How to enhance Geobotany in the frame of the renewed Biological Sciences?
2016
Meireles, Catarina | Mendes, Paula | Vila-Viçosa, Carlos | Pinto-Gomes, Carlos
In recent decades the importance of structuring sciences such as botany or phytosociology faced a declining attention from the scientific community. This was accompanied by a growing interest in theoretical ecology. For such scenario greatly contributed an hypothetical exhaustion of research topics in these areas, but especially the introduction of new technologies that have provided powerful tools for data analysis. This allowed, for example, to make predictions about the impacts of climate change on species and plant communities and the consequent recognition of theoretical ecology, as one of the most prestigious pieces of current biological sciences. However, theoretical ecology has been facing serious knoledge gaps that greatly compromise their results, putting again the spotligth on structuring sciences. For example there are enourmous gaps in knowledge and data on dispersal, species and communities chorology and abundace, as well as in biological interactions. These data is essential, since they will determine ecological behavior of species. Its omission always limits the understanding and proper execution of the models generated by theoretical ecology. In this conference we will present a review on the gaps in knowledge and data in flora and vegetation fields in order to identify situations where geobotanical knowledge can make their major contribution. Furthermore, we will emphasize the need to reformulate objectives in geobotanical sciences in order to give it the deserved scientific recognition, considering the relationship between different scientific knowledges.
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