

11,504,864
SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Study finds support for the “disperser syndrome hypothesis” but also identifies roles of
abiotic factors in the evolution and geographyof fruit colour syndromes

the relative bird frugivore prevalence is low. When wet season temperatures are low and/or bird prevalence is high,however, most fruits display contrastive colours.

Relying on animals for seed dispersal, many plants need toadvertise their fleshy fruits and attract frugivorous birds
and mammals—in accordance with the perceptual abilitiesof the dispersing clade. The disperser syndrome hypothesis(DSH) associates “contrastive colours” i.e. black, blue, red,with bird dispersal, while linking fruits of “cryptic” “colours”
i.e. green, brown, yellow, with mammal dispersal.
In this study, researchers tested DSH, while attempting toflesh out a potential role of abotic factors on fruit colour
28

29Impediments to understanding
12

seagrasses response to global change
Exploring sampling biases using occurrence data available for the clade through GBIF.org, the study reveals
spatial gaps in Western and Central Indo-Pacific andRock BM and Daru BH (2021)
USA

temporal bias towards spring and summer months—and

Impediments to Understanding

very few records from before 1900. The authors also de-

Seagrasses’ Response to Global

tected a weak phylogenetic signal in collection frequency, indicating some degree of taxonomic bias within theclade. The study also points to a lack of available phylogenetic and evolutionary knowledge for seagrasses.

ChangeFrontiers in Marine Science
doi.org/10.3389/
fmars.2021.608867

With 31 per cent of seagrass species in global decline,
conservation action requires addressing these shortAmphibolis griffithii (J.M.Black) Hartog observed in Normanville Beach, Australia by David Muirhead (CC BY-NC 4.0)

falls. The authors suggest increased funding for seagrass monitoring programmes and specimen digitization, support for technological advances, such as DNA

MARINE
CLIMATE CHANGE

Review of seagrass knowledge reveals gaps
and biases in sampling practices across spatial, temporal and taxonomic dimensions

sequencing, and improving analytical and computational tools available to researchers.

A major clade of about 70 species belonging to the Alismatales order, seagrasses are important marine plants,
playing key roles in productivity, nutrient cycling andcarbon sequestration, while also providing food for marine herbivores and nursery grounds for many fishes
and invertebrates.
Focused on exploring the response of seagrasses toglobal change, this paper assessed the current available
knowledge of the group in order to identify potential gaps
and biases that might impede successful predictions.
30

31

Synthesizing tree biodiversity data to13

understand global patterns of vegetation
for integration of all available data on trees, assessing
representation and identifying gaps in data and steps
required to fill them.
Based on a list of more than 58,000 tree species derived
from GlobalTreeSearch and the Global Inventory of
Flora and Traits (GIFT), the authors compiled all available data, including occurrence data mediated by GBIF,
trait data from TRY, abundance data from sPlot, molecular sequences from GenBank, and conservation assessments from IUCN.

Spathodea campanulata Beauv. (among others) observed in Teacher Mante, Ghana by canyonkid91 (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Only about 10 per cent of species had data available

Keppel G, Craven D, Weigelt P,
Smith SA, van der Sande MT,
Sandel B, Levin SC, Kreft H and
Knight TM (2021)
Germany, Australia, Chile, USA,
Netherlands
Synthesizing tree biodiversity
data to understand global
patterns and processes ofvegetation
Journal of Vegetation Science
doi.org/10.1111/jvs.13021

across all databases. Coverage of distribution data wasvery good with nearly 85 per cent of trees having at least

BIODIVERSITY SCIENCE

44,267,164
SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Study assesses potential of efficient integration of tree biodiversity data—including distribution, abundance, traits, sequences andconservation—for producing a holistic view ofglobal vegetation

one record in GBIF. Availability of multiple traits, molecular data and conservation assessments was far less—about 45 per cent.
The study highlights trees as good models for understanding vegetation patterns, but points to gaps indata, particularly in the tropics, suggesting technolog-

In terrestrial ecosystems, trees constitute the majority

ical advances such as DNA barcoding, near-infraredof biomass, providing structure, habitats, and resources

spectroscopy and LiDAR remote sensing as potential

for surrounding lifeforms. Playing a major part in global

high-throughput solutions for filling gaps.

climate through their role in carbon and water cycling,trees are among the best-studied plant groups.
With the aim of producing a more holistic understanding of vegetation, reseachers evaluated the potential
32

33

Separating the sedges using population
14

genomics and niche modelingto the large Carex genus of more than 2,000 species ofgrass-like plants, commonly known as sedges.

Nygaard M, Kemppainen P,
Speed JDM, Elven R, Flatberg KI,
Galten LP, Yousefi N, Solstad H
and Bendiksby M (2021)

By sequencing and analysing DNA from 192 individuals collected primarily in eastern and central
Norway, the authors reveal two distinct genetic clus-

Combining population genomics

ters, largely corresponding to C. jemtlandica and C.

and ecological niche modelinglepidocarpa.

to assess taxon limits between

Using GBIF-mediated occurrences of Carex spp. spec-

Carex jemtlandica (Palmgr.) Palmgr. collected by Kristian Nyvoll in Junkerdalen, Norway (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Norway, Finland, Switzerland

Carex jemtlandica and C.
lepidocarpa

imens combined with bioclimatic data, the authors

Journal of Systematics andemployed a multiple ensemble modelling approach,

Evolutioneffectively creating an average model of seven dif-

doi.org/10.1111/jse.12743

ferent algorithms. Comparing the resulting models
indicated that the two species occupy completely

TAXONOMYECOLOGYDNA

Study using ecological niche modeling combinedwith DNA sequencing reveals species complex
as distinct evolutionary entities

BIODIVERSITY SCIENCE

The science of delineating organisms within the993

proper taxonomic boundaries has improved sig-

SPECIES OCCURRENCES

nificantly with the introduction of molecular based

Norwaydifferent environmental niches.
The overall result suggest that C. jemtlandica and C.
lepidocarpa are separate and evolutionarily significant entities.

analysis, allowing for conclusions based on chromosome numbers, protein markers and other sequence
information.
This study combined morphological analysis withpopulation genomics and ecological niche modellingto assess taxon limits within the Carex jemtlandica–
Carex lepidocarpa species complex, plants belonging

34

35

Lagging behind climate change—debt for15

the North, bonus for the South
Using more than 100 million GBIF-mediated species

Duchenne F, Martin G andoccurrences combined with six bioclimatic variables on

Porcher E (2021)

temperature and precipitation, the authors calculated

Franceannual species climatic indices (SCI) for each species
and variable and estimated species occupancy trends.

European plants lagging behindclimate change pay a climatic
debt in the North, but are

While negative correlation between SCI and occupancy
trends—indicating a climatic debt—was not significant
at the continental level, the two coldest biogeographic
regions (boreal and alpine) showed an increase in tem-favoured in the South
Ecology Letters
doi.org/10.1111/ele.13730

perature associated with negative occupancy trends
over time, suggesting insufficient range shifts, i.e., cliVaccinium uliginosum L. observed near Abisko Östra, Sweden by fjellrunner (CC BY-NC 4.0)

matic dept.
Surprisingly, the opposite pattern was present in the

CLIMATE CHANGE

111,549,494

Study of European plants find climatic debts incolder Alpine and Boreal regions, but climaticbonus in warmer Mediterranean regions

warmest Mediterranean region, as the occupancy of species experiencing temperature increases throughout theirrange tended to increase, suggesting a climate “bonus”.

SPECIES OCCURRENCES

When the climate changes, species can either track
their climatic optimum by moving in space—or respond adaptively adjusting to new climatic conditions.
Climate change, however, often happens faster thanspecies are able to respond, leaving them with an unpaid “climatic debt”.
To verify the existence of such debt, French researchers studied temporal shifts in climatic conditions andoccupancy trends for 4,000 of the most common vascular plant species in Europe over the last 65 years.
36

37

Exposure to plant biodiversity reduces
16

risk of cancer in children
this study followed all children born in New Zealand be-

Donovan GH, Gatziolis D, ’t

tween 1998 and 2013 (and their mothers) from the time

Mannetje A, Weinkove R, Fyfe C

of conception to age five, tracking plant exposure while
identifying cases of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia(ALL), the most common childhood cancer.

and Douwes J (2021)
New Zealand, USA
An empirical test of thebiodiversity hypothesis:

The authors estimated the plant exposure of every child

Exposure to plant diversity is(and mother during pregnancy) based on where they

associated with a reduced risk of

lived and a composite metric of GBIF-mediated plant
occurrences, land cover data, a satellite imagery-based
vegetation index and census data classifying a location
as urban or rural.
Rubus schmidelioides A.Cunn. observed in Hopkins Valley, New Zealand. Photo by jamesmifan (CC BY-NC 4.0)

childhood acute lymphoblastic
leukemia
Science of The Total
Environment
doi.org/10.1016/j.

After five years, the study identified 264 cases of ALL

scitotenv.2020.144627

among the almost 950,000 children tracked. Based on
HEALTHNew ZealandLarge New Zealand birth-cohort study finds statistically significant and dose-dependent association between increased plant diversity andprotection against childhood leukaemia

the calculated exposure metrics, the study found thatchildren in the highest tertile of plant diversity had a 35
per cent reduced risk of developing ALL.

A diverse gut microbiota is essential for human health,as many diseases are associated with reduced microbial
diversity in the intestines. Vascular plants are important
habitats for microorganisms such as bacteria, with microbial diversity increasing with plant diversity.
Setting out to test the so-called biodiversity health hypothesis and demonstrate a direct link between exposure to plant diversity and specific health outcomes,
38

39

Hierarchical framework for mapping wild17

bee pollination at the local scale
In the first step, researchers used GBIF-mediated oc-

Perennes M, Diekötter T, Groß J

currences combined with five bioclimatic variables

and Burkhard B (2021)

and seven land use/cover classes to model the potential

Germany

distribution of 25 important Andrena bee species at the
global scale.

A hierarchical framework formapping pollination ecosystemservice potential at the local

In the study area of Bornhöved Lake District inSchleswig-Holstein, Germany, the authors then applied
habitat filters and foraging ranges of each species to refine the output of the species distribution models at a local
scale, producing a map of relative pollination potential.

Andrena fulva (Müller, 1766) observed near Kiel, Germany by florafoto (CC BY-NC 4.0)

scale
Ecological Modelling
doi.org/10.1016/j.
ecolmodel.2021.109484

By deploying traps in rapeseed fields of the study area,
the authors were able to test the predictive powers of
their model, finding correlation between predicted

ECOSYSTEM SERVICESAGRICULTURE

125,681
SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Study combines species distribution modellingand ecosystem service mapping to predict relative pollination potential

pollination service potential and observed Andrena
richness and abundance.

Wild bees are important pollinators playing a key rolein crop cultivation and wild plant reproduction. Like

Germany

other insects, wild bees face declines due to pollution,
land use change, agricultural intensification and climate change.
This study proposes a framework that combines advantages of species distribution modelling and ecosystemservice mapping to develop a high-resolution modelthat predicts spatial patterns of pollination ecosystemservices potential from wild bees at the local scale.

40

41

Assessing biases and broader
18

applicability of expert range maps
higher level taxa (mammals, dragonflies and damselflies,

Hughes AC, Orr MC, Yang Q andamphibians, birds and reptiles) and overlaid these with

Qiao H (2021)

different features such as administrative boundaries.
This exercise demonstrated an average of 20—30 per

China
Effectively and accurately
mapping global biodiversity

cent of non-coastal species range boundaries coinciding

patterns for different regionswith country borders, many with no clear geophysicaland taxa

boundaries. When considering species richness, 60 per
cent of areas with the highest spatial turnover in species
occurred at political boundaries.

Global Ecology and
Biogeography
doi.org/10.1111/geb.13304

Finally, the authors compared the expert maps with GBIF
Amphispiza bilineata (Cassin, 1850) observed in Mexico by Enrique Perez Carrillo (CC BY-NC 4.0)

mediated data, finding 80 per cent of taxa having morethan 30 per cent of their occurrences outside the corresponding range map.

CONSERVATION

638,809,455

Study of more than 50,000 animals shows biasof expert range maps at administrative borders
and failure to capture all known occurences

SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Having accurate maps of species distributions is funda-

Taken together, these results reveal high bias of expert
range maps at administrative borders, suggesting aneed for alternative approaches to reconstructing patterns of distribution.

mental to assessing conservation priorities and developing
targeted conservation strategies, but also to understanding
basic biodiversity patterns.
This study analyses expert range maps of 50,000 animal
species to test the assumption that these provide consistent and standardized estimates of species’ ranges.
By rasterizing and stacking species range boundaries,
the authors created boundary density maps grouped by42

43

Automated species identification using
19

19th-century zoological illustrations
interpretation of historical names and other meta-

Stork L, Weber A, van den

data—may help facilitate access to such important

Herik J, Plaat A, Verbeek F andsources of historical knowledge.

Wolstencroft K (2021)
Netherlands

In this study, a team of Dutch researchers explore “ze-Large-scale zero-shot learning

ro-shot learning” to address the problem. In brief, thisin the wild: Classifying zoologicalapproach allows for recognition of objects for which

illustrations

no direct examples of the object class are observed
during training. Instead, the method relies on embedded class information from other sources.

Ecological Informatics
doi.org/10.1016/j.
ecoinf.2021.101222

The authors trained their model on a dataset of 14,502
Scutigera in Iconographia Zoologica from the Special Collections of the University of Amsterdam, Public domain, via
Wikimedia Commons

TAXONOMYDATA MANAGEMENT

Study explores large-scale zero-shot learning
for automated classification of scientific illustrations to reduce time needed for digitization

BIODIVERSITY SCIENCE

Scientific illustrations have historically served asperhaps the most important medium for conveying
a species’ characteristic traits, offering a means ofhighlighting and delineating miniscule details notalways well-suited to photography. Such illustrations
are often stored in museum repositories and archives
in undigitized form, where they remain unavailable

illustrations of 7,973 animal species from Iconographia
Zoologica, embedding a class hierarchy based on
the GBIF backbone taxonomy, literature from the
Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) and dimensionalfeatures from photographs from iNaturalist.
Evaluating the model on an unannotated dataset of
digitized illustrations of historical fauna of Indonesia,
the researchers achieved an overall classification accuracy of around 35 per cent. While this may seem low,
illustrations from 80 classes—with zero examples fortraining—were categorized correctly, showing the potential of computational methods for embedded modelsof species classification.

for generic use.
The use of automated methods for reducing thetime and effort required for digitization—including
44

45

Climate change shifts European
20

cephalopod distributions north-east(common squid) from OBIS, GBIF and SeaLifeBase tomodel their ecological niches in European waters.

Schickele A, Francour P and
Raybaud V (2021)
France

The authors considered various environmental parameters such as salinity and temperature, appliedin an ensemble modelling framework. The approach

European cephalopods
distribution under climatechange scenarios

combined several different algorithms that integrated
machine learning and regression-based methods, toproduce predictions about the current and future environmental suitability and distribution for each species.

Scientific Reports
doi.org/10.1038/s41598-02183457-w

Overall, the models predicted increases in environOctopus vulgaris Cuvier, 1797 observed near Bastia, Corsica, France by Sylvain Le Bris (CC BY-NC 4.0)

mental suitability in all areas north of the English
Channel, shifting the centres of the species’ distributions north-eastward. The highest increases were ob-

CLIMATE CHAGE

7,191
SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Study of cephalopods in regional waters suggests shifts in environmental suitability drive
populations increases north—and decreases
south—of the English Channel

served in the North Sea for cuttlefish and squid and in
the Baltic Sea for octopus. General decreases, however,were observed for all three species in the Bay of Biscay
and across the Mediterranean.

Squid, octopuses and cuttlefish are important species
in fisheries worldwide. This short-lived group is sensitive to changes in environmental conditions, so climatechange may negatively influence their sustainable
exploitation.
In this study, researchers aggregated species occurrences of Octopus vulgaris (common octopus), Sepia
officinalis (common cuttlefish) and Loligo vulgaris
46

47

Global assessment of the effects of
21

climate change on freshwater fish
Under two different climate scenarios, the study predicts

Manjarrés-Hernández A,

the complete disappearance of distributional areas of

Guisande C, García-Roselló
E, Heine J, Pelayo-Villamil P,

about half of all freshwater fish species by the year 2070, aPérez-Costas E, González-Vilas

decline more pronounced in tropical river basins and par-L, González-Dacosta J, R. Duqueticularly high in southeast Asia, mainly affecting species

S, Granado-Lorencio C, Lobo

with smaller body size.

JM (2021)
Colombia, Spain

On average, across all watersheds, approximately 20
per cent of species are predicted to be lost by 2050. The
most important climatic predictors observed were an-

Predicting the effects of climatechange on future freshwater fish
diversity at global scale

nual precipitation and isothermality (the relationshipbetween mean daily temperature and annual temBoleophthalmus boddarti (Pallas, 1770) observed in Viet Nam by Владимир SaganSS Каганов (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Nature Conservation

perature range), such that species richness declined

doi.org/10.3897/

at higher rates in watersheds with high annual rainfall

natureconservation.43.58997

and temperature seasonality. In addition to a reduction
CLIMATE CHANGE
FRESHWATER

1.4 M
SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Study of more than 16,000 species suggests theextinction of almost half of current freshwater
fish by mid-century

in number of species, the predicted richness decline
will also lead to a significant reduction in phylogenetic
and functional diversity.

Several studies of freshwater fishes have examined the effects of climate change on individual species or in specificcountries, many suggesting that the group may be especially vulnerable considering changes in hydrological regimes.
Taking a holistic approach, this study provides a global
assessment of predicted climate-induced changes to thediversity and richness of watersheds around the world,modelling the current and future distributions of morethan 16,000 freshwater fish species based on GBIF-mediated occurrences.

48

49

Current and future coverage of protected22

areas in the Appalachian Mountains
future range shifts by integrating climate projections

Zhu G, Papeş M, Giam X, Cho S-Hfrom circulation models and greenhouse gas concen-

and Armsworth PR (2021)

tration pathways.
The current PA coverage was found to be rather poor withmore than 90 per cent of species having less than 15 percent of their estimated ranges covered. Assuming spe-USA
Are protected areas well-sited
to support species in the future
in a major climate refuge andcorridor in the United States?

cies are able to disperse freely, future climatic conditions
would aggravate coverage for amphibians and mammals,
but improve coverage for birds and reptiles.

Biological Conservation
doi.org/10.1016/j.
biocon.2021.108982

The authors suggest the Blue Ridge region as a candidate
Plethodon hubrichti Thurow, 1957 observed near the Blue Ridge Parkway, Virginia, USA by gman122 (CC BY-NC 4.0)

CONSERVATION
CLIMATE CHANGE

258
SPECIESfor increasing protection with both current and futureenvironments suitable for the greatest number of species.

Climate change may shift species ranges toimprove coverage of protected areas for somespecies while worsening for others
Protected areas (PA) are an important tool to help conserve global biodiversity. As the climate changes, the cov-USAerage of PAs for some species and habitats may change—
for better or worse.
In this study, researchers evaluated the current andfuture PA coverage in the US Appalachian Mountains
for the species ranges of 258 amphibians, birds, mammals and reptiles of conservation policy concern. Using
GBIF-mediated occurrences, the authors modelled thecurrent bioclimatic niche of each species, forecasting

50

51

23

Global decline in wild bee diversity
chance of observing bees and thus a reduced number of
species recorded in GBIF.

Zattara EE and Aizen MA (2021)
Argentina, USA, Germany

By analysing all occurrences of six bee families (theWorldwide occurrence records“true bees”), the authors first demonstrated a clear

suggest a global decline in bee

increase in the number of occurrences per year from1900 until 2015. While the number of species with records available through GBIF per year also increased
steadily throughout the first half of the century, it plateaued and then declined—particularly after 1990.

species richness
One Earthdoi.org/10.1016/j.
oneear.2020.12.005

When exploring the geographic distribution of bees
Eufriesea mariana (Mocsáry, 1896) observed in Argentina by Santiago (CC BY-NC 4.0)

by continent, the authors found marked differencesin contributions to global diversity and the periodsof decline. Europe and North America have the best

AGRICULTURE
CLIMATE CHANGECONSERVATION

Study finds that the number of bee species observed globally has been dwindling since thelate 20th century
Wild bees are the most important group of insect pollinators, essential to the reproduction of hundreds ofthousands of wild plant species and 85 per cent of all
cultivated plants. There is increasing evidence of declines in wild bee populations, but most studies to datehave been limited to smaller taxonomic groups and local, national or regional contexts.

temporal and spatial coverage in GBIF and exhibitedthe steepest declines. However, all continents except
Oceania appeared to be contributing to the worldwide
decline in bee diversity observed.
While these results might be affected by heterogeneous data collection, the authors found it more likelythat these trends represent real scenarios of declining
bee diversity. In the best scenario, thousands of species
have become too rare to be observed, while in the worst
scenario, they have gone extinct.

In this study, researchers reasoned that a global decline among bees would be observable as a decrease inpopulation sizes and ranges, resulting in a diminished52

53

Prioritizing conservation of Indonesian
24

medicinal plants
The study identifies the western part of Java as the rich-

Cahyaningsih R, Magos Brehm J

est area with as many as 82 unique species. Forty-one

and Maxted N (2021)

50 x 50 km cells were identified as potential candidates

UK, Indonesia

for in situ conservation, of which 33 overlapped withprotected areas.

Gap analysis of Indonesianpriority medicinal plant species
as part of their conservation

For ex situ conservation, the study pointed to WesternJava and Maluku as most in need of further collection.
Thirty-eight species had fewer than five known occurrences and, of these, only six were present in national
ex situ conservation.

Dendrobium faciferum J.J.Sm. observed in Maluku, Indonesia by Colin Trainor (CC BY-NC 4.0)

planning
Global Ecology and Conservation
doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2021.
e01459The authors of the study propose establishing active
conservation of priority medicinal species inside current protected areas. They also suggest intense do-

CONSERVATIONHUMAN HEALTH

6,704
SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Study analyses priority medicinal plant diversity in Indonesia, providing recommendations on
short and long-term conservation action

mestication and propagation of the six priority species
already present in living collections to support their reintroduction in natural habitats.

Medicinal plants—defined as higher plants used for
medicinal purposes—number more than 50,000 spe-Indonesia

cies worldwide, and global export value is estimated to
exceed $3.3 billion.
Encompassing two biodiversity hotspots, Indonesia
is a megadiverse country with as many as 7,500 medicinal plant species. In this study, researchers used
GBIF-mediated occurrences of 233 priority species ina gap analysis to identify sites ideal for in situ reserves
and ex situ collection.

54

55

Gaps in North American butterfly
25

inventory knowledge
the author used species occurrences from GBIF, iDigBio

Shirey V, Belitz MW, Barve V andand eButterfly as the comparison for recorded richness.

Guralnick R (2021)
USA

Overall, more than 90 per cent of occurrences fell within
delineations from range maps. Inventory completenesswas spatially heterogeneous, with noticeable gaps in
the far north of Canada, midwestern United States andnorthern Mexico. A comparison between occurrence
records based on specimens with those based oncommunity observations revealed a slightly higher

A complete inventory of North
American butterfly occurrence
data: narrowing data gaps, but
increasing bias
Ecography
doi.org/10.1111/ecog.05396

average completeness ratio for the latter. Incomplete
sampling was highest in regions facing the most severe
Speyeria atlantis Edwards, 1862 observed in North Cochrane District, ON, Canada by Jack Farley (CC BY-NC 4.0)

ECOLOGY
BIODIVERSITY SCIENCE

2,421,261
SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Study assessing inventory completeness ofbutterflies in Canada, the US and Mexico reveals narrowing data gaps, but increasing bias
Gaps in openly-accessible biodiversity data limit
attempts

Canada, USA, Mexico

toaddress

importantecologicalandevolutionary questions. Knowing where and when gaps

threats from a rapid changing climate—particularly inareas surrounding Hudson Bay.
The

study

proposesinitiativesofcommunity

partnerships to increase both opportunistic sampling,
as well as structured surveys. As human footprint
is found to be the main driver behind inventory
completeness, the authors argue that such efforts must
be directed far from densely-populated regions, if they
are to be effective in filling data gaps.

occur is critical not only for choosing scales for analyses,
but also for prioritizing efforts to fill such gaps.
In this study, researchers assessed the inventory
completeness of North American butterflies, i.e., howmany species have been recorded versus how many
species would be expected. With range maps derived
from field guides as a baseline for expected richness,
56

57

Indicators to support assessment anddecision-making around trends in26

biodiversity information
Species Sampling Effectiveness Index (SSEI)—in support

Oliver RY, Meyer C, Ranipeta A,of global assessment, monitoring and decision-making

Winner K and Jetz W (2021)

around trends in biodiversity information. The authors

USA, Germany

also provide a platform for the continuous tracking of theindices in the future.
To demonstrate the indicator framework, the authors used

Global and national trends,
gaps, and opportunities indocumenting and monitoring
species distributions

nearly half a billion GBIF-mediated species occurrences toassess more than 31,000 terrestrial vertebrates. Their re-

PLOS Biology

sults found that 42 per cent of nations showed increasing

doi.org/10.1371/journal.

trends in coverage over the previous decade, driven largely

pbio.3001336

by a rapid increase in bird data. Fewer than 20 per cent of
all countries had increased trends for non-bird taxa. While
Collared lory (Phigys solitarius). Photo by Bird Explorers via iNaturalist Research-grade Observations,licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0

CONSERVATIONBIODIVERSITY SCIENCE

454 M
SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Framework introduced to assess global and national biodiversity data coverage suggests needto shift incentives from numbers of records tovalue, provide support for more targeted data
mobilization and capacity building

citizen science initiatives provide invaluable contributions
to biodiversity data, these findings indicate that they have
not yet been optimized to close gaps in knowledge. To ensure improvements in data coverage, the authors recommend shifting incentives from numbers of records andspecies collected to value of records contributed.
Some regions that previously showed comprehensive
sampling, e.g. Western Europe and Australia, appeared

The conservation and management of biodiversity relies

to have slowed in their progress, likely a result of nations

on comprehensive evidence to establish baselines andoperating at maximum capacity. For these, shifting invest-

track changes. This dynamic setting highlights both thements to support data mobilization and capacity building

need for and importance of reliable indicators whose met-in nations lagging behind targets, may help contribute torics are integrated within flexible analytical frameworks

goals defined through the UN Convention on Biologicalthat are readily updated.

Diversity (CBD). As examples of such projects, the authors
highlighted GBIF’s BID and BIFA programmes.

In this paper, researchers propose two novel indicators—the Species Status Information Index (SSII) and the58

59

Prioritizing conservation targets for27

Indo-West Pacific mangrove forests
species. Seven species were true mangroves, while three
species were mangrove-associates.

Banerjee AK, Feng H, Lin Y, Liang
X, Wang J and Huang Y (2022)
China

Using GBIF-mediated species occurrence records rarified
to 5 km grid cells and 30 environmental variables, the authors developed ensemble models based on eight distinct

assist to prioritize conservation

algorithms, mapping the potential distribution of the 10

targets for the mangroves

IWP species in past, present and future climates.
The produced maps revealed that about 10 per cent of the
IWP area was currently suitable for mangroves and associ-Sonneratia alba Sm. observed in Darwin, Australia by David Spencer Muirhead (CC BY-NC 4.0)

CONSERVATION
CLIMATE CHANGE

12,101
SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Study maps habitat suitability of ten mangroves, predicts future richness decreases andidentifies priority areas and species
Mangrove forests provide a range of essential ecosystemservices with direct impact on coastal community livelihoods. With climate change and human activity in general

Setting the priorities straight- Species distribution models

Science of The Total
Environment

ates. The overall suitable area was predicted to increase by

doi.org/10.1016/j.

2050, however, increases were driven by low species rich-scitotenv.2021.150937

ness, and the models predicted a sharp decrease in cellswith moderate-to-high species richness.
The study identified priority sites for conservation action
in several countries, including areas identified as past
refugia, while ranking five species as the highest priority.
The authors evaluated the current coverage of sites within protected areas, and highlighted the need for specificmangrove management plans, especially in developing
countries.

threatening mangroves, identifying conservation targets
is critical, especially in areas with rich mangrove diversity
but limited response capacity.
In this study, authors from Sun Yat-sen University in China selected 10 representative mangrove species from different families, with genus-level distributions limited to
the Indo-West Pacific (IWP) region, home to more than 50
60

61

A data-driven geospatial workflow to map
species distributions for conservation
28

assessments
the area of habitat (AOH) within a species’ range—suitable

Palacio RD, Negret PJ,

for conservation planning and decision-making.

Velásquez-Tibatá J andUsing GBIF-mediated occurrences of forest birds from

USA, Colombia, Australia

the Americas, the authors chose 723 species as their

Jacobson AP (2021)

A data-driven geospatial

case study to evaluate the performance of the IDW work-

workflow to map species

flow. They used the occurrence data to draw and define

distributions for conservation

the extent of occurrence (EOO) of each species and de-assessments

rived absences from eBird hotspots in which a species
was never recorded.

Diversity and Distributions
doi.org/10.1111/ddi.13424

When compared to expert-drawn maps from BirdLife,
Booted racket-tail [Ocreatus underwoodii (R.Lesson, 1832)] observed near Cali,
Colombia by Delmar W. Bachert (CC BY-NC 4.0)

CONSERVATION

18,664,669

Workflow makes it easier to map species for conservation action, produces estimates with higher
accuracy than expert-derived range maps

the IDW workflow produced maps of 40 per cent higher accuracy with substantially fewer errors of bothomission and commission. While the authors found no
significant difference in the size of ranges, AOH values
from expert-drawn maps were consistently smaller
than IDW-derived estimates.

SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Assessing species’ risk of extinction for conservation
actions usually involves a range of metrics based on the
distribution of the species. Species distribution modelling is a common approach used to predict the extent ofsuitable habitat, however, such models may rely on idiosyncratic decisions and be challenging to implement

With a lower technical threshold than species distribution modelling and an overall improved accuracy
over expert-drawn maps, the authors argued that the
reproducible IDW workflow may be used reliably for
identifying critical areas for conservation actions andestablishing protected areas.

for multiple species.
In this study, authors developed a simple five-step geospatial workflow relying on a user-friendly and deterministic
method called inverse distance weighting (IDW) to map
62

63

29

The colonial legacy of herbaria
In a study published in Nature Human Behaviour, Parkand colleagues from 31 countries on every continent

Park et al (2023)
USA, Indonesia, Japan,

used data on more than 85 million plant specimens to

Venezuela, Hungary, France,

analyse geographic collection and storage patterns forArgentina, Netherlands, Belgium,

specimens. The authors drew on more than 50 million

Peru, Czechia, India, Switzerland,

GBIF-mediated records along with data from another 92
herbaria in 39 countries.

Finland, Australia, South Africa,
Uzbekistan, Korea, Republic ofSingapore, Italy, Kenya
Russian Federation, Poland,

The compilation of country-by-country matrices for theperiods before and after the second World War (WWII),
revealed colonialism’s strong imprints in collections. Most

Germany, UK, Canada, Austria,
Ukraine, Norway, China
The colonial legacy of herbariaof the world’s flora was stored in temperate regions, andinstitutions in the United States and several European naErythroxylum pelleterianum A.St.-Hil. collected in Brazil via the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian
Institution, USA

BIODIVERSITY SCIENCE

50,303,354
SPECIMEN RECORDS

Study suggests that colonial exploitation of plant
specimens has inverted the relationship between
where plant diversity naturally occurs and where
key scientific evidence is catalogued and housed

Nature Human Behaviour

tions housed more than twice the number of species that

doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-

occur in these nations. The historical trend of specimen

01616-7

movement to Europe and North America from the rest of
the world has remained largely constant after WWII. The
proportion of specimens collected from other continents
has increased after WWII, with the US emerging as thelargest collector of overseas specimens.

Four hundred million specimens residing in herbaria

The authors suggested that, to help ensure inclusivenessworldwide form the basis of our understanding of thein future herbarium curation and use, acknowledge-

planet’s flora. Originally collected to describe spe-

ments of their colonial legacy should appear in collections

cies and identify species of potential economic val-

alongside specimen interpretations and role in scientificue, herbarium specimens have served repeatedly as

research. They also highlighted targeted funding initia-

the basis of further innovation, but these collections

tives, such as Biodiversity Information for Development

carry persistent colonial legacies that arose from the(BID), as apotential means of addressing disparities. Most

framework of exploitation often surrounding early

importantly, the authors stressed that the needs and wish-

botanical exploration.

es of the people who lived under colonial rule must guideefforts to address the colonial history of these collections.

64

65

Extinction risk of Mesoamerican crop30

wild relatives
to IUCN Red List categories and criteria. Using occurrence
data from GBIF and other sources, experts derived species
distribution and richness maps, calculating the extent of
occurrence (EOO) and area of occupancy (AOO) for eachspecies of interest.
Among the assessed CWR taxa, 35 per cent were consid-

Koleff P, Acevedo Gasman F,
Aguilar-Meléndez A, Alavez V,
Alejandre-Iturbide G, Aragón
Cuevas F, Azurdia Pérez C,
Carr JA, Castellanos-Morales
G, Cerén G, Contreras-Toledo
AR, Correa-Cano ME, De la
Cruz Larios L, Debouck DG,

ered threatened including seven Critically Endangered

Delgado-Salinas A, Gómez-Ruiz(CR), 48 Endangered (EN) and 16 Vulnerable (VU). The cropEP, González-Ledesma M, … andwith the highest proportion of threatened relatives was

Jenkins RKB (2021)

Vanilla at 100 per cent (eight taxa, all CR or EN), followed by

UK. Mexico, Guatemala,cotton (Gossypium) with 92 per cent, avocado (Persea) withEl Salvador, Colombia, Argentina,

60 per cent and maize with 44 and 33 per cent for Zea andVanilla hartii Rolfe (EN), observed in Chiapas, MX by Guillermo SG (CC BY 4.0)

Goettsch B, Urquiza-Haas T,

Tripsacum, respectively.

USA
Extinction risk of Mesoamericancrop wild relatives

AGRICULTURE
CONSERVATION

3,284
SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Expert group assessed more than 200 speciesof Mesoamerican relatives of important crops,
finding a high proportion severely threatened

The highest diversity of CWR taxa was located in the Mexican states of Jalisco (31 taxa) and Oaxaca (28 taxa), whilemost threatened taxa were present in Veracruz. The dom-

PLANTS, PEOPLE, PLANET
doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10225

inant threat processes included land use change introduced by agriculture and farming, pests and invasive alien

Crop wild relatives (CWR) are the wild cousins of domes-

species.

ticated crops and an important source of genetic diversiMexico, Guatemala, El Salvador,
Hondurasty that can help strengthen important food sources in theWith climate change affecting existing crops and agricul-

face of climate change and other threats. Mesoamerica istural practices threatening CWR and the genetic potential

a significant centre of domestication, wild relative diver-they represent, the study highlights a need for promotingsity and origin of many important crops, such as maize,

more sustainable agriculture and implementing policies

squash, avocado, vanilla and cotton.

supporting CWR conservation in Mesoamerica to help ensure future food security.

In this study, a stakeholder workshop selected 224 priority CWR taxa related to crops cultivated or domesticated in
Mesoamerica and assessed their extinction risk according
66

67

Global warming reshuffling marine
31

plankton communities
zooplankton based on occurrence records mediated by

Benedetti F, Vogt M, Elizondo

GBIF and other sources, coupled with environmental vari-UH, Righetti D, Zimmermann NE

ables such as surface temperature, oxygen concentration,
solar irradiance and macronutrient levels.
For the present time, the constructed models predicted
strong latitudinal richness gradients with overall annual means decreasing from the equator towards the poles.
Phytoplankton displayed richness peaks in tropical upwellings, whereas zooplankton peaked in the subtropics.

and Gruber N (2021)
Switzerland
Major restructuring of marine
plankton assemblages underglobal warming
Nature Communications
doi.org/10.1038/s41467-02125385-x

Projecting the models into a future climatic scenario ofPseudo-nitzschia seriata (Cleve) H.Peragallo, 1899 observed in Sausalito, CA, USA by glanglois (CC BY-NC 4.0)high greenhouse gas emissions, the researchers found
an overall global increase in mean species richness by theend of the century, driven primarily by changes in ocean

MARINE
CLIMATE CHANGEECOSYSTEM SERVICES

790,103
SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Study featuring ensemble models of global
plankton distributions suggests major restructuring of assemblages towards the end of the
century with potential threat to plankton-mediated ecosystem services

surface temperature. The models, however, also predicted
poleward shifts of species’ distributions at a velocity of 35
km/decade, leading to net increases in species diversity intemperate latitudes and decreases in the tropics.
As the ranges of species shift, the composition of plankton communities would be restructured with novel spe-

Forming the basis of the ocean’s food web, marine plankton

cies interactions. The authors suggest that the combined

are essential to a number of ecosystem services includingchanges could weaken the biological carbon pump effect ofcarbon sequestration. Increasing sea temperatures may

plankton carbon sequestration with the risk of functional

promote speciation and diversity, but also force species toecosystem collapse in particularly sensitive regions.

shift their ranges to more suitable climates.
In this paper, researchers built an ensemble of species distribution models for more than 800 species of phyto- and68

69

Distribution and diversity of macrofungi
32

in Europe
data on 25 environmental variables to create a pre-Yu H, Wang T, Skidmore A,

dictive model at 5 km resolution across eight Euro-

Heurich M, Bässler C and Kivlin

pean countries. The study distinguished between thetwo main functional groups: ectomycorrhizal (mutualistic symbionts) and saprotrophic (decomposers)
fungi.

S (2021)
Netherlands, Australia, Germany
The critical role of tree species
and human disturbance indetermining the macrofungal

Analysing the model output, the authors found thehighest distribution probability and species richness
in eastern Denmark and southern Sweden, identify-

diversity in Europe
Global Ecology and
Biogeography

ing new fungal biodiversity hotspots for both functional groups. On the opposite end of the probability
Hairy curtain crust (Stereum hirsutum (Willd.) Pers.) observed in Gribskov, Denmark by dschigel (CC BY 4.0)

ECOLOGY
SPECIES DISTRIBUTIONS

4,222,432

Study finds surprising positive role of humandisturbance on macrofungal diversity anddistribution, and identifies potential biodiversity hotspots in southern Scandinavia

SPECIES
Finland, France, Spain,
Germany, Norway, Netherlands,
Denmark, Sweden

doi.org/10.1111/geb.13372

scale, France and Spain had relatively low species
richness.
The patterns revealed by the model were best explained by the dominant tree species, tree cover andhuman footprint. Saprotrophic diversity increased
with number of beech (Fagus spp.) trees while ectomycorrhizal species were most likely to occur in areas dominated by spruces (Picea spp.).

Playing a key role in nutrient cycling and carbon storage, fungi form a large and diverse group about which

While generally found to have a negative impact on

our knowledge remains limited compared to animals

biodiversity, human activity in this study had a posi-and plants, hampering conservation and environ-tive correlation with macrofungal distribution prob-

mental management efforts.

ability. The authors speculated that anthropogenic
alterations may create novel, otherwise rare habitats

To determine the macrofungal diversity and distri-

benefitting certain fungi.

bution at a continental scale, researchers combined
GBIF-mediated occurrences of 1,845 species with70

71

Climate change threatening medicinal
33

plants of Indonesia
based on projections of greenhouse gas emissions forthe years 2050 and 2080.
The models predicted that two-thirds of Indonesian
medicinal plants will lose rather than gain areas ofsuitable climate. Over half of the plant species exam-

Cahyaningsih R, Phillips J,
Magos Brehm J, Gaisberger H
and Maxted N (2021)
UK, Indonesia, Italy, Austria
Climate change impact on
medicinal plants in Indonesia

ined stood to lose up to 80 per cent of their suitablearea of distribution—with the largest losses seen in
Papua, Java and Sulawesi.

Global Ecology andConservation
doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2021.

By assessing the future threat level of medicinal plants

e01752according to IUCN Red List criteria, the authors identified
Gentiana quadrifaria Blume, one of the 10 species with the smallest areas of suitable climate across all futurescenarios. Observed by Hani Ristiawan in Central Java, Indonesia (CC BY-NC 4.0)

CLIMATE CHANGEHEALTH

4,446
SPECIES OCCURRENCES

twenty species as the highest priorities for recommended
long-term conservation efforts in the country.

Species distributions models predict significant
future losses of suitable climate for two-thirds ofIndonesian medicinal plant species
Encompassing two biodiversity hotspots, Indonesia is
one of the megadiverse countries of the world, home

Indonesia

to many plants relevant to medicine with immense
potential value both locally and worldwide. Changes
to climate, however, are affecting and threatening the
distribution of these species.
Using GBIF-mediated occurrences of 139 priority medicinal plants in Indonesia, the authors of this paper
created models of the species’ distributions undercurrent climatic conditions and future conditions

72

73

Using machine learning to predictplant trait distributions from citizen
34

science photos
stem density, combined with GBIF-mediated iNaturalist observations with photographs.
Adding data on trait plasticity and local climate at the location of an observation, the authors created an ensemble
model showing high replicability and low error rates, generalizing well across growth forms, taxa and biomes.

Schiller C, Schmidtlein S,
Boonman C, Moreno-Martínez A
and Kattenborn T (2021)
Germany, Netherlands, Spain
Deep learning and citizen
science enable automatedplant trait predictions fromphotographs

To demonstrate the potential of the model, the authors
used a separate set of iNaturalist observations to derive a

Calceolaria hyssopifolia Kunth observed in Cuenca, Ecuador by bb_593 (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Scientific Reports

global map of plant trait distributions. The produced map

doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-

expressed a unimodal latitudinal distribution peaking

95616-0

around the equator for traits such as leaf area, height andseed mass, while leaf nitrogen concentration also showed
peaks in northern temperate and polar zones.

CITIZEN SCIENCE

10+ M
SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Combining trait data with observational photographs, study creates neural network model
for automated predictions of global distributions of plant traits

In North America, a longitudinal gradient of high (in theeast) to low (in the west) leaf area was apparent, while theopposite trend was observed for nitrogen concentrationand stem density. These predictions combined correlated
significantly with existing global maps of plant traits.

How ecosystems respond to global change can best be assessed by examining the functional traits available among
species within the ecosystem. Rapid ecosystem monitoring could be facilitated by effective community trait measurements aided by machine learning techniques.
In this paper, authors designed a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) aimed at predicting plant traits
from photographs, trained using the TRY databaseof known species traits, e.g. leaf area, seed mass and7475More than half the species in the IUCNRed List’s Data Deficient category face35

risk of extinction
marine invertebrates, insects, mammals and reptiles

Borgelt J, Dorber M, Høiberg MA

are threatened by extinction. The Red List categorizes

and Verones F (2022)

nearly 15 per cent of the nearly 150,000 assessed spe-

Norwaycies as Data Deficient, which often gives an impressionof lower risks and leads to their exclusion from studiesof biodiversity impact and change. In line with someMore than half of data deficient
species predicted to bethreatened by extinction

previous studies, the present analysis suggests thata larger portion of DD species may actually be morethreatened than data-sufficient species.

Communications Biology
doi.org/10.1038/s42003-02203638-9

The classifier relied on a range of more than 400 predictors, human pressures and environmental stressors
Oedipina capitalina Solis, Espinal, Valle, O’Reilly, Itgen & Townsend, 2016 observed in Comayagüela, Honduras by
Josue Ramos Galdamez (CC BY-NC 4.0).

CONSERVATIONNew GBIF-enabled study analysing machinelearning-derived probabilities of extinction
suggests that up to 85 per cent of amphibians
categorized as Data Deficient could disappear

including taxonomy, habitat preferences, expert range
maps and GBIF-mediated occurrences, based on which
variables on climate, land cover, human footprint, pesticide uses and several other factors were derived. The
authors used a dataset of 28,363 DS species for training
and testing the classifier, obtaining an overall accuracyof 85 per cent. Applied to a dataset of 7,699 DD species,
probabilities of being threatened by extinction werehigher on average than for DS species.

In this study, researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) present resultsfrom a novel machine learning classifier suggesting that
more than half the species categorized as Data Deficient(DD) in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ (RedList) face increased probability of extinction.
The threats are even more shocking for some groups,
with the classifier predicting that 85 per cent ofDD-listed amphibians and more than half of the DD
76

The paper’s authors have created a interactive website
on which users can test the algorithm of the classifier
and explore the full dataset of DD species and their extinction risk estimates.
Earlier this year, GBIF and IUCN achieved a milestone intheir collaboration with the release of a new feature thatallows users to filter occurrences by global IUCN Red List
Category, including Data Deficient.
77

Study: More than 60,000 people inSoutheast Asia may be infected with
36

SARS-related coronaviruses every year
points to direct human-bat transmission. Many infections that produce mild or no symptoms with little human-to-human transmission may go undetected, but

Sánchez CA, Li H, Phelps KL,
Zambrana-Torrelio C, Wang
L, Zhou P, Shi Z, Olival KJ and
Daszak P (2022)

they still represent an opportunity for viral adaptation
and a risk of improved human-to-human spread. To
estimate the risk of human infection with SARSr-CoVs,

United States, China, Singapore
A strategy to assess spillover

the authors of this study used a probabilistic assessment

risk of bat SARS-related

that defines risk as a combination of number of people

coronaviruses in Southeast Asia

living in an area and the probabilities of human/bat contact and detecting infections.

Nature Communications
doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-

The authors derived maps of areas of habitat for 26 known
Hipposideros larvatus (Horsfield, 1823) observed in Pahang, Malaysia by Xavier Rufray (CC BY-NC 4.0)

31860-w

bat SARSr-CoV host species occurring in Southeast Asia
from IUCN range maps that were refined by habitat suitability and verified with GBIF-mediated occurrence data.

HEALTH209,529
SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Research estimates the risk of human infections
from SARS-related coronaviruses originating in
23 bat host species across Southeast Asia

Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei

In this study, researchers estimate that more than

Darussalam, Cambodia,

66,000 people in Southeast Asia are directly infected

China, Hong Kong, Macao,each year with SARS-related coronaviruses (SARSr-

India, Indonesia, Lao People’s
Democratic Republic, Malaysia,

CoV) originating in 23 bat species.

Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines,
Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand,
Timor-Leste, Viet Nam

These same viruses have caused massive disruptions
worldwide since the emergence of SARS in 2002, MERS
in 2012 and COVID-19 in 2019. SARSr-CoV spillovers
from bats are thought to have occurred via intermediate
hosts, such as domestic food animals or wild animals
in close contact with humans, but recent evidence also78

The results comprise a consensus area of SARSr-CoV-carrying bats that spans more than 5 million km² and is home
to nearly 500 million people. Incorporating data fromliterature on human-bat contacts, virus-positive blood
samples from humans reporting bat encounters, and human SARS antibody duration, the authors estimate thatwithin this consensus area, a median of 66,280 people are
infected with SARSr-CoVs every year.
The findings and accompanying maps may improve publichealth measures, pandemic preparedness, and prevention for future outbreaks by identifying the regions mostat risk and encouraging targeted surveillance and early
detection of spillover events and identification of novel
bat coronaviruses.
79

Farming seaweed to feed, power and save37

the planet
Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) and the Ocean Biodiversity

Spillias S, Valin H, Batka M,

Information System (OBIS) combined with a suite ofSperling F, Havlík P, Leclère

spatially explicit oceanographic data layers. Using existing

D, Cottrell RS, O’Brien KR and
McDonald-Madden E (2023)

literature, the authors then reviewed the potential andsustainability for this suite of species to be produced forhuman food, livestock feed and biofuel conversion.

Australia, Austria
Reducing global land-usepressures with seaweed farming

Informed by these findings, they modelled different
scenarios of impact of seaweed substitution on terrestrial

Nature Sustainability

agriculture and global sustainability, focussing on food,doi.org/10.1038/s41893-022-

feed or biofuel, both separately and combined. They also

01043-yconsidered a special scenario of supplementing livestock
diets with a specific seaweed taxon (Asparagopsis), which
Ascophyllum nodosum (L.) Le Jol. observed in Jersey by Nicolas Jouault (CC BY- NC 4.0)

MARINEAGRICULTURE
CLIMATE CHANGE

Study explores the potential for large-scale
seaweed cultivation to advance sustainable
development goals and provide environmental
and socio-economic benefits through a carbonsequestering blue economy

reduces methane production.
The distribution models found ~650 million hectares (Mha)of ocean suitable for seaweed cultivation—roughly threetimes the size needed to satisfy the demands of all main
scenarios combined. In the food scenario alone, in which
seaweed constituted 10 per cent of global diets, as manyas 110 Mha of natural land could be spared, also reducing
emissions by more than a billion tonnes of CO₂ per year.

Is it possible that large-scale seaweed farming could
simultaneously reduce agricultural land conversion,

Supplementing just 0.5 per cent of ruminant diets with

mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and provide an

Asparagopsis would have the potential of mitigating CO₂-

economically valuable alternative source of food, animal

equivalent emissions by around 2.6 billion tonnes per

feed and biofuels?

year, requiring only a tiny fraction of sea area comparedto all other scenarios. This represents 7.5 per cent of global

In this study, researchers first estimated the global

emissions—equivalent to all carbon emissions from fossil

cultivation potential by modelling the distribution of 34

fuels in India—in 2021.

seaweed species based on occurrence data from GBIF, the8081The of role community ecology in38

zoonotic disease outbreaks
outbreaks. As a measure of species richness, the authors

Walsh MG, Bhat R, Nagarajan-

first modelled the combined distributions of 24 mammal

Radha V, Narayanan P, Vyas

species using GBIF-mediated occurrences along with

N, Sawleshwarkar S and
Mukhopadhyay C (2021)

variables of climate, forest cover and human footprint.
Australia, India

When juxtaposed with the distribution of KFDV outbreaks, the models uncovered significant and substan-Low mammalian species
richness is associated withtial associations between disease, species richness andKyasanur Forest disease

forest loss. As such, increased mammalian richness wasoutbreak risk in deforested

associated with increased KFDV outbreak occurrence,landscapes in the Western
Ghats, India

however, only in the context of minimal forest loss. As
forest loss increased, the association was reversed, as
lower species richness meant increased disease risk.
Macaca radiata (É.Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1812) observed in Nalkeri Forest, Karnataka, India
by Kiran J M (CC BY-NC 4.0)

HEALTH

2,826
SPECIES OCCURRENCES

One Healthdoi.org/10.1016/j.
onehlt.2021.100299

The study identified specific primates—the bonnet ma-

Reduced richness of mammals in deforested
landscapes in India’s Western Ghats linked torisks of outbreaks of Kyasanur Forest diseasevirus (KFDV)

caque (Macaca radiata), the black-footed gray langur

Outbreaks of zoonotic viral diseases are becoming morenels of KFDV circulation.

(Semnopithecus hypoleucos) and the tufted gray langur (Semnopithecus priam)—whose relative abundance
was associated with increased KFDV outbreaks. The
authors suggested the incorporation of monitoring forthese species into surveillance programmes as senti-

India

prevalent as humans put more pressure on wildlife habitats—which makes the understanding of the influence ofOverall, the study enforced previous findings indicating

community ecology on the processes of pathogen circu-

pathways from habitat fragmentation and biodiversi-

lation and spillover events ever more critical.

ty loss to increased spillover. While unable to pinpoint
specific mechanisms of viral maintenance and infection

Kyasanur Forest disease virus (KFDV) is an emerging

ecology, the results suggested that species resilient totick-borne pathogen in the Western Ghats region oflandscape change might be most relevant to KFDV spill-

India, and in this study, researchers focused on testingover events.

the role of species richness and forest loss in shaping
82

83Integrating multiple indices of
biodiversity to identify novel areas of39

significance for conservation
to assess several measures of biodiversity including

Yu H, Deane DC, Zhang Y, Li S,

species richness, weighted endemism, phylogenetic

Miao S, Xie G, Yin X and Favre

diversity, phylogenetic endemism and biogeographically weighted evolutionary distinctiveness at a resolution of 50 × 50 km.

A (2021)
China, Germany
Integrating multiple indices ofgeobiodiversity reveals a series

Their overall results showed a consistent gradual de-of regional species-rich areas

crease of diversity from the southeast to the north-worthy of conservation in thewestern part of the region. To be able to identify areasof high endemism which do not necessarily contain aparticularly high number of species overall, the authors used the corrected weighted endemism (CWE)
Agapetes praeclara C.Marquand observed in Nyingchi, Tibet, China by stinkyshi (CC BY-NC 4.0)

measure and discovered several unique, previously

region of the Qinghai-Tibet
Plateau
Biological Conservation
doi.org/10.1016/j.
biocon.2021.109238

unrecognized diverse areas. These were in contrast
with other diversity metrics, which overlapped withBIODIVERSITY SCIENCECONSERVATIONBIOGEOGRAPHY

Study uses measures of weighted endemism
to reveal a series of regional species-richareas worthy of conservation in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau
Species richness is not the only measure of biodiversi-

already known hotspots.
Nine of the newly identified areas of high endemicity
were located where protection is absent or inadequate,suggesting a need for re-evaluating regional conservation strategies.

ty, and while the number of distinct species in a given
area is important, factors such as endemicity, phylogenetic diversity and evolutionary distinctiveness arealso relevant when identifying priority areas for biodiversity conservation.
In this study of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, researchers
used GBIF-mediated data of 12,000 seed plant species
84

85Sampling biases shape our view of the
40natural world
disregarding birds, the coverage dropped to just four per
cent of oceans and seven per cent of land.

Hughes AC, Orr MC, Ma K,
Costello MJ, Waller J, Provoost P,
Yang Q, Zhu C and Qiao H (2021)

In terms of taxonomic bias, less than half a per cent ofChina, New Zealand, Denmark,genera in OBIS data and a mere 100 bird species in GBIF,Franceaccounted for more than 50 per cent of all records, respectively. Geographically, nearly 80 per cent of GBIF

Sampling biases shape our viewof the natural world

data came from just 10 countries, and coverage wasstrongly correlated with GDP per capita.

Ecography
doi.org/10.1111/ecog.05926

The study also found that eighty per cent of all records
were within 2.5 km of roads. Between 22 (for mammals)
and 47 (for arachnids) per cent of records were found
A murmuration of starlings (Sturnus vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758) observed near Diss, South Norfolk, UK by Wendy
Herniman (CC BY 4.0)

BIODIVERSITY SCIENCE

Massive study describes extensive taxonomic andgeographic biases in available species occurrence
data in terrestrial and marine realms, highlightingneed for increased sampling in less developed, distant and inaccessible regions of the world

within 1 km of a city. Despite representing only nine
per cent of land, temperate broadleaf forests contained
around 50 per cent of terrestrial records.
In the marine realm, 18 per cent of records and 41 percent of species coincided with the busiest shipping
routes covering only two per cent of the oceans. Representing 65 per cent of the total area, open oceans had 32
per cent of all marine records.

In a comprehensive global analysis of more than 740
million species occurrences from GBIF and OBIS, re-

The study calls for increased support for museum spec-

searchers explored spatial and taxonomic coverage of aimen digitization, strategic standardized surveys andrepresentative selection of vertebrate and invertebrate

data sharing—highlighting GBIF initiatives such as BID

groups to identify biases and their potential drivers.

and BIFA as examples—to improve coverage in less-accessible areas, such as high mountains and deep seas,

The results showed that at a five km resolution, less thanwhere citizen science approaches are insufficient.

seven per cent of the Earth’s surface—five percent ofoceans and 11 per cent of land—has been sampled. When86

87

If corals go extinct, half the world’s
41

tropical fish may follow
data from GBIF, OBIS and IUCN. They then estimated fishrichness dependency on corals using limited natural
history information and a statistical model of indirectenvironmental effects of coral richness on fishes.
Simulating a world without corals, the model predicted

Strona G, Lafferty KD, Fattorini
S, Beck PSA, Guilhaumon F,
Arrigoni R, Montano S, Seveso D,
Galli P, Planes S and Parravicini
V (2021)Finland, USA, Italy, Maldives,
France, French Polynesiathat 41 per cent of tropical reef fish species dependon corals and would be lost as well. For a morecomprehensive view of the effects of coral loss on fish
communities, the authors also considered phylogenetic
and functional diversity, for which the model predicted adecline of 32 and 23 per cent, respectively.
School of Caesio caerulaurea Lacepède, 1801 observed at Hastings Reef, Australia
by imogenisunderwater (CC BY-NC 4.0)

CLIMATE CHANGE

7,408
SPECIES

Statistical models show that coral extinctions
due to reef bleaching will impact far more species than expected and may reduce global reeffish richness by more than 40 per centGlobal tropical reef fish richness
could decline by around half if
corals are lost
Proceedings of the Royal Society
B: Biological Sciences
doi.org/10.1098/

While total coral reef extinction may sound pessimistic,

rspb.2021.0274

climate-based projections predict that 100 per cent of
the world’s coral reefs will have been exposed to at least
one bleaching event by the year 2060 in the most severe
carbon emissions scenario.

Coral reefs contribute food and structural complexity for
habitats of fish and other reef organisms. While many
reef fish may survive increasing ocean temperature,corals are more sensitive, and effects of extinctions
caused by bleaching may extend far beyond the species
that strictly depend on corals.
In

this

study,

researchers

mappedtheglobaldistribution of coral and tropical fish richness using
88

89

Using soil hydromechanics to predict
42

global earthworm distributionpressure sustained by a worm hydroskeleton was 200 kilopascals (kPa). Applying this measure to global data on
soil moisture and texture, they then modeled 0.1 degree

Ruiz SA, Bickel S and Or D (2021)
Switzerland, UK, USAgrids around the world to identify where earthworms

Global earthworm distribution

could burrow based on mean expansion limit pressures.

and activity windows based

After removing regions with permafrost, acidic pH, sandcontent and other limiting factors, they fine-tuned theirmechanistic biophysical model to predict hospitable soil
zones delineating the potential for earthworm migrationin changing climates.

on soil hydromechanicalconstraints
Communications Biology
doi.org/10.1038/s42003-02102139-5

Using GBIF-mediated earthworm data they tested thepredicted distributions against observed occurrences,
Lumbricus terrestris Linnaeus, 1758 observed in Baltimore, MD, USA by akamediancat (CC BY-NC 4.0)

finding that 86 per cent of reported earthworm presences agreed with the model classification. Upon examin-

SPECIES DISTRIBUTIONECOLOGY
AGRICULTURE

72,013SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Researchers develop a mechanistic biomechanical model that highlights strong correlation between habitat suitability and observed
distributions for key subterranean “ecologicalengineers”

ing the remaining false negatives, however, the authors
found that these records often corresponded to local geographical features, such as river banks and anomalous
precipitation zones.

Earthworms are considered important “ecosystem engineers” as the soil biopores they form by burrowing canserve as pathways for water flow, aeration and reuse by
growing roots. Previous research has suggested, for example, that earthworm activity may enhance certain crop
yields by up to 25 per cent.
To study how earthworms disturb soils, a Swiss team ofresearchers started by calculating that the maximum9091About this special section

I N VA S I V E S

Invasive alien species remain a dominant topic in

KYLE COPAS

GBIF-enabled research, and this small subsample ofCommunications Manager

eight papers mirrors the larger corpus in its range ofinterests and concerns. Together, they demonstrate
the broad applicability of location-specific biodiversity
data from the GBIF network in understanding invasion
dynamics and biosecurity threats viewed from the perspective of the past, present or future.
The research can sometimes focus and zero in on therole of single species. Elsewhere it pulls back to scancenturies’ worth of invaders on our planet. Meanwhile,
the ability to analyse and reveal the evolving interplayof traits and interactions in new or changing environments has taken on greater urgency as climate-change
impacts alter or strengthen the many costs of invasive
species. In every case, GBIF remains a trusted resource
by providing easy access to information essential for
supporting action to prevent or reduce threats from
biological invasions.

92

93Anthropogenic habitat disturbances
associated with human development
43

determine botanical naturalizationthese results with the realized ranges of the same species
present on the Global Naturalized Alien Flora (GloNAF)
database, they calculated a “naturalization debt”—that is, a
proportion of species that do not yet occupy an otherwise

Pouteau R, Thuiller W, Hobohm
C, Brunel C, Conn BJ, Dawson
W, Sá Dechoum M, Ebel AL, Essl
F, Fragman-Sapir O, Fristoe
T, Jogan N, Kreft H, Lenzner
B, Meyer C, Pergl J, Pyšek P,

suitable region.

Verkhozina A, Weigelt P, …, andKleunen M (2021)

The authors found that European endemic plants were
only naturalized in less than five per cent of their suitableregions outside Europe, meaning that in terms of area,

China, France, Germany,
Australia, United Kingdom,
Brazil, Russian Federation,

more than 95 per cent of expected naturalizations have

Austria, Israel, Slovenia, Czechia,

not yet been observed.

Serbia, Italy, Switzerland, Spain,
Hungary, North Macedonia,

Currently naturalized in 70% of suitable areas, Syringa vulgaris L.,
here observed in Lowell, MA, USA by grakk (CC BY-NC 4.0)

INVASIVES

135,189

Study finds that both climate and socioeconomic
factors help explain differences in the spread ofEuropean plants around the world

SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Half of all widely naturalized species in the world arenative to Europe, and more than 20 per cent of thecontinent’s native vascular plants have naturalized
outside the continent. This vast collection of introductions
is three times more than would be expected by chance,

Exploring socio-economic drivers, the study also found

Greece, Denmark, Mali, Türkiye,
Ukraine, Canada, Polandthat naturalization debt decreased with the level ofanthropogenic disturbances associated with humandevelopment, meaning that more naturalized species areobserved in more developed regions.

Climate and socio-economic
factors explain differences
between observed and expectednaturalization patterns ofCounter-intuitively,

theaverageproportionofunsuccessful naturalizations in unsuitable environments

European plants around theworld

was lower in developed regions with more international

Global Ecology andtreaties relevant to invasive alien species. This, however, is

Biogeography

more likely a result of regions with many invasive species

doi.org/10.1111/geb.13316

joining treaties— rather than treaties promoting invasions.

making European flora an obvious candidate for studying
naturalization patterns.
In this study, researchers used GBIF-mediated vascularplant occurrences to model the potential distribution of
1,485 European endemics outside Europe. Comparing
94

95

Factors influencing successful
naturalization and invasion of alien
44

plants in India
study focussed on India, home for 11 per cent of the world’s

Banerjee AK, Prajapati J,

plant diversity and three major biodiversity hotspots, col-Bhowmick AR, Huang Y andlecting data for 715 alien plant species in the country.

Mukherjee A (2021)
India, China

For each species, the authors determined 13 variables
including level of establishment, the size of native andA case study of Indian alien flora
provides management insights

naturalized ranges, introduction pathways, and relevant
functional traits, relying on GBIF-mediated occurrence
data to infer climatic preferences, land use classes andthe time since introduction.

Journal of Environmental
Management
doi.org/10.1016/j.
jenvman.2021.113054

Overall, the study found that invasive alien plants had
Parthenium hysterophorus L., recorded as introduced in 55 countries, observed here near Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh,
India by Vivek Kumar Patel (CC BY-NC 4.0)

INVASIVESEVOLUTION

93,072
SPECIES OCCURRENCES
India

Case study explores variables of biogeography,
introduction pathways, use, traits and climate
for more than 700 plants to determine why somealien species become naturalized, and some naturalized species become invasivelarger naturalized ranges, a greater number of uses andhigher specific leaf area than their naturalized and casual counterparts. In addition to range sizes, path analyses
showed that growth form directly influenced naturalization success, whereas time since introduction directly influenced invasion success, further affected by number ofnative congeners.
The authors emphasized inclusion of trading regulations
on alien plants while promoting native species in nation-

When a plant is introduced to a new region, it only be-

al policy frameworks. With time having a direct impact on

comes naturalized, and later, invasive, if able to overcome

invasion success, alien plants already naturalized should

certain barriers. Studies indicate that only about 10 per

be prioritized for early detection and removal.

cent of introduced plant species naturalize, and of these,
only a tenth become invasive.
In order to identify parameters influencing successfultransitions on the introduced—invasive continuum, this96

97

The role of temperature in shaping the45

impacts of marine invasions
impact, and then used GBIF-mediated data to assess theBennett S, Santana-Garcon

ranges of the species and characterize their realized

J, Marbà N, Jorda G, Anton A,

thermal niches.

Apostolaki ET, Cebrian J, Geraldi
NR, Krause-Jensen D, Lovelock
CE, Martinetto P, Pandolfi JM

Their analysis showed that most invasions occurredand Duarte CM (2021)

poleward of the cool edge of a species’ range with anAustralia, Spain, Saudi Arabia,

overall mean shift of 6.8 degrees latitude. Thermal mid-

Greece, USA, Argentina,

points at these locations were on average 1.2 degrees

Denmarkcooler than those of the native ranges.

Climate-driven impacts of exotic
species on marine ecosystems

The ecological effect of invasions on abundance of native taxa was most severe at sites 2.2 degrees cooler than
Sabella spallanzanii (Gmelin, 1791) observed in Castor Bay, New Zealand by AUTsquidlab (CC BY-NC 4.0)

INVASIVES
CLIMATE CHANGE
MARINE

Ecological impact of marine invasions is most
severe within the thermal niche of the invader
When marine species are redistributed by human trans-

the origin of the invader, with decreasing effect towardhigher and lower differences in temperature.

Global Ecology and
Biogeography
doi.org/10.1111/geb.13283

The study concludes that seemingly harmless species
established outside their native ranges need to be monitored as they may develop larger impacts with future
warming oceans.

port systems, such as ballast water, the success of estab5,700

lishment and magnitude of ecological impact depend on

SPECIES OCCURRENCES

a variety of factors. Temperature is a fundamental driverof physiological performance of species, however, its rolein shaping impacts of invasive marine species remains
largely unexplored.
In this study, researchers set out to quantify the impact
of invasive species in marine ecosystems, exploring
how these may relate to differences in temperature. The
authors identified 50 species with recorded ecological

98

99

Plant and insect invasions follow waves of46

globalization
1750 and 2000 using data of more than 10,000 insects andBonnamour A, Gippet JMW andplants from the Alien Species First Records database. To

Bertelsmeier C (2021)

account for variation in sampling effort, the authors ex-

Switzerland

tracted first records for more than 500,000 native species
from GBIF.org for the same period.
The analysis revealed that increased alien first record rates

Insect and plant invasions
follow two waves of globalisation
Ecology Letterswere strongly correlated with sampling effort. For insects,
an invasion wave was observed between 1820 and 1870

doi.org/10.1111/ele.13863

with first record rates 143 per cent higher than expected.
Plant invasions started earlier, with first record rates 39
per cent higher than expected from 1750 to 1870.
Colony of harlequin ladybirds, Harmonia axyridis (Pallas, 1773), by M. Kofoed-Hansen
in Nykøbing Falster, Denmark (CC BY 4.0)

INVASIVES

161,941,569
SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Study analyses invasion dynamics of plants
and insects across three centuries, finding
links to world trade openness and clear impact
of major global events with reduced trade suchas wars and financial crises

Both groups experienced reduced invasion rates fromaround 1900 to 1960 with observed first records ~20 per
cent fewer than model expectations, coinciding with major global events (World War I, the Great Depression andWorld War II).
To test the impact of large-scale variations in globalization on overall invasion dynamics, the authors used
a global trade openness index, calculated based on the

Increased global trade and human movement have facil-

relationship between total import/export and gross do-itated the spread of alien and invasive species worldwide.

mestic product (GDP). For both groups, they found strong

Since the Industrial Revolution, the world has experienced

correlations between trade opennesss and invasions,several waves of globalization that may have accelerated

explaining both increases and decreases over the past

biological invasions, but the influence of these waves on

centuries, making globalization a major socio-economic

invasion dynamics remains unclear.

predictor of biological invasions.

In this study, Swiss researchers performed a global temporal analysis of rates of alien species first records between
100

101

Spotted lanternfly planthopper: grape
47

pest to disrupt the global wine market?
Based on US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Huron NA, Behm JE and Helmus

pandemic assessment methods adapted to invasion

MR (2022)

process theory, the framework relied on the estima-

USAtion of three invasion potentials in uninvaded US states
and countries worldwide: transport (metric tonnageof goods imported from invaded states), establish-

Paninvasion severity
assessment of a U.S. grape pest
to disrupt the global wine market

ment (ensemble of species distribution models using
GBIF-mediated occurrences) and impact (tonnage ofgrapes and wine produced).

Communications Biology
doi.org/10.1038/s42003-02203580-w

Illinois, Texas and California had the heaviest trade withinvaded states and also the highest establishment potenLycorma delicatula (White, 1845) nymphs observed in Bernardsville, New Jersey, USA by Nils Helstrom (CC BY-NC 4.0)

tial, and, for California, the highest impact potential. Thispattern of aligned invasion potentials carried through on
a global scale where the major grape-producing regions

AGRICULTUREINVASIVES

8,349
SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Assessment suggests that paninvasion anddisruption of global wine market is likely unlessinvasion potentials are mitigated immediately
Native to China, the spotted lanternfly planthopper (Lycorma delicatula; SLF) has spread, established and become invasive in the eastern United States, feeding onvineyard grapes, threatening wine production throughvine deaths and near-total yield losses.
Recognizing SLF as an emerging paninvasive species(i.e. highest potential for impact) also had the highest riskof transport and establishment.
Concluding with an overall estimated risk of SLF disrupting the global wine market of 80 per cent, the authors strongly recommend immediate coordinatedefforts to reduce transport, establishment and impact
potentials globally. They suggest regular updates of SLF
transport potential as more territories become invaded, but also research into long-term control methods,
such as SLF-specific RNA-based insecticides.

and potential threat to the $300B global wine industry,
researchers from Pennsylvania—where the first US introduction took place ca. 2014—developed a paninvasion
severity assessment framework, presented in this study.
102

103

Predicting marine invaders underclimate change using functional and48

ecological traits
Applying the framework to 13 candidate species with

Schickele A, Guidetti P, Giakoumi

origins in the Red Sea or Atlantic Ocean, the authors

S, Zenetos A, Francour P and

demonstrated a significant correlation between IP and
the current observed spreading of the species. Traits related to reproduction, especially, determined high invasion potential.

Raybaud V (2021)
France, Italy, Greece
Improving predictions ofinvasive fish ranges combining
functional and ecological traits

Using occurrence data from the Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS), GBIF and others combined withdata on seafloor topography, distance to coast, surface

with environmental suitability
under climate change scenarios
Global Change Biology

salinity and temperature variables, the authors modelled the current and future distributions of the species
Devil firefish [Pterois miles (Bennett, 1828)] observed near Crete, Greece by Kay Stoeffler (CC BY-NC 4.0)

doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15896

with the highest IP scores.
The models found the highest overall contemporary

INVASIVES
MARINEA new trait-based index for assessing the Invasive Potential (IP) of a species correlates well withobserved spreading of Mediterranean invaders

CLIMATE CHANGE

Invasive alien species represent one of the main threats
36,457

to marine biodiversity. Human activities are impacting

SPECIES OCCURRENCES

patterns of invasions by providing new routes of intro-

suitability for invaders in the South-Eastern part of theMediterranean, while the northern part and the Adriatic
Sea had relatively low suitability. In these waters, however, projections under future climate scenarios predictedsignificant increases in suitability, highlighting the needfor revised management strategies for protected areas
and fisheries in the region.

duction, while at the same time climate change is altering environmental suitability.
In the paper studying potential fish invaders in the Mediterranean, researchers developed an empirical index for
the Invasive Potential (IP) of a species assessing a seriesof traits related to reproduction, nutrition, morphology
and means of introduction.
104

105

Predicting hotspots for invasive species
49

introduction in Europe
Following cleaning and thinning the final dataset feeding

Schneider K, Makowski D andthe authors’ “elastic-net” algorithm consisted of 170,460

van der Werf W (2021)

GBIF-mediated presence records enhanced with a rich

Netherlands, France

feature set covering climate, soil, erosion risk, land cover and water indicators, as well as population and roaddensities, anthropogenic pressure, distance to cities andPredicting hotspots for invasive
species introduction in Europe

ports, and nightlight radiance as a proxy for GDP.
Environmental Research Letters

The analysis revealed the highest risk of introductionsin the BeNeLux states, northern Italy, the northerndoi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/
ac2f19Balkans and the United Kingdom, with areas aroundcontainer ports like Antwerp, London, Rijeka and Saint
Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (A.G.Olivier, 1791), or red palm weevil, observed in Estacion de Cartama, Spain by
Fernando Pérez (CC BY-NC 4.0)

INVASIVES

170,460

Petersburg meriting particular attention as potential
invasion hotspots.

Study uses machine-learning approach to produce risk hotspot maps for pest introductions
with high predictive accuracy

SPECIES OCCURRENCES

Invasive plant pests have a massive social impact inEurope, costing billions of euros every year. Accurate
predictions of invasive hotpots—areas with the highest
risk of incurring invasions—could help focus efforts on
prevention and control.
For this study, researchers developed a machine-learning
method to create risk maps of pest introductions. Rather
than focussing on a single species, the authors trained
their model on a dataset covering 243 invasive species.
106

107

Human activity influences genetic
50

dynamics of widespread invader
biotic and abiotic conditions as well as a common invad-

Mairal M, Chown SL, Shaw J,

er (Poa annua L.). While Marion is home to a research

Chala D, Chau JH, Hui C, Kalwij

station with year-round operations, Prince Edward re-

JM, Münzbergová Z, Jansen van
Vuuren B and Le Roux JJ (2021)

mains largely unvisited.
South Africa, Australia, Spain,

To better understand the degree of invasion, the authorsmodelled the ecological niches of P. annua on both is-

Human activity strongly

lands using GBIF-mediated occurrences. After gathering

influences genetic dynamics ofsamples from different populations on both islands, they
analyzed variations in genomic size, genetic diversity andstructure.

Poa annua L. observed in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands by Hugo Hulsberg (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Norway, Germany, Czechia

The niche models for both islands showed that nearly

the most widespread invasiveplant in the sub-Antarctic
Molecular Ecology
doi.org/10.1111/mec.16045

their entire landmasses were climatically suited for the
turfgrass, even though current distributions were limit-

INVASIVESPHYLOGENETICS

516,947

Study of invasive grass species in two closely
located sub-Antarctic islands shows clear effect of human activity on genetic diversity andpopulation structure

SPECIES OCCURRENCES
South Africa

ed to the coastlines. On occupied Marion Island P. annua
populations had high levels of genetic diversity and low
levels of structure, while the opposite was the case forunoccupied Prince Edward.
These results combined suggest that continued human

Human activities can affect the spread and invasion ofactivity on Marion facilitated ongoing gene flow and di-alien plant species, but distinguishing external factors

versification. To mitigate increased spread and abun-from intrinsic population dynamics can be challenging

dance on Prince Edward, the study recommends mini-and require comparisons of invasions in areas both withmizing human activity to limit further introductions andand without human presence.

thus avoid increasing the genetic diversity of the island’s
P. annua population.

This study identified an ideal model system in the
sub-Antarctic region: two South African islands, Marion Island and Prince Edward Island, that share similar
108

109

Cover illustration: Cinchona pubescens, Köhler’s Medizinal-Pflanzen
in naturgetreuen Abbildungen mit kurz erläuterndem texte. GeraUntermhaus, 1887. Via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
Back cover illustration: Lion fish (Pterois antennata) from the Atlas despoissons vénéneux. Dr P. Savtschenko - Médecin major de la marine
imperiale russe, 1886. Via Biodiversity Heritage library.
Special section background illustration: A. E. Brehm, La vita degli animali.
Società l’Unione Tipografico-Editrice, 1870. Via Biodiversity Heritage
Library.
Inner cover illustration: Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius),
Dictionnaire universel d’histoire naturelle, Paris 1949. Via Biodiversity
Heritage Library.
Flap illustration: Wapiti (Cervus canadensis Erxleben, 1777), Wild animals ofNorth America, Washington, D.C. The National geographical society [c1918].
Via Biodiversity Heritage Library.

GBIF Secretariat (2023) GBIF Science Review Nº 10
doi.org/10.35035/37pp-tt84
CC BY 4.0

Science Review