Do Fabaceae species with physical dormancy occur mostly in the temperate ecosystems? A rebuttal to using global biodiversity information facility (GBIF) analysis

Abstract

Physical dormancy (PY) is a phenomenon wherein seed coats are impermeable to water. This feature prevents immediate germination in seeds, therefore considered as an adaptive trait in species of Mediterranean and tropical ecosystem, where rainy season is the most favorable time for germination. However, using dataset available for Fabaceae collected from global biodiversity information facility (GBIF), the largest family with PY, recent studies have provided evidence contrasting this assertion. This viewpoint has arisen owing to the fact that the data were gleaned by georeferencing the Fabaceae species distribution from GBIF, which is under-represented for the tropical vegetation. This is similar to other reports available in other plant and animal distribution models, where GBIF data is not an accurate representation of distribution. A closer inspection of the data available in literature suggests that using GBIF database alone to map the distribution of Fabaceae species represents the extreme end of biased data causing misperception and could mislead the scientific community, particularly ecologists, conservationists and/or policy makers.