Efforts to document biodiversity have created large species datasets, but new research shows that field observations are biased towards particular regions, clades, traits and time periods, and do not accurately represent global biodiversity patterns. Although specimens are only infrequently preserved in natural history collections, they show relative congruence with expected biodiversity patterns and are vital for ecological research.
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References
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This is a summary of: Daru, B. H. & Rodriguez, J. Mass production of unvouchered records fails to represent global biodiversity patterns. Nat. Ecol. Evol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02047-3 (2023).
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Specimens trump field observations in capturing biodiversity trends. Nat Ecol Evol 7, 802–803 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02051-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02051-7
