Lax science can have negative impacts on conservation: A rebuttal to Lau and Jacobs (2017)
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Biodiversity, Biogeography, Ecology, Evolutionary Studies, Marine Biology
- Keywords
- Gulf of California, Colorado River Delta, Conservation
- Copyright
- © 2018 Brusca
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2018. Lax science can have negative impacts on conservation: A rebuttal to Lau and Jacobs (2017) PeerJ Preprints 6:e26767v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.26767v1
Abstract
A recent paper by Lau and Jacobs (2017, PeerJ) negatively contributes to a critical conservation problem in the Gulf of California—better regulation of fisheries in the Upper Gulf of California. The paper’s broader conclusions are not supported by the data presented, and numerous assumptions and claims regarding previous work are misstated or incorrect, including claims of sister-group relationship between Colpichthys hubbsi and C. regis and an implied sister group relationship between Uca monilifera and Uca princeps, claims regarding Colorado River water flow to the Gulf of California, and claims of post-dam “significantly different adaptive regimes on taxa in the [Upper Gulf].”
Author Comment
A research paper that draws broad conclusions, far exceeding what the actual data can say, and risks being utilized in ways that can damage important conservation efforts. I offer a plea for rigor in research papers that can be easily misused.