Mapping collaborations in biodiversity and transformative change research

Takeaways

• Growing interest: There were 13,823 publications from 2013 to 2023, showing a steady increase over the years. An inflection of the curve in 2021 might need further explanation. The emphasis on transformative change within the research highlights the growing recognition that addressing biodiversity loss requires not just conservation efforts but a fundamental shift in economic, social, and political systems.
• Focus areas: Biodiversity and transformative change research is concentrated in certain disciplines, with agriculture, environment, and ecology making up 87.3% of the publications, followed by social sciences at 7.8%. This underscores the importance of interdisciplinary research. Research focuses vary by region, with forestry, marine biology, and entomology being key research areas in the ERA, while modelling species distributions (via MaxEnt), ecosystem services, and seed dispersal emerge as prominent micro-topics.
• Regional leaders: The ERA and North America lead in publications, with the USA, UK, Germany, and China as top contributors. The ERA excels in both the number of publications and highly cited articles, reflecting its strong scientific infrastructure.
• Strong collaborations: The ERA and North America have the most productive collaboration, followed by ERA with Asia. Regions like Africa and parts of Europe are underrepresented, indicating a need for more inclusive research efforts.

Overall, these takeaways highlight the extensive and collaborative nature of research in biodiversity and transformative change, emphasising the importance of global collaborations and diverse research focuses.

Biodiversa+ will use these results to inform call development by identifying key issues and active communities, support capacity building and international collaboration, and guide strategic decisions.