Conceptual and empirical advances in Neotropical biodiversity research
- Antonelli, Alexandre ORCID Department of Organismic Biology and Evolutionary Biology, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Ariza, María Laboratory Ecologie et Biologie des Interactions, Team “Ecologie, Evolution, Symbiose”, Université de Poitiers, Poitiers, France
- Albert, James Department of Biology, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA, USA
- Andermann, Tobias ORCID Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre, Gothenburg, Sweden
- Azevedo, Josué Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre, Gothenburg, Sweden
- Bacon, Christine ORCID Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre, Gothenburg, Sweden
- Faurby, Søren Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre, Gothenburg, Sweden
- Guedes, Thais ORCID Museum of Zoology, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
- Hoorn, Carina Universidad Regional Amazonica IKIAM, Napo, Ecuador
- Lohmann, Lúcia G. ORCID Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
- Matos-Maraví, Pável Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre, Gothenburg, Sweden
- Ritter, Camila D. ORCID Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre, Gothenburg, Sweden
- Sanmartín, Isabel ORCID Real Jardin Botanico, Madrid, Spain
- Silvestro, Daniele ORCID Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Tejedor, Marcelo Instituto Patagónico de Geología y Paleontología, Puerto Madryn, Guatemala
- ter Steege, Hans Systems Ecology, Free University, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Tuomisto, Hanna Department of Biology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
- Werneck, Fernanda P. ORCID Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Manaus, Brazil
- Zizka, Alexander ORCID Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre, Gothenburg, Sweden
- Edwards, Scott V. ORCID Gothenburg Centre for Advanced Studies in Science and Technology, Chalmers University of Technology and University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
- 2018-10-4
Published in:
- PeerJ. - PeerJ. - 2018, vol. 6, p. e5644
General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
General Neuroscience
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
General Medicine
English
The unparalleled biodiversity found in the American tropics (the Neotropics) has attracted the attention of naturalists for centuries. Despite major advances in recent years in our understanding of the origin and diversification of many Neotropical taxa and biotic regions, many questions remain to be answered. Additional biological and geological data are still needed, as well as methodological advances that are capable of bridging these research fields. In this review, aimed primarily at advanced students and early-career scientists, we introduce the concept of “trans-disciplinary biogeography,” which refers to the integration of data from multiple areas of research in biology (e.g., community ecology, phylogeography, systematics, historical biogeography) and Earth and the physical sciences (e.g., geology, climatology, palaeontology), as a means to reconstruct the giant puzzle of Neotropical biodiversity and evolution in space and time. We caution against extrapolating results derived from the study of one or a few taxa to convey general scenarios of Neotropical evolution and landscape formation. We urge more coordination and integration of data and ideas among disciplines, transcending their traditional boundaries, as a basis for advancing tomorrow’s ground-breaking research. Our review highlights the great opportunities for studying the Neotropical biota to understand the evolution of life.
- Language
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- English
- Open access status
- gold
- Identifiers
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- DOI 10.7717/peerj.5644
- ISSN 2167-8359
- Persistent URL
- https://sonar.ch/global/documents/46101
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