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Article Dans Une Revue Science of the Total Environment Année : 2021

Non-English languages enrich scientific knowledge: The example of economic costs of biological invasions

1 ESE - Ecologie Systématique et Evolution
2 UMR CBGP - Centre de Biologie pour la Gestion des Populations
3 GUST - Gulf University for Science and Technology
4 FRC - Federal Research Center Krasnoyarsk Scientific Center
5 All-Russian Center for Plant Quarantine
6 SYSU - Sun Yat-sen University [Guangzhou]
7 CEG - Centro de Estudos Geográficos
8 UCAD - Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar [Sénégal]
9 INIBIOMA-CONICET - Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente [Bariloche]
10 UFZ - Helmholtz Zentrum für Umweltforschung = Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research
11 Department of Community Ecology
12 Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum [Frankfurt]
13 Faculty of Fisheries and Protection of Waters [University of South Bohemia]
14 CENAKVA - South Bohemian Research Center of Aquaculture and Biodiversity of Hydrocenoses [University of South Bohemia]
15 UFLA - Universidade Federal de Lavras = Federal University of Lavras
16 V.N. Sukachev Institute of Forest
17 SB RAS - Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences
18 Federal Research Center «Krasnoyarsk Science Center SB RAS»
19 SibFU - Siberian Federal University
20 WHOI - Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
21 SDU - University of Southern Denmark
22 HCMR - Hellenic Centre for Marine Research
23 IMBRIW - Institute of Marine Biological Resources and Inland Waters
24 Freie Universität Berlin
25 Institute of Biology, Free University of Berlin
26 IGB - Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries
27 BBIB - Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research
28 ECOBIO - Ecosystèmes, biodiversité, évolution [Rennes]
29 IUF - Institut Universitaire de France
30 MIVEGEC - Maladies infectieuses et vecteurs : écologie, génétique, évolution et contrôle
31 UCD - Université Chouaib Doukkali
32 Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry [Helsinki]
33 Department of Forest Sciences [Helsinki]
34 Aalto University
35 FFPRI - Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute
36 Guangdong Ocean University
37 College of Fisheries, Guangdong Ocean University, Zhanjiang, Guangdong Province, China
Christophe Diagne
  • Fonction : Auteur
  • PersonId : 1084631
César Capinha
Ahmed Taheri
Franck Courchamp

Résumé

Highlights • We compiled global economic cost data of invasive species from non-English sources. • A large number of costs was added for new invasive species and new countries. • As a result, global cost estimates of invasions increased by 16.6% (US$ 214 billion). • Multi-language collaborations are necessary to enrich scientific knowledge. • The use of non-English sources enhances data completeness and reduces knowledge gaps. Abstract We contend that the exclusive focus on the English language in scientific research might hinder effective communication between scientists and practitioners or policy makers whose mother tongue is non-English. This barrier in scientific knowledge and data transfer likely leads to significant knowledge gaps and may create biases when providing global patterns in many fields of science. To demonstrate this, we compiled data on the global economic costs of invasive alien species reported in 15 non-English languages. We compared it with equivalent data from English documents (i.e., the InvaCost database, the most up-to-date repository of invasion costs globally). The comparison of both databases (~7500 entries in total) revealed that non-English sources: (i) capture a greater amount of data than English sources alone (2500 vs. 2396 cost entries respectively); (ii) add 249 invasive species and 15 countries to those reported by English literature, and (iii) increase the global cost estimate of invasions by 16.6% (i.e., US$ 214 billion added to 1.288 trillion estimated from the English database). Additionally, 2712 cost entries — not directly comparable to the English database — were directly obtained from practitioners, revealing the value of communication between scientists and practitioners. Moreover, we demonstrated how gaps caused by overlooking non-English data resulted in significant biases in the distribution of costs across space, taxonomic groups, types of cost, and impacted sectors. Specifically, costs from Europe, at the local scale, and particularly pertaining to management, were largely under-represented in the English database. Thus, combining scientific data from English and non-English sources proves fundamental and enhances data completeness. Considering non-English sources helps alleviate biases in understanding invasion costs at a global scale. Finally, it also holds strong potential for improving management performance, coordination among experts (scientists and practitioners), and collaborative actions across countries. Note: non-English versions of the abstract and figures are provided in Appendix S5 in 12 languages.
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hal-03192043 , version 1 (19-04-2021)

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Paternité - Pas d'utilisation commerciale - Pas de modification

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Elena Angulo, Christophe Diagne, Liliana Ballesteros-Mejia, Tasnime Adamjy, Danish A. Ahmed, et al.. Non-English languages enrich scientific knowledge: The example of economic costs of biological invasions. Science of the Total Environment, 2021, 775, pp.144441. ⟨10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.144441⟩. ⟨hal-03192043⟩
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