Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research
Raquel L. Carvalho, Angélica Faria de Resende, Jos Barlow, Filipe França, Mario R. Moura, Rafaella Maciel, Fernanda Alves‐Martins, Jack D. Shutt, Cássio Alencar Nunes, Fernando Elias, Juliana M. Silveira, Lis F. Stegmann, Fabrício Beggiato Baccaro, Leandro Juen, Juliana Schietti, Luiz E. O. C. Aragão, Érika Berenguer, Leandro Castello, Flávia R. C. Costa, Matheus L. Guedes, Cecília Gontijo Leal, Alexander Charles Lees, Victoria Isaac, Rodrigo Oliveira do Nascimento, Oliver L. Phillips, Fernando Augusto Schmidt, Hans ter Steege, Fernando Zagury Vaz‐de‐Mello, Eduardo Martins Venticinque, Ima Célia Guimarães Vieira, Jansen Zuanon, Joice Ferreira, Raquel L. Carvalho, Angélica Faria de Resende, Jos Barlow, Filipe França, Mario R. Moura, Rafaella Maciel, Fernanda Alves‐Martins, Jack D. Shutt, Cássio Alencar Nunes, Fernando Elias, Juliana M. Silveira, Lis F. Stegmann, Fabrício Beggiato Baccaro, Leandro Juen, Juliana Schietti, Luiz E. O. C. Aragão, Érika Berenguer, Leandro Castello, Flávia R. C. Costa, Matheus L. Guedes, Cecília Gontijo Leal, Alexander Charles Lees, Victoria Isaac, Rodrigo Oliveira do Nascimento, Oliver L. Phillips, Fernando Augusto Schmidt, Hans ter Steege, Fernando Zagury Vaz‐de‐Mello, Eduardo Martins Venticinque, Ima Célia Guimarães Vieira, Jansen Zuanon, Joice Ferreira, Adem Nagibe dos Santos Geber Filho, Ademir Roberto Ruschel, Adolfo R. Calor, Adriana de Lima Alves, Adriane Esquivel‐Muelbert, Adriano Costa Quaresma, Alberto Vicentini, Alexandra Rocha da Piedade, Alexandre A. Oliveira, Alexandre Luis Padovan Aleixo, Alexandre Casadei‐Ferreira, Alexandre Gontijo, Alexandre Pucci Hercos, Aline Andriolo, Aline Lopes, Aline Pontes Lopes, Allan Paulo Moreira Santos, Amanda Batista da Silva de Oliveira, Amanda Frederico Mortati, Ana Karina Moreyra Salcedo, Ana Luisa Albernaz, Ana Luísa Biondi Fares, Ana Luiza‐Andrade, Ana Maria Pes, Ana Paula Justino Faria, Anderson Pedro Bernadina Batista, Anderson Puker, Anderson S. Bueno, André Braga Junqueira, André Luiz Ramos Holanda de Andrade, André Ricardo Ghidini, André Vieira Galuch, Andressa Silvana Oliveira de Menezes, Ângelo Gilberto Manzatto, Anne Sthephane A.S. Correa, Antônio C. M. Queiroz
Abstract
Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost.