Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Habitat Fragmentation

Habitat Fragmentation

Habitat fragmentation describes the division of a more extensive, continuous habitat into smaller, discontinuous areas. Human activities such as land conversion, as well as slower geological processes leading to changes in the physical environment, are the two leading causes of habitat fragmentation. The fragmentation process typically follows the same steps: perforation, dissection, fragmentation, shrinkage, and attrition.

Conservation of Declining Populations

Conservation of Declining Populations

Conservation of declining population focuses on ways of detecting, diagnosing, and halting a population decline. The approach uses methods to prevent populations from going extinct.

Naturalistic Observations

Naturalistic Observations

If you want to understand how behavior occurs, one of the best ways to gain information is to simply observe the behavior in its natural context. However, people might change their behavior in unexpected ways if they know they are being observed. How do researchers obtain accurate information when people tend to hide their natural behavior? As an example, imagine that your professor asks everyone in your class to raise their hand if they always wash their hands after using the restroom. Chances...

Energy Budgets

Energy Budgets

Organisms must balance energy intake with the energy required for growth, maintenance and reproduction. These trade-offs result in a variety of survivorship and reproductive strategies, including semelparity and iteroparity. Semelparous species, like annual plants, have only one reproductive episode in their lifetimes and consequently have short lifespans. Iteroparous species, by contrast, have many reproductive events during their lifetimes but have relatively few offspring. These two...

Production Efficiency

Production Efficiency

Net production efficiency (NPE) is the efficiency at which organisms assimilate energy into biomass for the next trophic level. Due to low metabolic rates and less energy spent on thermoregulatory processes, the NPE of ectotherms (cold-blooded animals) is 10 times higher than endotherms (warm-blooded animals).

Conservation of Small Populations

Conservation of Small Populations

Small population sizes put a species at extreme risk of extinction due to a lack of variation, and a consequent decrease in adaptability. This weakens the chances of survival under pressures such as climate change, competition from other species, or new diseases. Large populations are more likely to survive pressures such as these, as such populations are more likely to harbor individuals that have genetic variants that are adaptive under new stresses. Small populations are much less...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Co-BreeD: A milestone resource for studies on cooperative breeding.

The Journal of animal ecology·2025

Same author

Preprint policies across journals and publishers in ecology and evolutionary biology.

Proceedings. Biological sciences·2025

Same author

From policy to practice: progress towards data- and code-sharing in ecology and evolution.

Proceedings. Biological sciences·2025

Same author

Supporting study registration to reduce research waste.

Nature ecology & evolution·2024

Same author

Implementing code review in the scientific workflow: Insights from ecology and evolutionary biology.

Journal of evolutionary biology·2023

Same author

The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the gender gap in research productivity within academia.

eLife·2023

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Sep 4, 2025

A Method for Quantifying Foliage-Dwelling Arthropods

A Method for Quantifying Foliage-Dwelling Arthropods

Published on: October 20, 2019

Quantifying research waste in ecology.

Marija Purgar^1,2, Tin Klanjscek¹, Antica Culina^3,4

¹Rudjer Boskovic Institute, Zagreb, Croatia.

Nature Ecology & Evolution

|July 21, 2022

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Ecological research is significantly wasted, with only 11-18% reaching full informative value. Addressing this waste is crucial for environmental science and sustainable development goals.

More Related Videos

Ecotoxicological Methodologies to Evaluate Biomarkers at Different Scales in Neotropical Anurans

Ecotoxicological Methodologies to Evaluate Biomarkers at Different Scales in Neotropical Anurans

Published on: April 28, 2023

Watershed Planning within a Quantitative Scenario Analysis Framework

Watershed Planning within a Quantitative Scenario Analysis Framework

Published on: July 24, 2016

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Sep 4, 2025

A Method for Quantifying Foliage-Dwelling Arthropods

A Method for Quantifying Foliage-Dwelling Arthropods

Published on: October 20, 2019

Ecotoxicological Methodologies to Evaluate Biomarkers at Different Scales in Neotropical Anurans

Ecotoxicological Methodologies to Evaluate Biomarkers at Different Scales in Neotropical Anurans

Published on: April 28, 2023

Watershed Planning within a Quantitative Scenario Analysis Framework

Watershed Planning within a Quantitative Scenario Analysis Framework

Published on: July 24, 2016

Area of Science:

Ecology
Environmental Science
Research Waste Analysis

Background:

Research inefficiencies lead to substantial waste, particularly noted in biomedical research.
While other fields may benefit, estimates of research waste are lacking outside of biomedicine.
Ecological issues are central to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, highlighting the need to address waste in this field.

Purpose of the Study:

To estimate components of research waste in ecological research.
To quantify the extent of inefficiency in ecological studies.
To advocate for prioritizing the reduction of waste in ecological research.

Main Methods:

Conducted a comprehensive literature review.
Performed a meta-analysis of existing ecological research.
Estimated key components contributing to research waste.

Main Results:

A significant portion of ecological research is identified as wasted.
Only 11-18% of conducted ecological research achieves its full informative potential.
This indicates a considerable and preventable loss of research value.

Conclusions:

Urgent action is required from all research system actors (institutions, policymakers, funders, publishers) to reduce waste.
Further research into ecological research waste is necessary.
Developing and implementing solutions to maximize the potential of ecological research is essential.