Lidando com a incerteza e ignorância nos dados da biodiversidade: uma perspectiva taxonômica e espacial

Abstract

This thesis consists of a literature review and three chapters in manuscript format. We offer a valuable contribution to understanding the challenges related to ignorance and uncertainty in taxonomic and spatial biodiversity data. The literature review provides an overview of the Linnean and Wallacean shortfalls. In the first chapter, we explore the multiple concepts and metrics associated with species definition, highlighting the complexity and taxonomic uncertainties. We emphasize the influence of taxonomic changes on species richness estimates, pointing out the need to include information on these changes to improve the precision of biodiversity estimates. In the second chapter, the research still focuses on the Linnean shortfalls related to the nomenclature of global birds, presenting a metric of taxonomic uncertainty, and evaluating associations between biological and ecological characteristics of birds and taxonomic uncertainty. The third chapter addresses the Wallacean shortfalls, assessing the temporal and spatial gaps in the biodiversity sampling effort in Namibia, using GBIF data, and analyzing the influence of sociogeographic variables on the sampling effort. We conclude this thesis by arguing the challenges faced by scientists and collectors in several dimensions of biodiversity knowledge, from species definitions to data collection and sharing. We emphasize the importance of investing in basic science to fill the gaps and ensure the broad dissemination of taxonomic and spatial knowledge of species.