Alberto Astiazarán‐Azcárraga, Christian Alejandro Delfín‐Alfonso, Andrés Lira‐Noriega, David A. Prieto‐Torres, Sonia Gallina‐Tessaro
{"title":"Neotropical non‐primate canopy mammals: historical trends, omissions, and geographic gaps in the knowledge","authors":"Alberto Astiazarán‐Azcárraga, Christian Alejandro Delfín‐Alfonso, Andrés Lira‐Noriega, David A. Prieto‐Torres, Sonia Gallina‐Tessaro","doi":"10.1111/mam.12376","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<jats:list> <jats:list-item>Canopy mammals constitute a diverse and widely distributed group. However, these species have not been widely studied, and there are currently many gaps in our knowledge of their ecology, behaviour, distribution, and conservation status.</jats:list-item> <jats:list-item>We identified crucial trends and omissions in terms of research effort on research themes, taxonomic groups, countries, and protected areas (PAs) and geographic information biases.</jats:list-item> <jats:list-item>A systematic review was conducted by consulting two electronic databases (Web of Science and Scopus), including research conducted within neotropical countries (from central Mexico to northern Argentina) until the end of the first half of 2021. All the references obtained were reviewed and categorised, and the geographical location of each study was extracted to evaluate geographical gaps.</jats:list-item> <jats:list-item>We found that two orders (Carnivora and Didelphimorphia) and three families (Didelphidae, Felidae, and Cricetidae) were the most studied taxa, and were featured in more than 50% of cases. Brazil had the highest number of studies. Topics concerning diseases (19% of cases), distribution (14%), and ecology (14%) were the most frequently addressed; only 4.6% of the studies focused on anthropogenic disturbances, and less than 30% of the studies were conducted within PAs.</jats:list-item> <jats:list-item>We found that one of the largest and most important geographical biases in knowledge was in the northern Amazon region, where the number of studies was low or null.</jats:list-item> <jats:list-item>This study lays the groundwork for future research on these understudied mammals, to develop better research that can allow us to design more appropriate conservation strategies.</jats:list-item> </jats:list>","PeriodicalId":49893,"journal":{"name":"Mammal Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Mammal Review","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1111/mam.12376","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ECOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Canopy mammals constitute a diverse and widely distributed group. However, these species have not been widely studied, and there are currently many gaps in our knowledge of their ecology, behaviour, distribution, and conservation status.We identified crucial trends and omissions in terms of research effort on research themes, taxonomic groups, countries, and protected areas (PAs) and geographic information biases.A systematic review was conducted by consulting two electronic databases (Web of Science and Scopus), including research conducted within neotropical countries (from central Mexico to northern Argentina) until the end of the first half of 2021. All the references obtained were reviewed and categorised, and the geographical location of each study was extracted to evaluate geographical gaps.We found that two orders (Carnivora and Didelphimorphia) and three families (Didelphidae, Felidae, and Cricetidae) were the most studied taxa, and were featured in more than 50% of cases. Brazil had the highest number of studies. Topics concerning diseases (19% of cases), distribution (14%), and ecology (14%) were the most frequently addressed; only 4.6% of the studies focused on anthropogenic disturbances, and less than 30% of the studies were conducted within PAs.We found that one of the largest and most important geographical biases in knowledge was in the northern Amazon region, where the number of studies was low or null.This study lays the groundwork for future research on these understudied mammals, to develop better research that can allow us to design more appropriate conservation strategies.
期刊介绍:
Mammal Review is the official scientific periodical of the Mammal Society, and covers all aspects of mammalian biology and ecology, including behavioural ecology, biogeography, conservation, ecology, ethology, evolution, genetics, human ecology, management, morphology, and taxonomy. We publish Reviews drawing together information from various sources in the public domain for a new synthesis or analysis of mammalian biology; Predictive Reviews using quantitative models to provide insights into mammalian biology; Perspectives presenting original views on any aspect of mammalian biology; Comments in response to papers published in Mammal Review; and Short Communications describing new findings or methods in mammalian biology.