Lacunas: a web interface to identify plant knowledge gaps to support informed decision-making (original) (raw)
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Biological Conservation, 2014
Methods for evaluating risk of biodiversity loss are linked closely to decisions about species' conservation status, which in turn depend on data documenting species' distributions, population status, and natural history. In Brazil, the scientific community and government have differing points of view regarding which plant species have insufficient data to be accorded a formal threat category, with the official list of threatened flora published by the Brazilian Ministry of Environment listing many fewer species as Data Deficient than a broader list prepared by a large, knowledgeable group of taxonomists. This paper aims to evaluate, using diverse analyses, whether ''Digital Accessible Knowledge'' is genuinely lacking or insufficient for basic characterization of distributions for 934 angiosperm species classified as Data Deficient on Brazil's official list. Analyses were based on large-scale databases of information associated with herbarium specimens, as part of the speciesLink network. Evaluating these species in terms of completeness of geographic range knowledge accumulated through time, our results show that at least 40.9% of species listed as Data Deficient do not appear genuinely to be particularly lacking in data, but rather may be knowledge-deficient: data exist that can provide rich information about the species, but such data remain unanalyzed and dormant for conservation decision-making. Such approaches may be useful in identifying cases in which data are genuinely lacking regarding conservation status of species, as well as in moving species out of Data Deficient categories and into appropriate threat status classifications.
Biodiversity Data Journal
Brazil is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, with about 37,000 species of land plants. Part of this biodiversity is within protected areas. The development of online databases in the last years greatly improved the available biodiversity data. However, the existing databases do not provide information about the protected areas in which individual plant species occur. The lack of such information is a crucial gap for conservation actions. This study aimed to show how the information captured from online databases, cleaned by a protocol and verified by taxonomists allowed us to obtain a comprehensive list of the vascular plant species from the "Parque Nacional do Itatiaia", the first national park founded in Brazil. All existing records in the online database JABOT (15,100 vouchers) were downloaded, resulting in 11,783 vouchers identified at the species level. Overall, we documented 2,316 species belonging to 176 families and 837 genera of vascular plants in ...
Diversity and Distributions, 2013
Aim Biodiversity information is the focus of major initiatives aimed at assembling large-scale primary-data documentation ('digital accessible knowledge') of the distribution of life on Earth. Recent efforts within Brazil have assembled a massive amount of such documentation for Brazilian plants, which we analyse in this study. Our aim is to identify areas representing gaps in current knowledge; these gaps can guide future botanical exploration and discovery in Brazil. Location Brazil. Methods We assessed angiosperm inventories across Brazil at diverse spatial scales using statistics that summarize inventory completeness. In particular, we assess the completeness of geographical knowledge of Brazilian floras as measured in terms of geographical distance and climatic difference from welldocumented sites. Results Spatial knowledge of Brazilian angiosperms is very unevenly distributed: well-known sites are concentrated in eastern and southern regions, whereas the remainder of the country remains poorly documented. Worse still, in many regions, areas lacking detailed botanical documentation coincide with areas of intense habitat destruction, such that many such sites will never be documented scientifically. Main conclusions This study illustrates how biodiversity survey and inventory efforts can be guided by existing knowledge. That is, to the extent that existing biodiversity knowledge is made digital and openly available, and to the extent that information is sufficiently comprehensive and informative, spatial summaries of completeness such as that presented here offer clear and strategic directions for maximizing the yield of new knowledge from any de novo field efforts.
Data Management Plan: Brazil's Virtual Herbarium
Research Ideas and Outcomes
The goal of the Brazil Virtual Herbarium is to facilitate the identification of taxonomic and geographic information gaps of plants and fungi of Brazil. The system displays the status of online data for all valid species in the List of Species of the Brazilian Flora, including those without any record. The system also compares the Brazilian states where specialists indicate that the species occurs with the states that have occurrence points in Brazil's Virtual Herbarium, highlighting the gaps. This data management plan was prepared as part of a pilot project run on behalf of the International Development Research Centre (Canada) on data management policy for development funders (https://doi.org/10.3897/rio.2.e8880).
Rodriguésia, 2018
The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) was established by the Conference of Parties in 2002 to decrease the loss of plant diversity, reduce poverty and contribute to sustainable development. To achieve this overarching goal, the GSPC has established a series of targets, one of which is to ensure that plant diversity is well understood, so that it can be effectively conserved and used in a sustainable manner. Brazil hosts more than 46,000 species of plants, algae and fungi, representing one of the most biodiverse countries on Earth, and playing a key role in the SPC. To meet the GSPC goals of Target 1 and facilitate access to plant diversity, Brazil committed to preparing the List of Species of the Brazilian Flora (2008–2015) and the Brazilian Flora 2020 (2016–present). Managing all the information associated with such great biodiversity has proven to be an extremely challenging task. Here, we synthesize the history of these projects, focusing on the multidisciplinary and collaborative approach adopted to develop and manage the inclusion of all the knowledge generated though digital information systems. We further describe the methods used, challenges faced, and strategies adopted, as well as summarize advances to date and prospects for completing the Brazilian flora in 2020.
The Brazilian Program for Biodiversity Research (PPBio) Information System
The database of the Brazilian Program for Biodiversity Research (PPBio; GIVD ID SA-BR-001) includes data on the environment and biological groups such as plants. It is organized by site, which is usually a grid with 10 to 72 uniformly-distributed plots, and has already surveyed 1,638 relevés across different Brazilian ecosystems. The sampling design is based on the RAPELD system to allow integration of data from diverse taxa and ecosystem processes. RAPELD is a spatially-explicit sampling scheme to monitor biodiversity in long-term ecological research sites and during rapid appraisals of biodiversity that has attracted support from many management agencies, which are using it as their long-term monitoring system. Vegetation surveys include measurements of cover, biomass and number of individuals from woody and herbaceous vascular plants, along with environmental data. We have recently migrated to a metadata catalog and data repository which allows searching for specific groups across all sites. All RAPELD data have been collected since 2001, though the site also allows data from other long-term plots to be archived as associated projects.