---
name: tooluniverse-ecology-biodiversity
description: Ecology, biodiversity, and conservation biology research — species identification (GBIF, NCBI Taxonomy), invasive species impact, ecosystem dynamics, conservation status (IUCN), niche ecology. Use for biodiversity questions, species comparison, invasion biology, conservation prioritization, and ecology-related literature search.
disable-model-invocation: true
---
# Ecology & Biodiversity Research
## Reasoning Strategy
### 1. Species & Taxonomy Questions
When a question involves identifying or comparing species:
1. **LOOK UP DON'T GUESS** — Use `GBIF_search_species` to get taxonomy, `WoRMS_search_species` for marine organisms
2. If the question asks about invasive species impacts, consider: ecological niche overlap, reproductive rate, predator release, and ecosystem engineering effects
3. Use `PubMed_search_articles` or `EuropePMC_search_articles` to find studies on specific ecological impacts
### 2. Invasive Species Impact Assessment
**Reasoning framework** — when comparing invasive species impacts:
1. **Identify the ecosystem**: What habitat/biome is affected?
2. **Assess impact mechanisms**: Competition? Predation? Disease vector? Habitat modification? Hybridization?
3. **Scale of impact**: Local (single site) vs regional vs continental?
4. **Trophic position**: Invasives at higher trophic levels (predators) often cause more damage than lower (herbivores)
5. **Ecosystem engineering**: Species that modify habitats (beavers, earthworms, honeybees displacing native pollinators) cause outsized impacts
6. **Look up specifics** — don't rely on general knowledge. Search for "[species name] invasive impact [region]" in literature
### 3. Pollinator Ecology
**Reasoning framework** for pollination questions:
1. **Foraging behavior**: Distinguish investigation (approach/assessment) from actual feeding (proboscis insertion)
2. **Interaction types**: Mutualistic (pollination reward), parasitic (nectar robbing), commensal
3. **Observation methods**: Camera traps have resolution/FOV limitations — consider what's identifiable at given resolution
4. **Statistical considerations**: Observer agreement (inter-rater reliability), sampling effort, temporal patterns
5. **Ethogram interpretation**: Each behavior category has specific start/end criteria — follow them precisely
### 4. Population Dynamics
**Reasoning framework** for population ecology questions:
1. **Growth models**: Exponential (unlimited), logistic (K-limited), Allee effects (low-density problems)
2. **Extinction analysis**: Distinguish deterministic extinction (r < 0) from stochastic extinction (small population fluctuations)
3. **Survival analysis**: Time-to-event analysis needs appropriate statistical tests (log-rank, Cox regression, Kaplan-Meier)
4. **Microbial ecology**: For microbial stressor responses, use survival curve analysis with time-kill kinetics. To compare extinction points between populations, you need time-to-extinction data analyzed with survival statistics (not just endpoint comparisons)
### 5. Community Ecology & Food Webs
1. **Trophic cascades**: Removing top predators → mesopredator release → prey decline
2. **Keystone species**: Disproportionate impact relative to abundance
3. **Island biogeography**: Species-area relationship, distance-colonization tradeoff
4. **Competitive exclusion**: Two species cannot stably coexist on single limiting resource (Gause's principle)
### 6. Evolutionary Ecology
1. **Aposematism**: Warning coloration signals toxicity/unpalatability
2. **Mimicry**: Batesian (harmless mimics dangerous) vs Mullerian (dangerous mimics dangerous)
3. **Life history tradeoffs**: r-selected (many offspring, low investment) vs K-selected (few offspring, high investment)
4. **Birth-death models**: For phylogenetic questions, identifiability issues arise with time-varying rates. Strategies to resolve: constrain rate variation, add fossil data, use molecular data calibration, or restrict to specific functional forms
## Available Tools
| Tool | Use For |
|------|---------|
| `IUCN_get_conservation_status` | **Red List conservation status** (CR/EN/VU/NT/LC) by scientific name — the authoritative extinction-risk source (needs a free IUCN_API_KEY) |
| `GBIF_search_species` | Species taxonomy, occurrence data, distribution |
| `GBIF_search_occurrences` | Where has a species been observed? |
| `GBIF_get_taxon_parents` | Walk UP the GBIF Backbone tree — ranked ancestor lineage (kingdom→genus) for a taxonKey |
| `GBIF_get_taxon_children` | Walk DOWN the tree — direct child taxa (e.g. species in a genus) for a taxonKey |
| `GBIF_get_taxon_synonyms` | Alternative / historical scientific names for an accepted taxonKey |
| `GBIF_get_vernacular_names` | Common names (with language code) for a taxonKey; optional `language` filter |
| `GBIF_parse_name` | Parse messy/authored name strings into canonical name + genus/epithet/author/year |
| `iDigBio_search_records` | Search 130M+ digitized museum/herbarium specimen records (Darwin Core) by `genus`/`scientificname`/locality — use to complement GBIF with physical-specimen provenance |
| `iDigBio_get_record` | Full Darwin Core detail for one specimen by `uuid` (from `iDigBio_search_records`) |
| `WoRMS_search_species` | Marine species taxonomy |
| `ensembl_get_taxonomy` | Taxonomic classification |
| `NCBIDatasets_get_taxonomy` | NCBI taxonomy lookup |
| `PubMed_search_articles` | Literature on ecology topics |
| `EuropePMC_search_articles` | European literature including ecology |
## Navigating the GBIF taxonomic tree
Resolve a name to a GBIF `usageKey` once, then navigate the Backbone tree:
```python
key = tu.run_tool("GBIF_match_name", {"name": "Panthera leo"})["data"]["usageKey"] # 5219404
tu.run_tool("GBIF_get_taxon_parents", {"taxon_key": key}) # Animalia→...→Felidae→Panthera
tu.run_tool("GBIF_get_taxon_synonyms", {"taxon_key": key}) # Felis leo Linnaeus, 1758, ...
tu.run_tool("GBIF_get_vernacular_names", {"taxon_key": key, "language": "eng"}) # Lion, African Lion
# Walk down from a genus key (Panthera = 2435194) to its species:
tu.run_tool("GBIF_get_taxon_children", {"taxon_key": 2435194, "limit": 8})
# Normalize an authored name string without a key:
tu.run_tool("GBIF_parse_name", {"name": "Quercus robur L."}) # canonicalName 'Quercus robur'
```
All five tools hit the public GBIF API with no key. Get the starting `taxon_key`
from `GBIF_match_name` or `GBIF_search_species`.
## LOOK UP DON'T GUESS
Ecology questions often have counter-intuitive answers. For example:
- Honeybees (Apis mellifera) are invasive in the Americas and displace native pollinators — this surprises people who think of bees as "good"
- The most damaging invasive species are often not the most obvious ones
- Microbial extinction points require survival analysis, not simple t-tests
**Always search the literature** before answering ecology questions. Use `PubMed_search_articles` with specific terms like "[species] invasive impact [region]" or "[organism] [ecological process]".
## COMPUTE, DON'T DESCRIBE
When analysis requires computation (statistics, data processing, scoring, enrichment), write and run Python code via Bash. Don't describe what you would do — execute it and report actual results. Use ToolUniverse tools to retrieve data, then Python (pandas, scipy, statsmodels, matplotlib) to analyze it.