Science at Risk: The Urgent Need for Institutional Support of Long-Term Ecological and Evolutionary Research in an Era of Data Manipulation and Disinformation

Abstract Planet Earth and the biodiversity it supports are in crisis. The human impact on terrestrial, marine, and freshwater ecosystems and the hundreds of thousands of organisms that inhabit them is global. To what extent can we push ecosystems before they collapse? Will species adapt to these changes and at what rate? What are the consequences, for the environment and humankind? These are some of the most pressing issues to date. Clear answers can only be addressed through long-term research programs that are extremely complex in their deployment and by the analyses of the unique data they produce on species and ecosystem responses to change. However, too little institutional support and consideration have been given to long-term ecological and evolutionary research. We describe the action recently taken by the French National Center for Scientific Research to recognize and support long-term ecological and evolutionary research. We provide some salient examples of critical knowledge attainable only through long-term studies in ecology and evolution, before highlighting how global institutional schemes can not only support long-term research, but lead to informed conservation efforts and societal change. 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.