The biased distribution of existing information on biodiversity hinders its use in conservation, and we need an integrative approach to act urgently

Abstract

The data collected by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), some 2.2 billion records, is arguably the largest international initiative to digitize and share primary biodiversity data. In this study, we examine the global distribution of completeness values discriminating those 30-minute cells that are likely to have reliable inventories for the most important terrestrial classes of Animalia and Plantae. The aim of this exploration is not only to show the biases and deficiencies in the biodiversity information collected so far, but also to estimate the climatic variability represented by these data in order to known their representativeness for conservation purposes. The results obtained show that information on biodiversity distribution is taxonomically and geographically biased towards regions and groups with more taxonomic resources and a longer naturalistic tradition. The amount of distributional data is very uneven across the different biological groups, and unrelated to the diversity they possess. The global patterns of completeness seem to be conditioned by the historical taxonomic, faunistic and floristic interest received by the different classes of organisms. In addition, well-surveyed global areas account for barely 1 % of global climate variability, leaving uncovered a large set of climatic conditions. All these results prevent us from relying exclusively on the available primary information on the distribution of organisms to identify biodiversity patterns and/or design conservation proposals. Given that the biodiversity crisis demands urgent action, biases and gaps in primary biodiversity information cannot be an excuse and conservation decisions must be made considering a broad set of criteria based on existing scientifically proven knowledge and techniques capable of providing the necessary answers.