ArticleNature communications2026
Estimating global bee species richness and taxonomic gaps.
Article in Nature communications, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- The Future of Native Bees in Australia Under Environmental and Anthropogenic Change.Ecology and evolution · 2026Review
- Global land-use change rivals climate change in driving projected diversity shifts of terrestrial vertebrates.iScience · 2026Article
- Computer Vision for Monitoring Wild Bees and Wasps: A Structured Literature Review.Ecology and evolution · 2026Review
- Biases and blind spots in the global research agenda on metallic pollution and bees.Die Naturwissenschaften · 2026Article
- A curated and integrated dataset for exploring global bee-plant interactions.Scientific data · 2026Article
- Estimating global bee species richness and taxonomic gaps.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Cleptoparasitic bees (Apoidea, Anthophila) in rural protected areas in Latium (Italy): a faunistic survey through an integrative taxonomic approach.Biodiversity data journal · 2026Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Robust species richness estimates are critical for meaningful conservation prioritisation, understanding ecosystem resilience, and studying evolutionary processes. Yet, they remain elusive even for some of the best-studied groups and regions. As keystone pollinators, bees are crucial for the maintenance of healthy ecosystems, yet rigorous estimates of their species richness are lacking. Here, we statistically estimate global, continental, and country lower bounds of bee species richness. Globally, we estimate 24,705-26,164 bee species, an 18-25% increase, representing at least 32-45 years of taxonomic research. We estimate particularly high undescribed biodiversity from Asia, Africa, and the Americas. We find that taxonomic gaps are correlated with gross domestic product per capita (GDPc), observed species richness, number of occurrence records, and completeness of occurrence databases. Our statistical R-package framework will progress our understanding of lesser-known groups, downstream consensus, and mobilise existing occurrence datasets to quantitatively estimate species richness on global scales.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.