The so-called High Seas Treaty is a legal framework for the protection of marine biodiversity and responsible and equitable use of resources of areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBJN). Its draft, published on the 5th of March 2023, is the outcome of two decades of negotiations, and is part of the international effort to protect a third of the world’s biodiversity by 2030.
An unwavering dedication to the protection and conservation of biodiversity will be required to see the firm landing of this hopeful step.
On this occasion, we look back at some impactful studies published in our journals that have made waves, hopefully in the right direction towards impactful conservation measures and actions.
Following President Barack Obama’s expansion of the largest permanent Marine Protected Area on Earth (Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument) in 2016, a new species of coral-reef fish was named in his honour. The fish is the only known coral-reef species to be endemic to the Monument, and, despite its small size, it carries wide-reaching cultural and political significance as a reminder of how politics go hand in hand with science.
Former President of the United States, Barack Obama, arriving on Midway Atoll Midway on September 1, 2016 to commemorate his use of the Antiquities Act to expand the boundaries of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. Dr. Sylvia Earle gives President Barack Obama a photograph of Tosanoides obama on Midway Atoll, from the film “Sea of Hope: America’s Underwater Treasures” premiered on National Geographic Channel on January 15, 2017. See also the news story on National Geographic.
Other studies from our flagship zoology journal ZooKeys have focused on the benthic megafauna and abyssal fauna of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) in the Pacific Ocean.
The Clarion-Clipperton Zone, managed by the International Seabed Authority, has been targeted by deep-sea mining interests. In the context of heightened concern over potential biodiversity loss, scientific research is crucial for informing policy-makers and the general public about the risks and outcomes of such initiatives.
The Clarion-Clipperton Zone, central Pacific Ocean (purple box), spanning 6 milllion km2. Knowledge of marine biodiversity in the area is crucial for its protection. Image source: A. Glover at al. (2016).
The rich biodiversity of the deep sea has also been documented in big-scale taxonomic inventories and checklists in the Biodiversity Data Journal.
The echinoderm Amphioplus cf. daleus Lyman, 1879. Image source: A. Glover at al.Hymenopenaeus cf. nereus observed in the UK-1 exploration contract area. Image source: Amon et al. (2017).
Going forward, the expansion of Marine Protected Areas should also ensure the implementation of policies for the methods of resource extraction and their equitable sharing and use among the world’s nations.
Over the next few years, we hope to see an ever increasing interest in biodiversity conservation - from the general public, stakeholders and policy makers, and, of course, research institutions.
We need to love what we protect in order to be able to protect it.
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OpenBiodiv is a biodiversity database containing knowledge extracted from scientific literature, built as an Open Biodiversity Knowledge Management System.
Apart from coordinating the Horizon 2020-funded project BiCIKL, scholarly publisher and technology provider Pensoft has been the engine behind what is likely to be the first production-stage semantic system to run on top of a reasonably-sized biodiversity knowledge graph.
OpenBiodiv is a biodiversity database containing knowledge extracted from scientific literature, built as an Open Biodiversity Knowledge Management System.
As of February 2023, OpenBiodiv contains 36,308 processed articles; 69,596 taxon treatments; 1,131 institutions; 460,475 taxon names; 87,876 sequences; 247,023 bibliographic references; 341,594 author names; and 2,770,357 article sections and subsections.
In fact, OpenBiodiv is a whole ecosystem comprising tools and services that enable biodiversity data to be extracted from the text of biodiversity articles published in data-minable XML format, as in the journals published by Pensoft (e.g. ZooKeys, PhytoKeys, MycoKeys, Biodiversity Data Journal), and other taxonomic treatments – available from Plazi and Plazi’s specialised extraction workflow – into Linked Open Data.
“I believe that OpenBiodiv is a good real-life example of how the outputs and efforts of a research project may and should outlive the duration of the project itself. Something that is – of course – central to our mission at BiCIKL.”
explains Prof Lyubomir Penev, BiCIKL’s Project Coordinator and founder and CEO of Pensoft.
“The basics of what was to become the OpenBiodiv database began to come together back in 2015 within the EU-funded BIG4 PhD project of Victor Senderov, later succeeded by another PhD project by Mariya Dimitrova within IGNITE. It was during those two projects that the backend Ontology-O, the first versions of RDF converters and the basic website functionalities were created,”
he adds.
At the time OpenBiodiv became one of the nine research infrastructures within BiCIKL tasked with the provision of virtual access to open FAIR data, tools and services, it had already evolved into a RDF-based biodiversity knowledge graph, equipped with a fully automated extraction and indexing workflow and user apps.
Currently, Pensoft is working at full speed on new user apps in OpenBiodiv, as the team is continuously bringing into play invaluable feedback and recommendation from end-users and partners at BiCIKL.
As a result, OpenBiodiv is already capable of answering open-ended queries based on the available data. To do this, OpenBiodiv discovers ‘hidden’ links between data classes, i.e. taxon names, taxon treatments, specimens, sequences, persons/authors and collections/institutions.
Thus, the system generates new knowledge about taxa, scientific articles and their subsections, the examined materials and their metadata, localities and sequences, amongst others. Additionally, it is able to return information with a relevant visual representation about any one or a combination of those major data classes within a certain scope and semantic context.
Users can explore the database by either typing in any term (even if misspelt!) in the search engine available from the OpenBiodiv homepage; or integrating an Application Programming Interface (API); as well as by using SPARQL queries.
On the OpenBiodiv website, there is also a list of predefined SPARQL queries, which is continuously being expanded.
“OpenBiodiv is an ambitious project of ours, and it’s surely one close to Pensoft’s heart, given our decades-long dedication to biodiversity science and knowledge sharing. Our previous fruitful partnerships with Plazi, BIG4 and IGNITE, as well as the current exciting and inspirational network of BiCIKL are wonderful examples of how far we can go with the right collaborators,”
Between 2010 and 2019, total imports of frog’s legs into the EU numbered 40.7 million kg, which equals to up to roughly 2 billion frogs. While Belgium is the main importer, France is the main consumer. These insights are part of a new study, published in the journal Nature Conservation, which found “inexplicable volatility” in the trade of frog legs and an extreme dependency of the EU on other countries to meet its demand.
Leading author Dr. Auliya of the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change in Bonn, Germany, outlines the manifold uncertainties underlying this trade: “The international trade in frogs’ legs is a black box, whether it is the lack of species-specific trade data, which would be needed to ensure sustainability, or the large-scale mislabeling in trade and the challenges to identify species when it comes to processed, skinned and frozen frogs’ legs.”
Frogs’ legs from large ranids at a large-scale reptile collector in North Sumatra, Indonesia. Photo by Mark Auliya
Frogs have a central role in the ecosystem as insect predators – and where frogs disappear, the use of toxic pesticides increases. Hence, the frogs’ legs trade has direct consequences not only for the frogs themselves, but for biodiversity and ecosystem health as a whole. The extent to which pesticide residues in frogs’ legs are traded internationally remains unclear.
In the 1970s and 1980s, India and Bangladesh were the top suppliers of frogs’ legs to Europe, but when their wild frog populations collapsed, both countries banned exports. Since then, Indonesia has taken over as the largest supplier. In the Southeast Asian country, as now also in Turkey and Albania, large-legged frog species are dwindling in the wild, one after the other, causing a fatal domino effect for species conservation. This increasingly threatens frog populations in the supplier countries.
“The EU is by far the world’s largest importer of frogs’ legs, and large-legged species such as the crab-eating grass frog (Fejervarya cancrivora), the giant Javan frog (Limnonectes macrodon) and the East Asian bullfrog (Hoplobatrachus rugulosus) are in particular demand among supposed gourmets in Europe”, points out co-author Dr. Sandra Altherr, a biologist and wildlife trade expert of the Germany-based charity Pro Wildlife.
Frozen frogs’ legs on sale in a French supermarket, August 2022. Photo by Sandra Altherr / Pro Wildlife
While commercial frog farms, like those operated in Viet Nam, may at first glance seem to be an alternative that can relieve the pressure from wild frog populations, ongoing restocking of frog farms with native species from the wild and, in the case of non-native species, such as the American bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus) the risk of escape, invasion and potential risk of disease spread, are serious risks for the environment.
The harvest of wild frog populations and species produced at commercial frog farms for the purpose of consumption also leaves disease control and hygiene measures by the wayside; additionally, the cross-border trade of species for consumption has led to genetic pollution and hybridization between species.
Limnonectes blythii species complex from a large-scale collector in North Sumatra. Photo by Mark Auliya
„During the course of this study, it became clear just how difficult it is to obtain concrete data on the current international trade in frogs’ legs. Specifically, relevant data are scattered across different unconnected databases,“ the researchers write in their paper.
In the course of their review, they were not able to find any published data out whether pesticide residues and other potentially toxic substances in (processed) frogs or their legs imported into the EU have been monitored. “This in itself is shocking and in view of the situation in exporting countries and the lack of transparency and management in the application of agrochemicals and veterinary medicinal substances within commercial farms, we strongly recommend that this monitoring become an urgent near-future task for importing countries,” they write.
“The complexity of issues underlying the frogs’ legs trade is not a priority policy item for the EU,” the authors conclude. They add that a listing of the most-affected frog species under CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, would help to monitor trade and ensure its sustainability, and the EU as the main destination should take the lead on that.
Research article:
Auliya M, Altherr S, Nithart C, Hughes A, Bickford D (2023) Numerous uncertainties in the multifaceted global trade in frogs’ legs with the EU as the major consumer. Nature Conservation 51: 71-135. https://doi.org/10.3897/natureconservation.51.93868
A number of serious management and compliance issues were revealed on lion farms in the Free State province, South Africa, by a joint team of researchers from MONITOR, Blood Lions, and World Animal Protection. Potentially fraudulent activities relating to the use of microchips, operating without valid permits, and incomplete, inconsistent, and unclear record keeping were some of the irregularities found on commercial facilities that keep and trade captive lions and other predators.
Lions on a commercial lion farm in South Africa. Photo by Blood Lions
African lions are legally farmed in South Africa for commercial uses in interactive tourism activities, such as cub petting, voluntourism, or the “canned” hunting industry (where captive-bred lions are released into a confined space to be killed for sport). Other reasons include trade in live animals, or selling their body parts for the needs of traditional Asian Medicine.
All lions born and kept on commercial farms in South Africa should be registered with the provincial authority and fitted with a unique identification microchip, in order for each animal to be followed from birth to death through the system and to avoid the laundering of wild-caught and/or non-registered captive-bred lions.
Lions on a commercial lion farm in South Africa. Photo by Blood Lions
A multinational team of researchers used permit data legally obtained from provincial authorities to summarise such uses of lions on farms in the Free State and found multiple instances of violation of national and provincial regulations.
It is known that the Free State province is at the heart of the commercial lion industry, with about a third of all lion facilities across the country located on its territory. These farms in the Free State predominantly breed, keep and euthanise lions, as well as trade with other provinces to supply “canned” hunting farms and tourism facilities. They also prepare lion body parts for export, such as taxidermy for trophies, and skeletons for the bone trade with Southeast Asia.
Lion cubs on a commercial lion farm in South Africa. Photo by Blood Lions
Data legally obtained from the Free State Department of Small Business Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs show hundreds of reused microchip numbers across permits for keeping, euthanising and transporting captive lions, indicating potential non-compliance with national and provincial regulations.
During a four-year period (2017-2020), more than 500 unique microchips (11% of the total microchip numbers) could not be followed through the system. For euthanasia permits, the number of potentially fraudulently used microchip numbers of lions was as many as 15%, and in some cases a microchip number had been reused up to four times.
This raises serious concerns that lion farm owners may deliberately be reusing microchip numbers to launder wild-caught and/or unregistered captive-bred lions.
A lion. Photo by Matthias Appel under a CC0 1.0 license
“Although some of these inconsistencies may have legitimate explanations, the number of times microchip numbers were reused is worrisome and requires further investigation by the authorities”, states Dr Sarah Heinrich of MONITOR, one of the researchers behind the study, which was published in the journal Nature Conservation.
The laundering of lions and/or other predators through the fraudulent use of microchips has implications beyond South Africa’s borders, in particular, in the trade in lion bones for traditional medicine, where bones, claws, skeletons, and skulls are exported to Southeast Asia. “Looking at live lion exports through the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), it is unclear what happens to these animals once they arrive at their international destinations. It is possible that some of these live exports circumvent the zero CITES lion bone export quota and are eventually euthanised at their import destinations to feed the persisting demand for lion bones”, said Dr Jennah Green of World Animal Protection.
CITES is the main regulatory mechanism governing the commercial international trade in certain wildlife species, including lions, their body parts, and derivatives. Under CITES, (African) lions are listed in Appendix II. A screenshot from Speciesplus.net, taken 31 January 2023.
Lions that were euthanised in the Free State in 2019 and 2020, during a CITES zero export quota for lion bones, most likely became part of a growing and largely unregulated stockpile of lion bones that exists in South Africa, which warrants further investigation.
Ensuring regulatory compliance in all areas of the commercial captive lion industry is more important now than ever. In 2021, Minister Barbara Creecy of the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DEFE), stated that the South African government intends to effectively end the commercial captive lion industry through a mandatory phase-out, which eventually was changed to a voluntary scheme.
In its current state, the lion farming industry is governed by a patchwork of contrasting legislation across multiple provincial and national authorities, with disparities and legal loopholes, which create opportunity for harmful and fraudulent activity.
“Our research highlights many areas of grave concern and these issues need the urgent attention of the Minister and the DFFE, as well as the nine provincial nature conservation authorities, to put stricter enforcement of the TOPS Regulations in place”, concludes Dr Louise de Waal, Director of Blood Lions.
Original source:
Heinrich S, Gomez L, Green J, de Waal L, Jakins C, D’Cruze N (2022) The extent and nature of the commercial captive lion industry in the Free State province, South Africa. Nature Conservation 50: 203-225. https://doi.org/10.3897/natureconservation.50.85292
Researchers found that the number of hippopotamus in the Bui National Park declined by about 70% after the construction of a hydroelectric dam in the reserve.
The Bui National Park is one of the few areas where the common hippopotamus resides in Ghana. The combined resources of the Black Volta River and the abundance of grasses make the area very suitable for hippopotamus. However, in an attempt to solve the electricity crisis the country faced in 2007, the government of Ghana constructed a hydroelectric dam in the heart of their home.
Farmers clearing trees along the rivers to begin cultivation at Bui National Park.
Knowing the consequence of dam creation on aquatic species, scientists Godfred Bempah, Martin Kobby Grant, Changhu Lu, and Amaël Borzée from Nanjing Forestry University, China, wanted to understand how the hippopotamus, a mega semi-aquatic species, was impacted by this project. The results have been published in the journal Nature Conservation. Assessing the impact of the dam construction can advise policy and decision making in future projects like this.
The researchers spent 24 days (2 days per month for 12 months) at the Bui National Park to estimate the number of hippopotamus individuals and understand local migratory activities, as well as to assess changes in land cover in the area after the dam was constructed. They then compared this information with historical data to understand the ecological changes within the area.
A hippopotamus in the Zoologico de Vallarta at Mismaloya south of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Photo by David Stanley under a CC BY 2.0 license
To complement the field surveys, the researchers spoke to local people familiar with the reserve before and after the dam construction. These included fishermen, canoe operators and park rangers. During the interactive discussion, all of them stated that the numbers of hippopotamus have declined compared to periods before the dam construction. They attributed the decline to poaching and habitat destruction.
The results indicated a decline in hippo numbers of about 70%: from 209 individuals in 2003 to 64 individuals in 2021.
A seized skull of Hippopotamus amphibius at the Bui national Park.
The study revealed noticeable changes in land cover after the dam construction, and, most importantly, a decline in forest cover, as well as destruction of riparian grasses, the habitat preferred by the hippopotamus. The increase in water levels flooded the areas where the animals used to reside, forcing them to disperse to other suitable areas. As they dispersed, the animals became vulnerable to poaching, which combined with habitat loss eventually led to a decline in hippopotamus numbers. It is possible that some of the animals might have successfully moved to other areas outside the reserve.
In conclusion, the authors note that the number of common hippopotamus individuals in the park has declined following the dam construction, in connection with habitat destruction and poaching. Once these threats are removed, the hippopotamus can survive in the medium to long term, when effective management plans are implemented.
Research article:
Bempah G, Kobby Grant M, Lu C, Borzée A (2022) The direct and indirect effects of damming on the Hippopotamus amphibius population abundance and distribution at Bui National Park, Ghana. Nature Conservation 50: 175-201. https://doi.org/10.3897/natureconservation.50.87411
All journals published by Pensoft – each using the publisher’s self-developed ARPHA Platform – provide extensive and transparent information about their costs and services in line with the Plan S principles.
In support of transparency and openness in scholarly publishing and academia, the scientific publisher and technology provider Pensoft joined the Journal Comparison Service (JCS) initiative by cOAlition S, an alliance of national funders and charitable bodies working to increase the volume of free-to-read research.
As a result, all journals published by Pensoft – each using the publisher’s self-developed ARPHA Platform – provide extensive and transparent information about their costs and services in line with the Plan S principles.
The JCS was launched to aid libraries and library consortia – the ones negotiating and participating in Open Access agreements with publishers – by providing them with everything they need to know in order to determine whether the prices charged by a certain journal are fair and corresponding to the quality of the service.
According to cOAlition S, an increasing number of libraries and library consortia from Europe, Africa, North America, and Australia have registered with the JCS over the past year since the launch of the portal in September 2021.
While access to the JCS is only open to librarians, individual researchers may also make use of the data provided by the participating publishers and their journals.
This is possible through an integration with the Journal Checker Tool, where researchers can simply enter the name of the journal of interest, their funder and affiliation (if applicable) to check whether the scholarly outlet complies with the Open Access policy of the author’s funder. A full list of all academic titles that provide data to the JCS is also publicly available. By being on the list means a journal and its publisher do not only support cOAlition S, but they also demonstrate that they stand for openness and transparency in scholarly publishing.
“We are delighted that Pensoft, along with a number of other publishers, have shared their price and service data through the Journal Comparison Service. Not only are such publishers demonstrating their commitment to open business models and cultures but are also helping to build understanding and trust within the research community.”
said Robert Kiley, Head of Strategy at cOAlition S.
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About cOAlition S:
On 4 September 2018, a group of national research funding organisations, with the support of the European Commission and the European Research Council (ERC), announced the launch of cOAlition S, an initiative to make full and immediate Open Access to research publications a reality. It is built around Plan S, which consists of one target and 10 principles. Read more on the cOAlition S website.
About Plan S:
Plan S is an initiative for Open Access publishing that was launched in September 2018. The plan is supported by cOAlition S, an international consortium of research funding and performing organisations. Plan S requires that, from 2021, scientific publications that result from research funded by public grants must be published in compliant Open Access journals or platforms. Read more on the cOAlition S website.
Throughout history, people have used caves for a number of reasons: as shelters, places for rituals, food storage, and, in more recent times, as touristic attractions. In these so-called show caves, visitors can experience the natural beauty of caves, usually by following a guide on constructed, artificially lit trails.
But caves are also very fragile ecosystems, bursting with underground life. They are home to numerous invertebrate and bat species, including ones that are threatened or endemic. The human disturbances caused by the changes in the infrastructure and environment, coupled with the influx of tourists, often affect the ecological processes and, consequently, these organisms. But how much do we know about the influence of tourists on cave ecosystems?
Apart from affecting subterranean invertebrates, the artificial lighting and noise related to tourist visits may also affect the life of bats, making it harder for them to reproduce or overwinter in caves.
Going through more than 1,000 scientific papers, an Italian team of scientists, led by Marco Isaia and Elena Piano from the University of Torino, prepared a literature-based dataset relative to the knowledge on the ecological status of 265 show caves in 39 countries across the world. Their database includes a georeferenced set of show caves, where researchers have evaluated a number of environmental indicators that help monitor the impact of tourism and its related activities on subterranean ecosystems. They also list cave characteristics for each cave, including its natural heritage that attracts tourists.
There are many ways in which tourism can disturb life in a cave. For example, the presence of visitors may help increase cave temperature, which, combined with the increase of CO2 air concentration caused by tourists’ breath, may enhance carbonate dissolution, damaging geological formations. Moreover, tourists can carry pollutants and propagules of microorganisms into the cave through their clothes and hands, which then land on geological formations, in the water, in the air, and on the ground. Apart from affecting subterranean invertebrates, the artificial lighting and noise related to tourist visits may also affect the life of bats, making it harder for them to reproduce or overwinter in caves.
The dataset published in Nature Conservation set a baseline towards the integrated and multidisciplinary study of the impacts caused by tourism on these fragile ecosystems, but the research team points out that much remains to be done. For example, they found out that there wasn’t enough research on show caves outside of Europe, or on the possible impacts of tourism on the subterranean fauna in the context of climate change.
Ultimately, the data in this study can help managing authorities come up with guidelines that will allow a sustainable touristic development of show caves, not only from an environmental perspective, but also from an economic and social point of view.
“Overall, this data paper could fill the lack of awareness towards the fragility of the natural heritage of show caves to favour a sustainable touristic use that would guarantee their preservation for future generations as well as the economic development of local communities”, the authors conclude.
Research article:
Piano E, Nicolosi G, Mammola S, Balestra V, Baroni B, Bellopede R, Cumino E, Muzzulini N, Piquet A, Isaia M (2022) A literature-based database of the natural heritage, the ecological status and tourism-related impacts in show caves worldwide. Nature Conservation 50: 159-174.https://doi.org/10.3897/natureconservation.50.80505
All images are from Bossea show cave in Italy, by Simone Marzocchi.
The FAIR Data Place – the key and final product of the partnership – is meant to provide scientists with all types of biodiversity data “at their fingertips”
The Horizon 2020 – funded project BiCIKL has reached its halfway stage and the partners gathered in Plovdiv (Bulgaria) from the 22nd to the 25th of October for the Second General Assembly, organised by Pensoft.
The BiCIKL project will launch a new European community of key research infrastructures, researchers, citizen scientists and other stakeholders in the biodiversity and life sciences based on open science practices through access to data, tools and services.
BiCIKL’s goal is to create a centralised place to connect all key biodiversity data by interlinking 15 research infrastructures and their databases. The 3-year European Commission-supported initiative kicked off in 2021 and involves 14 key natural history institutions from 10 European countries.
BiCIKL is keeping pace as expected with 16 out of the 48 final deliverables already submitted, another 9 currently in progress/under review and due in a few days. Meanwhile, 21 out of the 48 milestones have been successfully achieved.
Prof. Lyubomir Penev (BiCIKL’s project coordinator Prof. Lyubomir Penev and CEO and founder of Pensoft) opens the 2nd General Assembly of BiCIKL in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
The hybrid format of the meeting enabled a wider range of participants, which resulted in robust discussions on the next steps of the project, such as the implementation of additional technical features of the FAIR Data Place (FAIR being an abbreviation for Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable).
This FAIR Data Place online platform – the key and final product of the partnership and the BiCIKL initiative – is meant to provide scientists with all types of biodiversity data “at their fingertips”.
This data includes biodiversity information, such as detailed images, DNA, physiology and past studies concerning a specific species and its ‘relatives’, to name a few. Currently, the issue is that all those types of biodiversity data have so far been scattered across various databases, which in turn have been missing meaningful and efficient interconnectedness.
Additionally, the FAIR Data Place, developed within the BiCIKL project, is to give researchers access to plenty of training modules to guide them through the different services.
Halfway through the duration of BiCIKL, the project is at a turning point, where crucial discussions between the partners are playing a central role in the refinement of the FAIR Data Place design. Most importantly, they are tasked with ensuring that their technologies work efficiently with each other, in order to seamlessly exchange, update and share the biodiversity data every one of them is collecting and taking care of.
By Year 3 of the BiCIKL project, the partners agree, when those infrastructures and databases become efficiently interconnected to each other, scientists studying the Earth’s biodiversity across the world will be in a much better position to build on existing research and improve the way and the pace at which nature is being explored and understood. At the end of the day, knowledge is the stepping stone for the preservation of biodiversity and humankind itself.
The Biodiversity Knowledge Hub is no longer existing on paper only! We are opening the 2nd day of the #BiCIKL_H2020 General Assembly looking at the prototype of the BKH created by the @LifeWatchERIC team. It's so exciting to see projects taking shape! 🤩 #Plovdivpic.twitter.com/RidzwBpxZx
“Needless to say, it’s an honour and a pleasure to be the coordinator of such an amazing team spanning as many as 14 partnering natural history and biodiversity research institutions from across Europe, but also involving many global long-year collaborators and their infrastructures, such as Wikidata, GBIF, TDWG, Catalogue of Life to name a few,”
said BiCIKL’s project coordinator Prof. Lyubomir Penev, CEO and founder of Pensoft.
“I see our meeting in Plovdiv as a practical demonstration of our eagerness and commitment to tackle the long-standing and technically complex challenge of breaking down the silos in the biodiversity data domain. It is time to start building freeways between all biodiversity data, across (digital) space, time and data types. After the last three days that we spent together in inspirational and productive discussions, I am as confident as ever that we are close to providing scientists with much more straightforward routes to not only generate more biodiversity data, but also build on the already existing knowledge to form new hypotheses and information ready to use by decision- and policy-makers. One cannot stress enough how important the role of biodiversity data is in preserving life on Earth. These data are indeed the groundwork for all that we know about the natural world”
Prof. Lyubomir Penev added.
Christos Arvanitidis (CEO of LifeWatch ERIC) at the 2nd General Assembly of the BiCIKL project.
“The point is: do we want an integrated structure or do we prefer federated structures? What are the pros and cons of the two options? It’s essential to keep the community united and allied because we can’t afford any information loss and the stakeholders should feel at home with the Project and the Biodiversity Knowledge Hub.”
Joe Miller, Executive Secretary and Director at GBIF, commented:
“We are a brand new community, and we are in the middle of the growth process. We would like to already have answers, but it’s good to have this kind of robust discussion to build on a good basis. We must find the best solution to have linkages between infrastructures and be able to maintain them in the future because the Biodiversity Knowledge Hub is the location to gather the community around best practices, data and guidelines on how to use the BiCIKL services… In order to engage even more partners to fill the eventual gaps in our knowledge.”
Joana Pauperio (biodiversity curator at EMBL-EBI) atthe 2nd General Assembly of the BiCIKL project.
“BiCIKL is leading data infrastructure communities through some exciting and important developments”
said Dr Guy Cochrane, Team Leader for Data Coordination and Archiving and Head of the European Nucleotide Archive at EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI).
“In an era of biodiversity change and loss, leveraging scientific data fully will allow the world to catalogue what we have now, to track and understand how things are changing and to build the tools that we will use to conserve or remediate. The challenge is that the data come from many streams – molecular biology, taxonomy, natural history collections, biodiversity observation – that need to be connected and intersected to allow scientists and others to ask real questions about the data. In its first year, BiCIKL has made some key advances to rise to this challenge,”
“As a partner, we, at the Biodiversity Information Standards – TDWG, are very enthusiastic that our standards are implemented in BiCIKL and serve to link biodiversity data. We know that joining forces and working together is crucial to building efficient infrastructures and sharing knowledge.”
The project will go on with the first Round Table of experts in December and the publications of the projects who participated in the Open Call and will be founded at the beginning of the next year.
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Learn more about BiCIKL on the project’s website at: bicikl-project.eu
With more than 7000 individuals populating the Carpathian Mountains and neighboring areas, Romania has the highest density of brown bears in Europe. As they often inhabit human-dominated landscapes, conflicts with people are not uncommon.
“The media play an influential role in how the public perceives brown bears, thus, it can promote human-wildlife coexistence or exacerbate future conflicts”, they say.
Brown bear waiting on the roadside for food scraps (National Road 2D, Vrancea, Romania). Photo by Dr Silviu Chiriac (EPA Vrancea)
The study found that news stories related to brown bears became common in Romanian media only after 2016, following the instatement of a provisional one-year ban on culling, and increased abruptly in 2021 following the whistleblowing of an alleged trophy hunting event.
The majority of reports were about human-bear interaction, hunting, and poaching, offering little context and information on how to avoid conflicts. Articles on the ecology and biology of brown bears were rare, which indicates less consideration of the ecological significance and the impact of human activities on their conservation status.
Focusing on alarming messages without offering evidence or advice can increase fear and undermine efforts to protect the species and the welfare of society.
The attitude towards brown bears, perceived from the studied articles was predominantly negative (53%; 380 articles). In these articles, the authors used phrases such as: “At any moment the people can find themselves in front of a hungry bear;” “Beyond the horror they live with every day, they have lost their patience and trust in the authorities;” and “People are afraid of the worst.”
Even when reporting sightings of bears near populated areas and encounters with no casualties, Romanian media promoted a negative image of bears to their readership. “Focusing on alarming messages without offering evidence or advice can increase fear and undermine efforts to protect the species and the welfare of society,” the researchers said.
Importantly, the team found that media did not consult wildlife and conservation biologists when reporting on human-bear interactions or bear hunting and poaching events. “This can be because the experts are reluctant to be part of the debate, or because the media may not be interested in bringing more scientific context to their reports,” they reason.
Rescuing a bear trapped in wire-snare in an orchard (Vrancea, Romania). Photo by Dr Silviu Chiriac (EPA Vrancea)
“In conclusion, increasing the frequency of reporting interaction events with alarming messages can only lower the level of tolerance for wildlife and negatively influence political decisions regarding the management of the brown bear population.”
The researchers call for publishing detailed and evidence-informed news as a means to educate people to avoid conflict and facilitate the implementation of effective wildlife conservation and management strategies.
“Evidence-informed news can help authorities better understand conflicts and create bottom-up pathways toward an optimistic future for brown bears and Romanian society”, they conclude.
Research article:
Neagu AC, Manolache S, Rozylowicz L (2022) The drums of war are beating louder: Media coverage of brown bears in Romania. Nature Conservation 50: 65-84. https://doi.org/10.3897/natureconservation.50.86019
By the time authors – who have acknowledged third-party financial support in their research papers submitted to a journal using the Pensoft-developed publishing platform: ARPHA – open their inboxes to the congratulatory message that their work has just been published and made available to the wide world, a similar notification will have also reached their research funder.
This automated workflow is already in effect at all journals (co-)published by Pensoft and those published under their own imprint on the ARPHA Platform, as a result of the new partnership with the OA Switchboard: a community-driven initiative with the mission to serve as a central information exchange hub between stakeholders about open access publications, while making things simpler for everyone involved.
All the submitting author needs to do to ensure that their research funder receives a notification about the publication is to select the supporting agency or the scientific project (e.g. a project supported by Horizon Europe) in the manuscript submission form, using a handy drop-down menu. In either case, the message will be sent to the funding body as soon as the paper is published in the respective journal.
“At Pensoft, we are delighted to announce our integration with the OA Switchboard, as this workflow is yet another excellent practice in scholarly publishing that supports transparency in research. Needless to say, funding and financing are cornerstones in scientific work and scholarship, so it is equally important to ensure funding bodies are provided with full, prompt and convenient reports about their own input.”
comments Prof Lyubomir Penev, CEO and founder of Pensoft and ARPHA.
“Research funders are one of the three key stakeholder groups in OA Switchboard and are represented in our founding partners. They seek support in demonstrating the extent and impact of their research funding and delivering on their commitment to OA. It is great to see Pensoft has started their integration with OA Switchboard with a focus on this specific group, fulfilling an important need,”
adds Yvonne Campfens, Executive Director of the OA Switchboard.
***
About the OA Switchboard:
A global not-for-profit and independent intermediary established in 2020, the OA Switchboard provides a central hub for research funders, institutions and publishers to exchange OA-related publication-level information. Connecting parties and systems, and streamlining communication and the neutral exchange of metadata, the OA Switchboard provides direct, indirect and community benefits: simplicity and transparency, collaboration and interoperability, and efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
About Pensoft:
Pensoft is an independent academic publishing company, well known worldwide for its novel cutting-edge publishing tools, workflows and methods for text and data publishing of journals, books and conference materials.
All journals (co-)published by Pensoft are hosted on Pensoft’s full-featured ARPHA Publishing Platform and published in a way that ensures their content is as FAIR as possible, meaning that it is effortlessly readable, discoverable, harvestable, citable and reusable by both humans and machines.
