Distribution Of Research Effort Research Articles

Global mismatches between threat mapping research effort and the potential of threat abatement actions to reduce extinction risk.

Threat mapping is a necessary tool for identifying and abating direct threats to species in the ongoing extinction crisis. There are known gaps in the threat mapping literature for particular threats and geographic locations, and it remains unclear if the distribution of research effort is appropriately targeted relative to conservation need. We aimed to determine the drivers of threat mapping research effort and to quantify gaps that, if filled, could inform actions with the highest potential to reduce species' extinction risk. We used a negative binomial generalized linear model to analyze research effort as a function of threat abatement potential (quantified as the potential reduction in species extinction risk from abating threats), species richness, land area, and human pressure. The model showed that threat mapping research effort increased by 1.1 to 1.2 times per standardized unit change in threat abatement potential. However, species richness and land area were stronger predictors of research effort overall. The greatest areas of mismatch between research effort and threat abatement potential, receiving disproportionately low research effort, were related to the threats to species of agriculture, aquaculture, and biological resource use across the tropical regions of the Americas, Asia, and Madagascar. Conversely, the threat of linear infrastructure (e.g., roads and rails) across regions, the threat of biological resource use (e.g., hunting or collection) in sub-Saharan Africa, and overall threats in North America and Europe all received disproportionately high research effort. We discuss the range of methodological and sociopolitical factors that may be behind the overall trends and specific areas of mismatch we found. We urge a stronger emphasis on targeting research effort toward those threats and geographic locations where threat abatement activities could make the greatest contribution to reducing global species extinction risk.

In the shadow of the rising sun: a systematic review of Japanese bat research and conservation

Abstract Although scientific evidence is critical to prioritising conservation actions, the distribution of research effort does not always align with conservation needs. The conservation of Japanese bats is of global concern, given that 35% of extant species are endemic and 91% of endemics are threatened. However, information on Japanese bats can be inaccessible to the international community, and research trends have yet to be reviewed. To investigate how thoroughly research has addressed conservation needs concerning Japanese bats, we related IUCN category, legal protections, and threats to the results of a systematic review of conservation‐relevant research literature from the last fifty years. We assessed patterns in research distribution in time, regions, research topics, taxa, endemicity, and category to identify gaps and future priorities. We also compared research patterns between international research repositories and the main Japanese repository. Categories did not change over time (except due to changes in knowledge; actual conservation status remained the same), and bat‐specific legal protections and conservation actions are limited (e.g. only one species benefits from a national recovery plan). Research has increased post‐2000, but threatened and endemic species remain less studied than non‐threatened and non‐endemic species. Both the shortage of ecological studies (≤ 1 article) and lack of any conservation study for over 50% of extant species (including most threatened species) are concerning. Ten endemics were identified as top priority species: Murina tenebrosa, Myotis yanbarensis, Murina ryukyuana, Nyctalus furvus, Miniopterus fuscus, Pteropus pselaphon, Myotis pruinosus, Eptesicus japonensis, Rhinolophus perditus, and Hipposideros turpis. Japanese bat conservation could be strengthened by increasing research on endemic species and by providing information on threats, ecological requirements, population trends, and suitable conservation strategies. Concrete conservation planning, improved publishing standards, capacity‐building, and a collaborative effort to improve the situation of bats domestically would set a strong example for bat conservation in Asia.

Biodiversity Conservation and Social Science Underpinnings in the Cordillera Highlands of Northern Philippines

This article conducts a literature review and synthesis of social science research on biodiversity in the Cordillera of Northern Philippines. The area hosts key biodiversity sites that need protection and conservation but there is little understanding of the socio-cultural, economic and political dynamics that cause the loss of biodiversity and effective conservation. The review showed unequal distribution of social-science among the different sites in the Cordillera with concentration in urban areas. The reviewed materials showed a wide scope of topics, indicating that the social dimension of biodiversity conservation is complex and multidimensional. For social science research to better inform decision-making in biodiversity conservation, social scientists need to be aggressive and openly engaged with practitioners and local policy makers so that relevant research findings could penetrate biodiversity management practice. Partnership among universities and productive research groups could address the disproportionate distribution of research efforts across sites.

Are research efforts on Animalia in the South Pacific associated with the conservation status or population trends?

Analyses of knowledge gaps can highlight imbalances in research, encouraging greater proportionality in the distribution of research efforts. In this research we used generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) with the aim to determine if research efforts for the period 2005–2015 for terrestrial vertebrates of Amphibia, Aves, Mammalia and Reptilia in the South Pacific region were correlated with conservation status (critically endangered (CR), endangered (EN), vulnerable (VU), least concern (LC) and near threatened (NT)) or population trends (increasing, stable, decreasing and unknown) through the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) database. Our results showed that research distribution was uneven across different classes. Out of 633623 investigated papers, the average number of publications per species was 43.7, 306.7, 717.6 and 115.3 for Amphibia (284 species), Aves (1306 species), Mammalia (243 species) and Reptilia (400 species), respectively. Consistently, the lower publication effort on Amphibia compared to other taxonomic classes was revealed as significant by GLMM analysis. There was no significant differences in research effort among levels of conservation status. However, we found significantly different publication efforts among population trends of all examined species in that species with “unknown” population trends gained significantly lower researchers’ attention compared to species with “decreasing” trend. Results also indicated that, although it was not significant, the highest attention is given to species with “increasing” population trend over all taxonomic classes. Using the Information Theoretic approach we also generated a set of competing models to identify most important factors influencing research efforts, revealing that the highest ranked model included taxonomic class and population trend.

Charisma counts: the presence of great apes affects the allocation of research effort in the paleotropics

Scientific research in the biodiversity‐rich paleotropics (the tropical portions of the Old World) provides multiple benefits, yet we know little about the distribution of research effort in this region and the factors that determine it. We used Google Scholar to assess paleotropical research effort – defined here as the number of published studies that reference one of 565 terrestrial protected areas in the 23 African and Asian countries that contain great apes (Gorilla spp, Pan spp, and Pongo spp). We found that research effort is strongly skewed toward a small number of sites and that most protected areas are inadequately represented in the scientific literature. Scientists conducting paleotropical research often focus their efforts on protected areas that are large, that are designated as national parks, and that contain non‐human great apes. Our results highlight important gaps in research effort, and indicate that current understanding of tropical protected areas is limited and heavily biased toward specific sites, many of which may not be representative of existing protected areas in the paleotropics.

Values, standpoints, and scientific/intellectual movements

Feminist standpoint empiricism contributes to the criticism of the value-free ideal by offering a unique analysis of how non-epistemic values can play not only a legitimate but also an epistemically productive role in science. While the inductive risk argument focuses on the role of non-epistemic values in the acceptance of hypotheses, standpoint empiricism focuses on the role of non-epistemic values in the production of evidence. And while many other analyses of values in science focus on the role of non-epistemic values either in an individual scientist's decision making or in the distribution of research efforts in scientific communities, standpoint empiricism focuses on the role of non-epistemic values in the building of scientific/intellectual movements.

Research effort allocation and the conservation of restricted-range island bird species

Knowledge gap analyses can be useful to highlight imbalances in research and to improve the distribution of conservation research efforts. We used ISI’s Web of Knowledge (WoK) and BirdLife International’s library catalogue (BLI) to examine the allocation of research effort amongst the extinction-prone island restricted-range birds (RRSs, n = 1321) and the island endemic bird areas and secondary areas (EBAs, n = 108; SAs, n = 58) previously identified by BirdLife International. We found that the distribution of research effort was very uneven across both species and areas. Half of the number of outputs obtained from WoK referred to 3.1% of the island restricted-range bird species and to 4.8% of the endemic bird areas and secondary areas, whereas 52.2% of the species and 34.3% of the areas had no output. The global distribution of research had a strong spatial component, with a limited number of places receiving most of the research efforts (Hawaii, New Zealand, Central America), while many species rich areas were very poorly studied (South East Asia, South Pacific, most Atlantic islands). Research amongst the most threatened RRSs tended to be less biased, with these species having a higher probability of having at least one output from WoK than less threatened species. Given that threats to the conservation of biodiversity are often highly context-dependent, we advocate prioriting the study of poorly known species and regions. Finally, we integrate the knowledge gaps we identify with previously established conservation priorities, in order to prioritize for future conservation research on RRS, EBAs and SAs.

An overview of power generation in New Zealand

Two distinct risks cast a shadow over the sustainability of the existing energy mix. One is security of supply. The diversification of energy sources – both geographical and technological – could mitigate those risks. The second is environmental. Climate change in particular has raised questions about the sustainability of the current fossil fuel emission-intensive mix.The government is currently investigating whether current R&D priorities and programmes are adequately focused and resourced to bring on-stream the energy technologies of the future. The future energy scenarios explored in the National Energy Strategy will help deliver a view of where some of the potentials and roadblocks currently lie in respect of new energy technologies. This in turn will guide the development of a roadmap of energy research priorities.Equally important is gaining a better understanding about the actual distribution of research effort on the energy-related technologies and market deployment of different technologies.While science, research and innovation in a global and highly competitive marketplace coupled with consumer preferences will be a decisive influence, timely access to new technologies and energy resources is of significant national interest.

Forecasting as an aid to R & D decision making in the nuclear power field

Abstract The pay‐off from a new power system does not begin to accrue until many years after the initial research; and perhaps not until 10 years or more after major development programmes are launched. The ensuing benefit to the community in terms of reduced power costs may be spread over 30 to 40 years—combining the lifetime of the stations with the period over which they might be installed. Ideally therefore, the Atomic Energy Authority would like to have accurate forecasts of electricity demand and its characteristics in terms of load factors, etc., 30 to 40 years ahead. This paper describes attempts by the Authority to forecast electricity requirements at and beyond the end of the century as a background to their consideration of the relative merits of alternative future nuclear power systems and the distribution of research effort between them.The study was conducted between 1969 and 1971. The danger of the Middle East countries restricting oil supplies and raising prices was foreseen but in a less acute form and later than has actually occurred. The recent developments are likely to lead to pauses in economic growth followed by growth at lower rates than otherwise. Where forecasts in this article are given in the form of ranges, the lower bounds of the range are likely to apply—at least in the short and medium term.

Forecasting as an aid to R & D decision making in the nuclear power field

AbstractThe pay‐off from a new power system does not begin to accrue until many years after the initial research; and perhaps not until 10 years or more after major development programmes are launched. The ensuing benefit to the community in terms of reduced power costs may be spread over 30 to 40 years—combining the lifetime of the stations with the period over which they might be installed. Ideally therefore, the Atomic Energy Authority would like to have accurate forecasts of electricity demand and its characteristics in terms of load factors, etc., 30 to 40 years ahead. This paper describes attempts by the Authority to forecast electricity requirements at and beyond the end of the century as a background to their consideration of the relative merits of alternative future nuclear power systems and the distribution of research effort between them.The study was conducted between 1969 and 1971. The danger of the Middle East countries restricting oil supplies and raising prices was foreseen but in a less acute form and later than has actually occurred. The recent developments are likely to lead to pauses in economic growth followed by growth at lower rates than otherwise. Where forecasts in this article are given in the form of ranges, the lower bounds of the range are likely to apply—at least in the short and medium term.

Distribution of Research Effort in Britain

Distribution of Research Effort in Britain

Industry and Agriculture in Belgium

IN a pamphlet on the National Foundation for Scientific Research and Industry, the contribution of this body to industry and agriculture in Belgium during the last ten years is reviewed by P. Beghin, the secretary of the Foundation (Pp. ix+408. Bruxelles: Fonds National de la Recherche scientifique). Since the Foundation gave its first grant in July 1928, 252 persons have received grants, 75 of whom are still receiving thorn, while 35 fresh grants are made each year. In subsidies of all kinds, 25,000,000 francs has been distributed amongst 1,350 research workers. The annual budget of the Department of Industrial Science of the Foundation is limited to 1,000,000 francs. Taken by industries, the distribution of research effort is concentrated mainly in agriculture and horticulture (1,532,400 francs), metallurgy (1,299,000 francs), electrical engineering (1,209,400 francs), out of a total of 7,166,810 francs, chemistry coming next with 730,750 francs and civil engineering with 030,100 francs. The report includes more or less detailed accounts of work in progress in metallurgy, welding, the thermodynamics of heavy-oil motors, electrical apparatus, including incandescent electric lamps, radio reception, civil engineering, including the action of wind on buildings, chemistry, including synthetic lubricating oils, copal gum, synthetic resins for the electrical industry, vulcanization of rubber, the charcoal industry, glass industry, cement industry, optical industry, as well as in agriculture, including the disinfection of plants and the cultivation of the beetroot, the brewing industry and the tanning of leather.