A CONCEPTUAL MAP OF CONSERVATION PALEOBIOLOGY: VISUALIZING A DISCIPLINE

Conservation paleobiology (CP) is rapidly developing in response to the urgent need for long-term data in conservation science in the face of climate change and biodiversity loss. However, CP has yet to rally together to formalize goals, or to established whether the goals of CP are consistent with, or independent of those of conservation science (expanding our understanding of the role of biodiversity in ecosystem health and functioning, and the conservation of biodiversity). Given that the Earth system is facing unprecedented environmental pressures and reduction in biodiversity, it is worth considering how CP can similarly aim to make the most difference.

Disciplinary boundaries frame the basic questions and central issues of research, providing the context for the evolution of prevailing theories or paradigm shifts. Here bibliographic maps were created using Web of Science publication records relating to research on CP to provide insight into the development and structure of CP. Research included scholars from a wide range of disciplines, with significant intellectual exchange between sub-disciplines. Authors working predominantly on conservation included both paleontologists and conservation scientists. While authors with more traditional paleontological contributions formed a distinct intellectual cluster, these predominantly contributed foundational science (e.g., advances in taphonomy and the fidelity of the fossil record) facilitating the expansion of research in CP. Overall, conservation research conducted by paleontologists did not form a distinct sub-discipline (i.e., conservation research within paleontology), but was substantively coherent and interrelated with environmental history and conservation archeobiology, within conservation science.

These findings indicate a strong unity and inter-relatedness of content despite intellectual sub-communities, suggesting that conservation science is one research field with at least three major research themes: (1) environmental history and conservation archaeobiology, (2) genetics and evolutionary biology, and (3) ecology. There is, therefore, likely a greater potential for CP to hook into pre-existing infrastructure and professional societies than is currently recognized.