Data Deficiency

Full description

Data and R code used in the paper on Data Deficiency hotspots by Hayward et al. Map the location of data deficient species around the world, and determine the drivers of those features.

Project Background: Data deficiency is the bane of conservation status extinction risk assessments because incomplete data means we cannot accurately identify priority areas to conserve in protected area estate. Here, we use the IUCN distributions of amphibians, sharks and rays, fish, mammals, birds and reptiles to identify hotspots of Data Deficient species. We found that areas with high numbers of Data Deficient species are not randomly distributed and do not necessarily overlap with hotspots of biodiversity, particularly in the Amazon and West Africa. Data deficiency hotspots are concentrated around tropical South America, Africa, and South-east Asia, however this varies between taxa. Hotspots of data deficient amphibians are concentrated around the tropical Andean forests of Colombia, Peru and Ecuador, throughout Brazil, and in the New Guinea Highlands. The tropical forests of the Congo River basin, Papua New Guinea and The Philippines are hotspots for avian data deficiency. Data deficient Chondrichthyans are concentrated in the tropical seas, particularly around the west coast of Africa, East Asia, and the tropical Americas. Indochina is the primary hotspot for data deficient freshwater fish, while the Indo-Pacific is the primary hotspot for data deficient marine fish. Data deficient marine mammals are broadly distributed around the southern oceans, South America, South-east Asia, and North-west Africa. Data deficient herpetofauna are concentrated around tropical Asia, while tropical South America, Indonesia and central Africa are the hotspots for data deficient terrestrial mammals. While data deficiency reflects drivers of biodiversity more broadly (e.g., latitude), other factors are also influential, including the amount of conservation funding a country invests and population density. Increasing evidence suggests that data deficient species are disproportionately likely to be threatened with extinction. Scientists urgently need to focus their research efforts on these data deficiency hotspots and ensure protected area networks are suitably representative and include data deficient species. Furthermore, the accuracy of status assessments needs to be ascertained and Data Deficient species need to be prioritised for study to ensure they are not lost before we get to know them.