Why is taxonomy an ongoing science

The decade-long Census of Marine Life, which ended in , estimates that the ocean holds more than one million marine species, excluding microbes. The Census found living creatures everywhere it looked, even where heat would melt lead, seawater froze to ice, and light and oxygen were lacking. Still, the discovery of new life on Earth does not seem to capture much of the public imagination. Life on another planet would be another story.

We can't answer [any of] that. As is the case in other sciences, some areas of taxonomy can seem almost absurdly irrelevant—until they are not. The nation's natural history collections, with their jars and drawers of specimens, are full of such examples. In another case, when bee colonies collapsed nationwide in , there was no field guide to identify the nation's bee species. So researchers used the drawers of bee specimens at the Smithsonian Institution, among other resources, to create online identification guides for the bees of North America.

Perhaps the most unusual example took place in , when FBI agents asked entomologists at the University of California, Davis, Bohart Museum to consult their seven-million-specimen collection to help solve a murder case. The scientists studied the insect carnage on a radiator and air filter from a rental car and determined that the carcasses were from California. But the insects' deaths, of course, were not the crime.

They helped prove that defendant Vincent Brothers had in fact driven from Ohio to California to kill five family members, although he had said that the car had not left Ohio. Correct species identification of museum collections is also critical for studying the effects of climate change.

Collections in North America yield a useful history of the continent's plants, animals, and fungi over the past years. Prather points to the example of the records of blooming dates for flowering plants at Harvard's Arnold Arboretum. That's an example of unintended consequences, and it ended up having tremendous scientific impact.

Still, even though the value of collections cannot always be known in advance, the rapid pace of climate change may dictate priorities, points out Richard Lane, director of science at London's Natural History Museum and author of a report on the status and future of taxonomy in Europe.

This is a good example of where taxonomists need to apply their efforts to fast-changing habitats. They need to do that now—because if we just have long debates, those habitats will have gone. That kind of prioritizing also points to the other main reason for the urgency behind the call for more taxonomic expertise: It is vital to many of society's most pressing needs. With limited resources, he explains, he would choose research on a white fly that is affecting crops over research on an obscure bark beetle that is not causing any known problems.

A fruit body, part of the sexual phase of the life cycle, of the stinkhorn fungus Phallus calongei , described as a new species from Pakistan in Photograph: Gabriel Moreno. Examples of such relevance abound. In just one example, a species of spider mite that has been increasingly infesting tomato crops in southern Africa over the past couple of decades was misidentified in the s as a longtime problem species.

A costly pest management plan was put together using natural local controls, but before it was implemented, taxonomists recognized that the pest was a newcomer from South America, and biologists developed a new strategy for using an imported predator mite.

Taxonomic expertise is needed for invasive species identification of all kinds, from choosing appropriate species for habitat restoration to identifying living vectors of disease, to selecting new sources of biofuel. As it was described in in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , Furcifer labordi is the shortest-lived four-legged vertebrate, with a four- to five-month lifespan. It is one of new species discovered on Madascar by Christopher J.

Photograph: Christopher J. Part of the bogeyman problem lies in how universities evaluate scientists, as was pointed out by Lucinda A. Mares has long observed the same problem. Taxonomy is often published in monographs, but monographs are not counted as citations. If you had a million-dollar grant for every taxonomist, they'd start moving like big shots on campuses.

For better or for worse, for some administrators, that's their main metric, especially in times of straitened finances. Leather sees a vicious cycle at work, in which the academics who sit on Britain's Research Council funding panels have vested interests in other areas of biology, so they tend not to fund taxonomy, and taxonomists do not make it onto the funding panels because they do not get grants.

At the same time, many recent and new large-scale research efforts are underway that depend on taxonomists. Many take advantage of new methods of DNA analysis, including metagenomics, and inventive ways to manage and share data using cybertechnology see box 1. Taxonomists often collaborate, managing and sharing data in innovative ways. Here is a partial list of large-scale projects. The Census of Marine Life ended its year effort in Among the many accomplishments of its scientists from 80 nations was the collection of an estimated new species, of which taxonomists have confirmed that are new.

The scientific literature to date has formally described , marine species www. The National Ecological Observatory Network, a planned, federally sponsored database on the impacts of climate change, land-use change, and invasive species on natural resources and biodiversity, is scheduled to fully launch in www. Taxonomy usually refers to the theory and practice of describing, naming and classifying living things. Such work is essential for the fundamental understanding of biodiversity and its conservation.

For example, refer to Goodreads and Todayinsci. Whether we realise it or not, we are all inherent taxonomists. We classify things around us much in the same way as taxonomists distinguish between species; by assigning similar objects into recognisable groups. In fact our lives are filled with the need to separate and classify the many different objects that surround us. It is the same with biodiversity. This is where the science of taxonomy plays an integral role.

Species are distinguished from each other in a number of ways. Although the definition of species has been the cause of significant historical debate , put simply, species are organisms usually recognized as morphologically distinct from other groups. Despite the on-going biodiversity crisis, the number of new species described per scientist has not increased in the past years.

This is having a huge impact on conservation science. Many species will become extinct before they are described and we remain continually unaware of the total numbers of species that comprise global biodiversity. Even for groups of organisms that have considerable utilitarian value, there remain uncertain frameworks for classification. For example, the rattans of Africa, in common with their Asian relatives, form an integral part of subsistence strategies for many rural populations as well as providing the basis of a thriving urban-based industry, employing many thousands of people.

However, the development of the rattan resource has, until recently, been hindered by a lack of basic knowledge of the exact species used, their ecological requirements and the socio-economic context of their utilisation.

A long-term study of the rattans of Africa has culminated in the publication of a taxonomic monograph of these climbing palms. Taxonomic work of this kind is not purely an academic exercise. His colleagues disagree. Strictly speaking, this is against the rules of the Code—the names are official, after all. As stated, many herpetologists refuse to use the name Spracklandus , a name they say is a product of vandalism.

Instead they use Afronaja, the name coined by scientists who first published data , which, taxonomists say, Hoser scooped. And for good reason. Parallel nomenclature could also make it more difficult to acquire an export permit for research, taxonomists say. These kind of detrimental consequences—for science and conservation—are why some scientists are calling for a more dramatic solution: revising the Code itself.

So effective, in fact, that Hoser submitted a request to the ICZN in , in which he asked the commission to publicly confirm the validity of the name Spracklandus— a name that is already valid by the rule of the Code. And if they do tip in favor of Hoser , herpetologists I spoke to said that they would have no choice but to abandon the Code altogether. The authors of the Nature editorial offer up a solution: move the code under a different purview.

The commission, they propose, would establish hardline rules for delineating new species and take charge in reviewing taxonomic papers for compliance.

This process, they say, would result in the first ever standardized global species lists. But, barring that, a revision of the Code is unlikely to happen anytime soon, Yanega told me. Taxonomic vandalism can have disastrous consequences for wildlife conservation—but it could also impact human health. Shown here, an African spitting cobra poised to strike. In , Hoser dubbed this species Oopholis adelynhoserae. According to other taxonomists, it is actually the New Guinea crocodile, Crocodylus novaeguineae.

Wikimedia Commons … Taxonomic vandalism usually isn't subtle. He was declined. Parallel nomenclature is exactly what the Code was intended to prevent.

A table of "amphibia" from Carl Linnaeus' Systema Naturae. Post a Comment.