Science at Risk: The Urgent Need for Institutional Support of Long-Term Ecological and Evolutionary Research in an Era of Data Manipulation and Disinformation

TL;DR

This paper emphasizes the critical need for institutional support of long-term ecological and evolutionary research to address global biodiversity crises, inform conservation, and counter misinformation in an era of data manipulation.

Contribution

It highlights recent actions by the French CNRS to support long-term research and advocates for global institutional schemes to enhance ecological understanding and societal trust.

Findings

Long-term ecological data is essential for understanding ecosystem responses.

Institutional support can significantly advance conservation efforts.

Supporting long-term research counters misinformation and informs policy.

Abstract

Planet Earth and the biodiversity it supports are in crisis. Human impact on terrestrial, marine and freshwater ecosystems and the hundreds of thousands of organisms that inhabit them is global. To what extent can we push ecosystems before they collapse? Will species adapt to these changes and at what rate? What are the consequences, for the environment and humankind? These are some of the most pressing issues to date. Clear answers can only be addressed through long-term research programs that are extremely complex in their deployment, and by the analyses of the unique data they produce on species and ecosystem responses to change. Yet, too little institutional support and consideration have been given to long-term ecological and evolutionary research. We describe the action recently taken by the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) to recognize and support long-term ecological and evolutionary research. We provide some salient examples of critical knowledge attainable only through long-term studies in ecology and evolution, before highlighting how global institutional schemes can not only support long-term research, but lead to informed conservation efforts and societal change. Now more than ever, as populism grows and fuels mis-and dis-informed politics, governmental programs are urgently needed to support data collection, establish data-grounded facts, inform political spheres, and refuel trust with society at large.