<![CDATA[<B>Taxonomia zool�gica no Brasil</B>: <B>estado da arte, expectativas e sugest�es de a��es futuras</B>]]>

Abstract

Brazil is a megadiverse developing country and the knowledge on the current situation of Brazilian taxonomy is a necessary step to establish future policies to deal with biodiversity. Certainly, the most important issue for the understanding of biodiversity is the installing capacity of taxonomists. In fact, little is known concerning the number of taxonomists, scientific production, and the problems faced by taxonomists in each country. Once Brazilian biota is the richest of the world, it is undisputable that its knowledge is critical to understand world biodiversity patterns and to base conservation policies. We produced a technical report on Brazilian zoological taxonomy for the Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology, which provided a more objective view upon the Brazilian biodiversity challenge. Brazil accounts for 6.67% of the total species described (ca. 100,000 out of 1.5 million), but we expect a significantly higher number of species to be described. Brazil has 542 taxonomists: 415 with permanent positions, publishing in all fields of zoology. Their average age is 45-50 years old, with the majority still expecting to be active for more than 15-20 years. PhD Theses in taxonomy decreased during the 1990s, reflecting the worlds lack of interest in the area. The majority of taxonomists are concentrated in South East (51.7%) and South (21.6%) Brazil, and extensive regions, including biomes like Pantanal, Cerrado (Savannah), Caatinga and the Amazonian Rainforest, count with continuously fewer experts. Taxa with the larger number of taxonomists are "fishes" (53), Crustacea (39), Diptera (28), and Mollusca (27) although no taxon is considered to have enough experts. Several groups are in a more critical situation. Poorly known ecosystems and biomes are deep waters, continental shelf, northern coastline, semi-arid Caatinga, Amazon rainforest, though no region is considered adequately known. 7,320 species were described (1978)(1979)(1980)(1981)(1982)(1983)(1984)(1985)(1986)(1987)(1988)(1989)(1990)(1991)(1992)(1993)(1994)(1995) 430/year), a rhythm very slow for the present needs, especially because many wild habitats are disappearing. Brazilian researchers have important contributions to make for their taxonomical groups, intensively collaborating with foreign colleagues. However, basic taxonomic work is still to be done: only a few groups have catalogues or manuals, basic taxonomic revisions are restricted (especially lacking for marine groups), databasing is needed for many museum collections. Brazilian researchers published 1801 papers (from ISI-Web of Knowledge, January/2000-March/2005), but only three states (São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais) were responsible for 70% of these. The largest and most representative zoological collections are concentrated in a few cities (São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre, Curitiba, Belém, Manaus). There are 22 graduate programs of Zoology, 14 of them

Conhecimento e conservação dos peixes marinhos e estuarinos (Chondrichthyes e Teleostei) da costa norte do Brasil

“…Nesse sentido, a falta de sistematas trabalhando com organismos marinhos na costa norte é particularmente dramática (Couto et al 2003, Amaral & Jablonski 2005. Em levantamento recente sobre o panorama atual da sistemática no Brasil, foram identificados 542 pesquisadores que se autodenominam sistematas ou taxonomistas (Marques & Lamas 2006). Destes, apenas 10,5% atuam na região Norte, contra um número significativamente maior atuando na região Sudeste (51,7%).…”

“…Em termos do número de publicações em sistemática produzidas no Brasil, entre 2000 e 2005, a região Norte ocupa a última colocação, contribuindo com apenas 4,5% do total de publicações, contra 70,6% da região Sudeste. Marques & Lamas (2006) também ressaltaram que essa situação é mais extrema em relação ao conhecimento da fauna marinha, onde a amostragem é praticamente nula, sendo toda a fauna bentônica da região pouco conhecida (Kempf et al 1967, Kempf 1970, Aller & Aller 1986. O próprio Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi (MPEG), detentor da maior coleção zoológica da região Norte do Brasil, possui uma pequena amostragem da biodiversidade marinha e estuarina, refletindo a ausência histórica de pesquisadores vinculados à instituição, com foco no ambiente marinho.…”

Lepidoptera (Insecta) associated with soybean in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay

“…These deficiencies are evident in all countries, especially in South America, which has biological mega-diversity (e.g. MARQUES & LAMAS, 2006).…”

“…MARQUES & LAMAS, 2006). Anyway, the lack of taxonomists was directly related to the delay in the report of H. armigera in Brazil, which has affected high value crops such as cotton and soybean (CZEPAK et al, 2013;EMBRAPA 2013;SPECHT et al, 2013).…”

Estado do conhecimento dos macroturbelários (Platyhelminthes) do Brasil

“…Os dados mostram a relativa vitalidade da atividade taxonômica no Brasil no que diz respeito aos macroturbelá-rios, embora o número de especialistas seja ainda muito insuficiente para trabalhar a diversidade do grupo. A escassez de especialistas para determinar as espécies estende-se a muitos outros grupos de invertebrados, alguns mesmo sem especialistas, e até a alguns grupos de vertebrados (Marques & Lamas 2006, Migotto & Marques 2006, Lewinsohn 2006, Lewinsohn & Prado 2004, Amorim et al 2002. Esta também é a realidade para plantas não vasculares (Giulietti et al 2005) e bactérias (Lambais et al 2006).…”