Nomenclatural type definitions are one of the most important concepts in biological nomenclature. Being physical objects that can be re-studied by other researchers, types permanently link taxonomy (an artificial agreement to classify biological diversity) with nomenclature (an artificial agreement to name biological diversity). Two proposals to amend the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN), allowing DNA sequences alone (of any region and extent) to serve as types of taxon names for voucherless fungi (mainly putative taxa from environmental DNA sequences), have been submitted to be voted on at the 11th International Mycological Congress (Puerto Rico, July 2018). We consider various genetic processes affecting the distribution of alleles among taxa and find that alleles may not consistently and uniquely represent the species within which they are contained. Should the proposals be accepted, the meaning of nomenclatural types would change in a fundamental way from physical objects as sources of data to the data themselves. Such changes are conducive to irreproducible science, the potential typification on artefactual data, and massive creation of names with low information content, ultimately causing nomenclatural instability and unnecessary work for future researchers that would stall future explorations of fungal diversity. We conclude that the acceptance of DNA sequences alone as types of names of taxa, under the terms used in the current proposals, is unnecessary and would not solve the problem of naming putative taxa known only from DNA sequences in a scientifically defensible way. As an alternative, we highlight the use of formulas for naming putative taxa (candidate taxa) that do not require any modification of the ICN.
Woodland ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungal species declined considerably in theNetherlands in the late 20th century, mainly due to raised levels of atmospheric nitrogen deposition. Environmental measures have been taken to reduce this deposition, but it remains unclear whether and to what extent ECM species have benefitted from these.2. We hypothesized that ECM species, especially those species that are known to be nitrophobic, that is, sensitive to nitrogen loading, have recovered to some extent from the reduction in nitrogen deposition after 1994. We further hypothesized that, due to legacy effects of deposition, recovery has been stronger in regions where deposition levels have previously been lower.3. To test these hypotheses, we analysed long-term opportunistic data, that is, observations collected without standardized field method. We applied data filtering and a modified List Length method to adjust for potential biases in these data. The removal of bias left us with two periods to examine ECM species trends: before and after (1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013) 5. We found that (1) most trends switched in direction from negative to positive after the reduction in nitrogen deposition began; (2) these trends were more pronounced for nitrophobic ECM species than for nitrotolerant ECM species; (3) trends for ECM species differed from those of the other functional groups; and (4) recovery was stronger in the region with a history of lower deposition.6. Policy implications. Our results suggest that woodland ectomycorrhizal species benefit substantially from environmental measures to reduce nitrogen deposition. Our study is one of few scientific studies to date documenting evidence of success of large-scale (nation-wide) environmental measures. We have demonstrated that opportunistic citizen science data can be used for the detection of species trends, but it is essential to examine and control for potential bias in the data.
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