Science Enabled by Specimen Data

Boag, T. H., W. Gearty, and R. G. Stockey. 2021. Metabolic tradeoffs control biodiversity gradients through geological time. Current Biology 31: 2906-2913.e3. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.04.021

The latitudinal gradient of increasing marine biodiversity from the poles to the tropics is one of the most conspicuous biological patterns in modern oceans.1, 2, 3 Low-latitude regions of the global ocean are often hotspots of animal biodiversity, yet they are set to be most critically affected b…

Martin, D., M. T. Aguado, M.-A. Fernández Álamo, T. A. Britayev, M. Böggemann, M. Capa, S. Faulwetter, et al. 2021. On the Diversity of Phyllodocida (Annelida: Errantia), with a Focus on Glyceridae, Goniadidae, Nephtyidae, Polynoidae, Sphaerodoridae, Syllidae, and the Holoplanktonic Families. Diversity 13: 131. https://doi.org/10.3390/d13030131

Phyllodocida is a clade of errantiate annelids characterized by having ventral sensory palps, anterior enlarged cirri, axial muscular proboscis, compound chaetae (if present) with a single ligament, and of lacking dorsolateral folds. Members of most families date back to the Carboniferous, although …

Iniesta, L. F. M., R. S. Bouzan, P. E. S. Rodrigues, T. M. Almeida, R. Ott, and A. D. Brescovit. 2020. Ecological niche modeling predicting the potential invasion of the non-native millipede Oxidus gracilis (C. L. Koch, 1847) (Polydesmida: Paradoxosomatidae) in Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Annales de la Société entomologique de France (N.S.) 56: 387–394. https://doi.org/10.1080/00379271.2020.1834873

The millipede Oxidus gracilis (C. L. Koch, 1847) is a cosmopolitan introduced species largely recorded in the southeast region of Brazil. The species is considered an agricultural pest with records in poly- or monocultures, and its influence on native communities of plants and invertebrates is still…

Newbold, T., L. N. Hudson, S. Contu, S. L. L. Hill, J. Beck, Y. Liu, C. Meyer, et al. 2018. Widespread winners and narrow-ranged losers: Land use homogenizes biodiversity in local assemblages worldwide H. Morlon [ed.],. PLOS Biology 16: e2006841. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2006841

Human use of the land (for agriculture and settlements) has a substantial negative effect on biodiversity globally. However, not all species are adversely affected by land use, and indeed, some benefit from the creation of novel habitat. Geographically rare species may be more negatively affected by…

Espíndola, A., M. Ruffley, M. L. Smith, B. C. Carstens, D. C. Tank, and J. Sullivan. 2016. Identifying cryptic diversity with predictive phylogeography. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 283: 20161529. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.1529

Identifying units of biological diversity is a major goal of organismal biology. An increasing literature has focused on the importance of cryptic diversity, defined as the presence of deeply diverged lineages within a single species. While most discoveries of cryptic lineages proceed on a taxon-by-…

Oyinlola, M. A., G. Reygondeau, C. C. C. Wabnitz, M. Troell, and W. W. L. Cheung. 2018. Global estimation of areas with suitable environmental conditions for mariculture species L. Bosso [ed.],. PLOS ONE 13: e0191086. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0191086

Aquaculture has grown rapidly over the last three decades expanding at an average annual growth rate of 5.8% (2005–2014), down from 8.8% achieved between 1980 and 2010. The sector now produces 44% of total food fish production. Increasing demand and consumption from a growing global population are d…

Zizka, A., F. Antunes Carvalho, A. Calvente, M. Rocio Baez-Lizarazo, A. Cabral, J. F. R. Coelho, M. Colli-Silva, et al. 2020. No one-size-fits-all solution to clean GBIF. PeerJ 8: e9916. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.9916

Species occurrence records provide the basis for many biodiversity studies. They derive from georeferenced specimens deposited in natural history collections and visual observations, such as those obtained through various mobile applications. Given the rapid increase in availability of such data, th…

Li, X., B. Li, G. Wang, X. Zhan, and M. Holyoak. 2020. Deeply digging the interaction effect in multiple linear regressions using a fractional-power interaction term. MethodsX 7: 101067. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mex.2020.101067

In multiple regression Y ~ β0 + β1X1 + β2X2 + β3X1 X2 + ɛ., the interaction term is quantified as the product of X1 and X2. We developed fractional-power interaction regression (FPIR), using βX1M X2N as the interaction term. The rationale of FPIR is that the slopes of Y-X1 regression along the X2 gr…

Newbold, T., P. Oppenheimer, A. Etard, and J. J. Williams. 2020. Tropical and Mediterranean biodiversity is disproportionately sensitive to land-use and climate change. Nature Ecology & Evolution 4: 1630–1638. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-01303-0

Global biodiversity is undergoing rapid declines, driven in large part by changes to land use and climate. Global models help us to understand the consequences of environmental changes for biodiversity, but tend to neglect important geographical variation in the sensitivity of biodiversity to these …

Mejía-Falla, P. A., E. Castro, N. Bolaños, J. P. Caldas, C. Ballesteros, H. Bent-Hooker, A. Rojas, and A. F. Navia. 2020. Richness and distribution patterns of elasmobranchs in the San Andres, Providencia and Santa Catalina Archipelago: is this area a hotspot of these species in the greater Caribbean? Environmental Biology of Fishes 103: 1371–1389. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-020-01029-9

Hotspots identification can be used to establish protected or priority areas for conservation at different geographic scales. We aimed to determine if San Andres, Providencia and Santa Catalina Archipelago could be considered as a hotspot of elasmobranch diversity within the Greater Caribbean. For t…