Some Richness Gets Richer

I became very intrigued by the unevenness with which we study biological patterns. I know others have done this before, and my exploration is limited by available time - but it addressed some questions that let me move this idea forward in other ways. The outcome of this small analysis is that much of the information we have about invertebrate species is at least correlated with our perception that they are of economic or other 'importance' to human society. That may seem natural to drive our exploration, but may cause us to miss many transitions or interactions among species when the less well-studied species are important in ways we have not yet recognized.

我对当前生物模式研究存在的不均衡性产生了浓厚兴趣。已知此前已有学者开展过同类研究，且我的探索受限于可支配的研究时间，但本次工作仍解决了若干关键问题，使我得以从其他路径推进这一研究构想。本次小型分析的结果显示：我们所掌握的多数无脊椎动物（invertebrate）物种相关信息，至少与我们对其的认知存在关联——即这些物种对人类社会具有经济或其他层面的"重要性"。这种研究导向看似合乎情理，但当那些未被充分研究的物种以我们尚未认知的方式发挥重要作用时，该导向可能会导致我们错失物种间的诸多演化过渡与相互作用关系。