Scientists sound alarm on erosion of long-term environmental data

A new Special Report published in the journal BioScience warns that long-term ecological and evolutionary research faces severe threats from lack of recurring funding and governmental/institutional support, to data manipulation and political interference, even as these studies become more crucial for addressing issues of broad societal importance, such as biodiversity loss and climate change.

Led by Vincent A. Viblanc of CNRS Écologie & Environnement in France, the report documents how "in early 2025, several leading environmental datasets maintained by national agencies in countries recently marked by electoral shifts were abruptly taken offline or replaced with curated versions that obscure or distort previously accessible information."

The authors argue that "now more than ever, as manipulated facts and societal distrust in science are increasingly guiding mis- and disinformed politics, governmental programs are urgently needed to support data collection, establish data-grounded facts, inform political spheres, and refuel trust with society at large."

The report highlights the CNRS SEE-Life program as a flagship model for institutional commitment to long-term science. Through sustained recurrent funding, SEE-Life support  79 long-term ecological studies across 28 French research centers and a network of over 100 international partners. Together more than 500 species across all major biomes are monitored, generating exceptional longitudinal datasets spanning 10 to 100 years, with unique longitudinal data ranging from 10 to 100 years of data. To date, the program has produced over 3000 publications and trained over 4900 scientists, including more than 800 PhD students and postdoctoral fellows, constituting one of the most comprehensive long term biodiversity data sets worldwide.

The authors emphasize the enormous economic stakes, noting that healthy ecosystems provide services "estimated at some US$125 trillion per year," while biological invasions alone cost "US$1.288 trillion in 2017 value over 1970–2017."

The authors warn that "when long-term data becomes a target, our ability to understand—and respond to—global environmental change is profoundly compromised."

The full report is available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biaf175