The ICM-CSIC has participated in an international study calling to integrate behavioural variation across the tree of life into global conservation strategies.
Behavioural diversity—the variation in how organisms act and respond at individual, population, and ecosystem levels—represents one of the major blind spots in biodiversity research. From animal movements to complex responses in plants, fungi, and microbes, these behavioural traits shape ecological processes, serve as early warnings for human impacts, and act as a vital reservoir of adaptation to environmental change.
Highlighting this critical gap, a new perspective paper published in Trends in Ecology & Evolution by a large international team of scientists—including participation from the Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM-CSIC)—addresses gaps in knowledge of behavioural diversity, which represents variability of behavioural traits at any level in the biological hierarchy, including the individual level, the population level, and the ecosystem. The authors also call for standardized indicators, technological innovation, and interdisciplinary research to overcome this biodiversity knowledge shortfall and improve biodiversity conservation.
Overcoming observational barriers
Assessing human impacts on marine populations has long been challenged by the difficulty of measuring underwater animal behaviours. Quantifying behavioural diversity is critical to bridging this gap. Now, by combining new technologies such as camera networks and computer vision, we can overcome traditional observational limitations and quantify how human presence affects fish behaviour across time and space:
"In this study, the contribution of the ICM-CSIC focused on sharing current experience accumulating in the project HumanFear where behavioural diversity of fish is studied as a critical facet to estimate how underwater human presence affects ecosystems dynamics across time and space. The project is combining new technologies such as camera networks and computer vision to overcome traditional observational limitations"— said Valerio Sbragaglia, IP de HumanFear from the Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM-CSIC).
A key component across the tree of life
Behavioural diversity should be recognized as a fundamental element of biodiversity alongside species richness, functions, and genetics. In this sense, Ivan Jarić, a researcher from the University of Paris-Saclay, and lead author of the study, highlights that
“Although it was so far much less studied at the ecosystem level than other elements of biodiversity, behavioural diversity can have far-reaching consequences for populations, communities or ecosystems, even when behavioural changes occur within a single species.
Moreover, it can shape ecological and evolutionary processes, and is a reservoir of adaptations to environmental change, providing a first response and early warning for human impacts.
Given this scenario, the authors argue that the behavioural diversity knowledge gap needs to be recognized as a significant shortfall, and extended beyond animals to encompass the behaviour of plants, fungi, and microbes.
“Even though microbes and fungi comprise the largest part of biodiversity on Earth, their inclusion in biodiversity goals and conservation efforts lags behind other taxonomic groups,” states Purificación López-García from the University of Paris-Saclay.
“Their behavioural diversity remains especially poorly defined and studied across the tree of life, even though it is truly fascinating. Fungi and microbes display remarkable individual and collective behaviours that include environmental sensing, ability to distinguish genetic relatives and even elaborate predatory strategies.”, adds López-García.
New frontiers for conservation
Recent developments in technology offer new opportunities to study behavioural diversity across the tree of life. Some particularly promising technologies include networks of automatic recorders, drones, camera systems and biotelemetry, coupled with computer vision and other artificial intelligence technologies.
Overall, behavioural diversity needs to be urgently integrated in a fair and robust way into international biodiversity conservation and restoration strategies, and be directly linked to ecosystem functions, benefits to people, and socio-economic outcomes.
"Integrating behavioural diversity into conservation frameworks marks a shift in how we monitor and protect nature. By incorporating these dynamic traits into policy and marine spatial management, decision-makers might better anticipate ecosystem shifts, design more adaptive protected areas, and protect the full evolutionary potential of ecosystems in the face of climate change", conclude the authors.