Biotropica announces a new paper category: Natural History Field Notes

Abstract

The planet is in the midst of a biodiversity crisis, and we continue to lose species to extinction before they are even described. But describing and understanding species in meaningful ways involves much more than taxonomic descriptions, it demands a basic understanding of species’ biology and the relationships to their biotic and abiotic environment. Natural history observations have been the basis for much of the formulation of ecological and evolutionary theory, and many voices have underscored the need to catalog both the biodiversity of organisms and their rich interrelationships. Molecular methods have been one tool to tremendously advance the discovery of species and their evolutionary history, and yet they are insufficient to understand the organization and functioning of life across scales: from individual organisms to populations, communities, and ecosystems. For example, in a paper entitled “Biodiversity research requires more boots on the ground” E.O. Wilson warns ecologists about becoming armchair scientists that rely primarily on molecular data that tell us very little about the rich web of ecological interactions that define species’ roles in ecosystems (Wilson, 2017). We need to return to our roots, so to speak, if we are to continue advancing ecology in significant ways. In a time when large databases of species traits (e.g., Wilman et al. 2014) and ecological interactions (e.g., Bello et al. 2017) are becoming increasingly available, it may come as a surprise to a student to learn that we actually barely know what many animals eat, much less when and where, or how old and large specific tree species can get. We know far less about how species relate to each other and to what consequence, which is even more important in times of drastic global changes. For many tropical biologists and ecologists, the factual observation and recording of the natural world was our first introduction to a world of baffling diversity, and is the continuing source of inspiration and motivation for thought and research. One simple definition of natural history is “the careful observation of nature” (Travis, 2020). In addition to time-honored tools like binoculars, new technologies such as automated camera traps, drones, sapflow meters, and acoustic monitoring tools are becoming increasingly available and widely deployed (Deichmann et al., 2018), producing new fundamental information about the distributions, behavior, and interactions of tropical species (Perera-Romero et al., 2021). However, the publication of natural history information hand-in-hand with the healthy theorizing of what such facts imply has declined in all major ecological journals since the 1980’s—Biotropica was no exception. To once more serve as a forum for important natural history observations, Biotropica has recently launched a new category of papers entitled “Natural History Field Notes.” This paper category features novel natural history or field observations that can be described in 2000 words or fewer. Submissions must tell a compelling story that generates a novel hypothesis or that can be placed in a larger context of the potential implications for tropical ecology, biology, and evolution. Natural History Field Notes are typically expected (although not required) to be accompanied by a high-quality photograph, video, or audio recording that helps to document the observations. We encourage observations on any taxon or taxa. Natural History Field Notes will be handled by a dedicated team of Associate Editors and reviewed by external reviewers in accordance with our editorial practices. We hope that this new paper category serves as an encouragement to get more “boots on the ground,” so to speak.