Shrinking biodiversity, dwindling taxonomy and building a broader science

Abstract

In proposing what might be the three leading questions in taxonomy, I have thought primarily about what might be the biggest barriers to taxonomists accurately describing the species on our planet and interpreting their phylogenetic relationships within a historical context. I have generally used the vernacular and examples of issues which I know as a dipterist (fly taxonomist). I apologize to my colleagues working on other groups but hope to be pardoned in the recognition that the problems identified below do appear to apply to our broader taxonomic community. 1. What are the impacts of the rapid rate of present day extinctions? 2. What is the future for taxonomists themselves? 3. What are some of the impacts of technology?

Systematics and evolution of predatory flower flies (Diptera: Syrphidae) based on exon‐capture sequencing

“…On top, Brower (2019, p. 350) reminded that ‘any measure of support or stability is only an estimate of how well a given data set supports a particular topology and not a measure of how likely to be true said topology might be’. To sum up, despite the criticism that phylogenetic relationships in Diptera based on molecular characters are volatile and inconsistent as they vary over the years as more data become available (Borkent, 2018, 2020), we constantly recover the same Syrphini relationships using data from HTS, Sanger sequencing or a combination of Sanger and morphological characters. Our results support the statement of Whitfield & Kjer (2008, p. 454) that ‘[f]or shallower phylogenetic depths, such as species within genera and recently diverged genera within families [at least within Syrphidae], data from as few as three to four genes spanning the mitochondrial and nuclear genomes … may suffice for good phylogenetic resolution and support’.…”

Megataxa for big science questions in taxonomy

“…• Megataxa 1 (1) © 2020 Magnolia Press classification (Christenhusz 2020). Other important issues discussed include developing and maintaining taxonomic databases (Boxshall 2020;Coleman & Radulovici 2020;Prathapan & Rajan 2020), pluralism in taxonomy (Minelli 2020), the impact of extinction (Borkent 2020), species concepts and delimiting/naming species (Christenhusz 2020;Longino 2020), and the negative effects of Nagoya Protocol and permits (Britz et al 2020;Lücking 2020;Prathapan & Rajan 2020).…”

Taxonomy as the key to life

“…To produce a key to life, funding is needed to support training, field and laboratory work, critical reviews of nomenclature, data analysis and publication (Hutchings 2020;Borkent 2020;Britz et al 2020). It needs to engage professionals, students and citizens and go beyond species identification and description to explore their natural history, ecology, biogeography, phylogenetics, physiology, and behaviour to more fully understand how life originates and is maintained.…”