Qual o nosso interesse nos anfíbios? uma abordagem cienciométrica

Abstract

Anthropic activities contribute increasingly to the decline and extinction of many species around the globe. Thus, to conserve threatened species, it is essential to have sufficient biological, ecological and cultural knowledge to support the choice, design and implementation of appropriate conservation interventions. However, research efforts on different species are extremely patchy due to several intrinsic, populational and socio-economic factors. Here, we quantify the general and conservation scientific knowledges of the world’s amphibian species, and identify the factors that are most strongly associated with high and low levels of knowledge production. We adopt a hurdle regression model to independently evaluate the factors that influence the scientific production on amphibians. Our findings demonstrate that generally the endangered species are less researched than those that are not at extinction risk. Because threatened species occur in small and fragmented habitats, and are endemics they may be less accessible to researchers. Meanwhile, more studied species have several uses for scientists and the general public. In addition, scientists tend targeting older described species, and species that occur in countries with higher scientific capacity, and in artificial habitats, with larval development, higher reproductive frequency and greater body size. This was observed in general and conservation scientific production on amphibians. Since that previously studies demonstrated that threatened species of mammalian and birds are more interesting to the public and to scientists, and have greater investments in conservation, conservationist programs could contribute to increase the visibility of endangered amphibian species.