1. Reviewing taxonomic bias in a megadiverse country: primary biodiversity data, cultural salience, and scientific interest of South African animals
- Author
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Phaka, Fortunate M., Vanhove, Maarten P.M., Preez, Louis H. du, and Huge, Jean
- Subjects
Phenetics -- Analysis ,Biology -- Identification and classification ,Biological diversity conservation -- Analysis ,Biological diversity -- Analysis ,Set (Psychology) -- Analysis ,Environmental protection -- Analysis ,Environmental issues - Abstract
A correction was made to the e-First version of this paper on 2 March 2022 prior to the final issue publication. The current online and print versions are identical and both contain the correction. Taxonomic bias, resulting in some taxa receiving more attention than others, has been shown to persist throughout history. Such bias in primary biodiversity data needs to be addressed because the data are vital to environmental management. This study reviews taxonomic bias in South African primary biodiversity data obtained from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). The focus was specifically on animal classes, and regression analysis was used to assess the influence of scientific interest and cultural salience on taxonomic bias. A higher resolution analysis of the two explanatory variables' influence on taxonomic bias is conducted using a generalised linear model on a subset of herpetofaunal families from the focal classes. Furthermore, the potential effects of cultural salience and scientific interest on a taxon's extinction risk are investigated. The findings show that taxonomic bias in South Africa's primary biodiversity data has similarities with global scale taxonomic bias. Among animal classes, there is strong bias towards birds while classes such as Polychaeta and Maxillopoda are under-represented. Cultural salience has a stronger influence on taxonomic bias than scientific interest. It is, however, unclear how these explanatory variables may influence the extinction risk of taxa. We recommend that taxonomic bias can be reduced if primary biodiversity data collection has a range of targets that guide (but do not limit) accumulation of species occurrence records per habitat. Within this range, a lower target of species occurrence records accommodates species that are difficult to detect. The upper target means occurrence records for any species are less urgent but nonetheless useful and thus data collection efforts can focus on species with fewer occurrence records. Key words: biodiversity hotspot, biomonitoring, conservation, surrogate species, taxonomic chauvinism. Il a ete demontre que le biais taxonomique, qui fait que certains taxons recoivent plus d'attention que d'autres, persiste a travers l'histoire. Ce type de biais dans les donnees primaires de biodiversite doit etre aborde, car ces donnees sont vitales pour la gestion de l'environnement. Cette etude examine le biais taxonomique dans les donnees primaires de biodiversite d'Afrique du Sud obtenues aupres du Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). L'accent est mis sur les classes d'animaux, et une analyse de regression est utilisee pour evaluer l'influence de l'interet scientifique et de la pregnance culturelle sur le biais taxonomique. Une analyse a plus haute resolution de l'influence des deux variables explicatives sur le biais taxonomique est menee a l'aide d'un modele lineaire generalise sur un sous-ensemble de familles herpetofauniques de classes focales. En outre, les effets potentiels de la pregnance culturelle et de l'interet scientifique sur le risque d'extinction d'un taxon sont etudies. Les resultats montrent que le biais taxonomique des donnees primaires sur la biodiversite en Afrique du Sud presente des similarites avec le biais taxonomique a l'echelle mondiale. Parmi les classes d'animaux, il existe un fort biais en faveur des oiseaux, tandis que des classes telles que les Polychaeta et les Maxillopoda sont sous-representees. La pregnance culturelle a une plus grande influence sur le biais taxonomique que l'interet scientifique. Cependant, la maniere dont ces variables explicatives peuvent influencer le risque d'extinction des taxons n'est pas claire. Les auteurs recommandent que le biais taxonomique puisse etre reduit si la collecte de donnees primaires sur la biodiversite est assortie d'une serie de cibles qui guident (sans la limiter) l'accumulation d'enregistrements d'occurrence d'especes par habitat. a l'interieur de cette fourchette, une cible inferieure de releves d'occurrence d'especes permet de prendre en compte les especes difficiles a detecter. La cible superieure signifie que les releves d'occurrence d'une espece sont moins urgents, mais neanmoins utiles et que les efforts de collecte de donnees peuvent donc se concentrer sur les especes ayant moins de releves d'occurrence. [Traduit par la Redaction] Mots-cles : point nevralgique de la biodiversite, biosurveillance, conservation, especes substitutives, chauvinisme taxonomique., Background Primary biodiversity data reflects the knowledge and practices in the study of biodiversity (Troudet et al. 2017) and consists of species occurrence records (Soberon and Peterson 2004). These occurrence [...]
- Published
- 2022
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