Taxonomy based on science is necessary for global conservation

Thomson, Scott; Pyle, Richard L.; Ahyong, Shane T.; Alonso-Zarazaga, Miguel A.; Ammirati, Joe; Araya, Juan Francisco; Ascher, John S.; Audisio, Tracy Lynn; Azevedo‐Santos, Valter M.; Bailly, Nicolas; Baker, William J.; Balke, Michael; Barclay, Maxwell V. L.; Barrett, Russell L.; Benine, Ricardo C.; Bickerstaff, James R. M.; Bouchard, Patrice; Bour, Roger; Bourgoin, Thierry; Boyko, Christopher B.; Breure, Abraham S.H.; Brothers, Denis J.; Byng, James W.; Campbell, David; Ceríaco, Luis M. P.; Cernák, István; Cerretti, Pierfilippo; Chang, Chih-Han; Cho, Soowon; Copus, Joshua M.; Costello, Mark J.; Cseh, András; Csuzdi, Csaba; Culham, Alastair; D’Elı́a, Guillermo; d’Acoz, Cédric d’Udekem; Daneliya, Mikhail E.; Dekker, R.W.R.J.; Dickinson, E.C.; Dickinson, Timothy A.; Dijk, Peter Paul van; Dijkstra, Klaas‐Douwe B.; Dima, Bálint; Dmitriev, Dmitry A.; Duistermaat, Leni; Dumbacher, John P.; Eiserhardt, Wolf L.; Ekrem, Torbjørn; Evenhuis, Neal L.; Faille, Arnaud; Fernández-Triana, José; Fiesler, Emile; Fishbein, Mark; Fordham, Barry G.; Freitas, André Victor Lucci; Friol, Natália Rizzo; Fritz, Uwe; Frøslev, Tobias Guldberg; Funk, Vicki A.; Gaimari, Stephen D.; Garbino, Guilherme Siniciato Terra; Garraffoni, André Rinaldo Senna; Geml, József; Gill, Anthony C.; Gray, Alan; Grazziotin, Felipe G.; Greenslade, Penelope; Gutiérrez, Eliécer E.; Harvey, Mark S.; Hazevoet, C.J.; He, Kai; He, Xiaolan; Helfer, Stephan; Helgen, Kristofer M.; Heteren, Anneke H. van; Garcia, Francisco Hita; Holstein, Norbert; Horváth, Margit Kollaricsné; Hovenkamp, P.; Hwang, Wei Song; Hyvönen, Jaakko; Islam, Melissa B.; Iverson, John B.; Ivie, Michael A.; Jaafar, Zeehan; Jackson, Morgan D.; Jayat, J. Pablo; Johnson, Norman F.; Kaiser, Hinrich; Klitgård, Bente B.; Knapp, Dániel G.; Kojima, Jun‐ichi; Kõljalg, Urmas; Kontschán, Jenő; Krell, Frank‐Thorsten; Krisai‐Greilhuber, Irmgard; Kullander, S.; Latella, Leonardo; Lattke, John E.; Lencioni, Valeria; Lewis, Gwilym P.; Lhano, Marcos Gonçalves; Lujan, Nathan K.; Luksenburg, Jolanda A.; Mariaux, Jean; Marinho‐Filho, Jader; Marshall, Christopher J.; Maté, Jason F.; McDonough, Molly M.; Michel, Ellinor; Miranda, Vitor F. O.; Mitroiu, Mircea-Dan; Molinari, Jesús; Monks, Scott; Moore, Abigail J.; Moratelli, Ricardo; Murányi, Dávid; Nakano, Takafumi; Nikolaeva, Svetlana; Noyes, John S.; Ohl, Michael; Oleas, Nora H.; Orrell, Thomas; Páll‐Gergely, Barna; Pape, Thomas; Papp, Viktor; Parenti, Lynne R.; Patterson, David J.; Pavlinov, Igor Ya.; Pine, Ronald H.; Poczai, Péter; Prado, Jefferson; Prathapan, K. D.; Rabeler, Richard K.; Randall, John E.; Rheindt, Frank E.; Rhodin, Anders G. J.; Rodrı́guez, Sara; Rogers, D. Christopher; Roque, Fabio de O.; Rowe, Kevin C.; Ruedas, Luis A.; Salazar‐Bravo, Jorge; Salvador, Rodrigo B.; Sangster, George; Sarmiento, Carlos E.; Schigel, Dmitry; Schmidt, Stefan; Schueler, Frederick W.; Segers, Hendrik; Snow, Neil; Souza-Dias, Pedro G. B.; Stals, Riaan; Stenroos, Soili; Stone, Robert Douglas; Sturm, Charles F.; Štys, Pavel; Teta, Pablo; Thomas, Daniel C.; Timm, Robert M.; Tindall, Brian J.; Todd, Jonathan A.; Triebel, Dagmar; Valdecasas, Antonio G.; Vizzini, Alfredo; Vorontsova, Maria S.; Vos, Jurriaan M. de; Wagner, Philipp; Watling, Les; Weakley, Alan S.; Welter-Schultes, Francisco; Whitmore, Daniel; Wilding, Nicholas; Will, Kipling; Williams, Jason D.; Wilson, Karen L.; Winston, Judith E.; Wüster, Wolfgang; Yanega, Douglas; Yeates, David K.; Zaher, Hussam; Zhang, Guanyang; Zhang, Zhiqiang; Zhou, Hong-Zhang

doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.2005075

Cited by 181 publications

(138 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Again, we do not aim to imply that such changes should not be made; science should not have an agenda. Although some researchers have argued for greater oversight over taxonomic changes, others have emphasized the dangers such oversight could have on scientific progress . Our aim is to simply point out that such splits have consequences beyond those related to academic research.…”

Section: Taxonomic Changes and Enforcing Current Regulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There are a number of reasons why this might be the case. Species names are tied to the type specimen(s), and thus the full range of variation within a described species may be unknown. For morphological analyses, there may be no (or low quality) illustrations of species‐diagnostic differences.…”

Section: Wildlife Forensics and Species Identificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Clearly, the relationships among changing taxonomy, legislation, and law enforcement are complex. In recognition, some have argued for refinements to legislation that accommodate changing taxonomy . It is also helpful if legislative decisions consider the unique impacts taxonomic changes can have on wildlife forensic identification (e.g., whether species‐level identification is feasible).…”

Section: Taxonomic Changes and Potential Need For New Regulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The species dilemma and its potential impact on enforcing wildlife trade laws

Jacobs

Baker

2018

Evolutionary Anthropology

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The varied answers to the question “What is a species?” provoke more than lively debates in academic circles. They pose practical problems for law enforcement. Commercial wildlife trade threatens many primate species and is regulated through such laws and international agreements as the U.S. Endangered Species Act and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Enforcing legislation relies on the ability to identify when violations occur. Species‐defining characters may not be preserved in wildlife trade items. For example, pelage patterns and behavioral characters (e.g., vocalizations) are absent from skulls. Accordingly, identifying victims of illegal trade can be difficult, which hinders enforcement. Moreover, identifying new species and “splitting” of currently recognized species can result in enforcement lags and regulatory loopholes. Although such negative consequences should not hinder scientific advancement, we suggest that they be considered by primate taxonomists and provide recommendations to prevent unintended conservation consequences.

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Section: Taxonomic Changes and Enforcing Current Regulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Wildlife Forensics and Species Identificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Taxonomic Changes and Potential Need For New Regulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The species dilemma and its potential impact on enforcing wildlife trade laws

Jacobs

Baker

2018

Evolutionary Anthropology

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“…Thus, our work should not be interpreted as a general argument for the systematic rejection of name changes; indeed, we fully understand the importance of both phylogenetic resolutions and of the resulting formalized nomenclature that may accompany such advances (Thomson et al. ). Given that scientific names are hypotheses, our hope is that by opening this debate we will encourage positive feedback that will strengthen taxonomic decisions.…”

mentioning

confidence: 97%

Supporting Spartina: Interdisciplinary perspective shows Spartina as a distinct solid genus

Bortolus

Adam

Adams

et al. 2019

Ecology

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In 2014, a DNA‐based phylogenetic study confirming the paraphyly of the grass subtribe Sporobolinae proposed the creation of a large monophyletic genus Sporobolus, including (among others) species previously included in the genera Spartina, Calamovilfa, and Sporobolus. Spartina species have contributed substantially (and continue contributing) to our knowledge in multiple disciplines, including ecology, evolutionary biology, molecular biology, biogeography, experimental ecology, biological invasions, environmental management, restoration ecology, history, economics, and sociology. There is no rationale so compelling to subsume the name Spartina as a subgenus that could rival the striking, global iconic history and use of the name Spartina for over 200 yr. We do not agree with the subjective arguments underlying the proposal to change Spartina to Sporobolus. We understand the importance of both the objective phylogenetic insights and of the subjective formalized nomenclature and hope that by opening this debate we will encourage positive feedback that will strengthen taxonomic decisions with an interdisciplinary perspective. We consider that the strongly distinct, monophyletic clade Spartina should simply and efficiently be treated as the genus Spartina.

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“…If anything, this is hard to evaluate without a detailed plan of how the proposal is to be developed in practice. As Raposo et al (2017) and Thomson et al (2018) point out, there are other viable solutions, such as using alternative management units for conservation purposes or adapting conservation legislation, that seem to avoid some of the severe practical problems of GC's proposal (e.g. adding another layer of bureaucracy, diverting funding from already under-funded taxonomic research, etc.).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Values, regulation, and species delimitation

Conix

2018

Zootaxa

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Garnett and Christidis (2017) [hereafter GC] recently proposed that the International Union of the Biological Sciences should centrally regulate the taxonomy of complex organisms. Their proposal was met with much criticism (e.g. Hołyński 2017; Thomson et al., 2018), and perhaps most extensively from Raposo et al. (2017) in this journal. The main target of this criticism was GC’s call to, first, “restrict the freedom of taxonomic action”, and, second, to let social, political and conservation values weigh in on species classification. Some commentators even went as far as to draw a comparison with the infamous Lysenko-case of state-controlled and heavily restricted science (Raposo et al. 2017, 181; Hołyński 2017, 12). This comment will argue, without thereby endorsing GC’s position, that these two aspects of their views need not be as threatening as this comparison suggests, and indeed are very reasonable.

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Taxonomy based on science is necessary for global conservation

Cited by 181 publications

References 19 publications

The species dilemma and its potential impact on enforcing wildlife trade laws

The species dilemma and its potential impact on enforcing wildlife trade laws

Supporting Spartina: Interdisciplinary perspective shows Spartina as a distinct solid genus

Values, regulation, and species delimitation

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