Assessing the spatial biases of one of the worlds richest snake faunas

• Grant number: 24/17665-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: January 15, 2025
• End date: July 14, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Thaís Barreto Guedes da Costa
• Grantee: Luiz Henrique Dias Braga
• Supervisor: Joaquin Hortal Munoz
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biologia (IB). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (MNCN), Spain
• Associated to the scholarship: 24/00126-9 - Quantifying the shortfalls in the knowledge of Brazilian snakes, BP.MS

Abstract

Identifying and highlighting gaps in knowledge is an important aspect in understanding macroecological processes and in to designing effective conservation strategies. One of the major impediments to assessing the conservation status of species and making conservation decisions is the lack of data regarding geographical distribution of species, scientifically known as Wallacean shortfall. Such deficiencies in knowledge about the geographical distribution of species can be explained by many aspects of biogeographical bias, such as the presence of biodiversity research institutions in the occurrence area of the species, altitude, proximity to urban centers, or even climatic drivers. Like other groups of species, snake samples are unevenly distributed throughout the geographical space. Brazil is home to a vast array of snake species and is among the most diverse countries in this regard, with approximately 435 snake species recognized so far to occur inside Brazilian limits. In addition, several species have been described for Brazil in the last years, and the country has emerged as a potential for discovering new species. Although the progress made in studies on the geographical distribution of Brazilian snakes in recent years has been remarkable, deficiencies in knowledge persist. In this sense, by assessing the completeness of the database in terms of the distribution of samples in space, environmental coverage and testing the underlying biases, this project aims to evaluate and quantify the gaps in knowledge about the geographical distribution (i.e., Wallacean shortfall) of Brazilian snakes, contributing to the strategic advancement of studies on this group of species.