Examination of the ‘founder effect’ in biodiversity research: patterns and imbalances in the published literature

We reviewed 2524 articles published from i.e. the ‘founder effect’ is very much in evidence. The ‘sleeping dragon’ of ignored marine biodiversity is 1987 to 1995 in five international journals, Conservation really symptomatic of a wider problem, and can Biology, Biological Conservation, Biodiversity and perhaps be referred to as a ‘hibernating hydra’ of many Conservation, Ecological Applications, and the Journal imbalances due to, for example, under-representations of Applied Ecology, to assess patterns and imbalances of research from developing nations, or on amphibians in biodiversity research in the following subject areas: and invertebrates, alpine and arctic systems, locations where research was conducted, types of sociological components and chemical stresses etc. It organisms studied, types of ecosystems studied, types of is time to take steps to actively awaken the creature so methodologies used, and types of stresses investigated. that conservation biology/applied ecology can become Biodiversity research was found to be narrowly focused more pluralistic in scope. with little deviation from its initial course set of being a discipline concerned largely with the implications of