Taxonomy: no decline, but inertia

Tancoigne, Élise; Dubois, Alain

doi:10.1111/cla.12019

Cited by 61 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…On the other hand, according to Sangster & Luksenburg (2015), a new trend of increased time and effort employed by taxonomists to produce good quality, complete new descriptions implies in less frequent subsequent revisions of taxonomic concepts. Studies suggest that, while new taxa continue to be described at a steady rate, the number of taxonomists has actually increased (Pimm et al 2010;Jope et al 2011;Tancoigne & Dubois 2013) therefore the number of species described per taxonomist has decreased. Such studies conclude that the number of taxonomy researchers is not declining, proposing that the decline seen is in the productivity per taxonomist (Sangster & Luksenburg 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Update of the Brazilian floristic list of Algae and Cyanobacteria

Menezes¹,

Bicudo²,

Moura³

et al. 2015

Rodriguésia

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An updated synthesis of cyanobacteria and algae information is presented for Brazil aiming to refine the data gathered to date and evaluate the progress of the biodiversity knowledge about these organisms in the country since the publication of the Catálogo de Plantas e Fungos do Brasil. The results of 2015 showed an increase of 1,250 species (35.7%) when compared to 2010, reaching a total of 4,747 species. The most diverse classes in species number were the Bacillariophyceae, Conjugatophyceae, Florideophyceae, Cyanophyceae, Dinophyceae and Euglenophyceae. Bacillariophyceae and Cyanophyceae had the highest increase in species number in the five-year interval. The Southeast and South regions were the most diverse, however, the Northeast, with the states of Piauí and Sergipe, and the Central-west region, with Mato Grosso, Goiás and Distrito Federal, also stood out in the national algal biodiversity scenario. Despite the shortage of taxonomists and limited infrastructure, the results showed a significant improvement in the knowledge regarding the diversity of cyanobacteria and algae in the country during the study period, starting to even out regional geographical differences caused by subsampling. Key words: Biodiversity, phycology. ResumoApresenta-se uma síntese atualizada de informações sobre algas no Brasil objetivando refinar os dados reunidos até o presente, bem como avaliar os avanços sobre o conhecimento da diversidade de algas no país desde a publicação do Catálogo de Plantas e Fungos do Brasil. Os resultados de 2015 mostraram um acréscimo de 1.250 espécies (35.7%) a um total de 4.747 em relação a 2010. As classes mais diversas em número de espécies foram Bacillariophyceae, Conjugatophyceae, Florideophyceae, Cyanophyceae, Dinophyceae e Euglenophyceae. Bacillariophyceae e Cyanophyceae tiveram o maior acréscimo de espécies no intervalo de cinco anos. A região Sudeste e Sul foram as mais diversas, porém, as regiões Nordeste com os estados do Piauí e Sergipe e Centro-Oeste com os estados de Mato Grosso, Goiás e Distrito Federal destacaram--se no cenário da biodiversidade nacional. Apesar da escassez de taxonomistas e da infraestrutura limitada, os resultados obtidos evidenciaram um avanço significativo no conhecimento da diversidade de algas no país nesse período de cinco anos, iniciando uma mudança quanto as diferenças geográficas regionais. Palavras-chave: Biodiversidade, ficologia.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Update of the Brazilian floristic list of Algae and Cyanobacteria

Menezes¹,

Bicudo²,

Moura³

et al. 2015

Rodriguésia

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“…This is most commonly estimated from the Index of Organism Names, which encompasses the Zoological Record and tracks a wide range of literature for studies that name new species, subspecies, and higher taxa (27). Since the late 1970s, the process has been digitized, appears accurate, and has been used in several studies [e.g., (23,(28)(29)(30)]. However, Mora et al (3) dispute this data, and their analysis could only confirm the validity of 45% of the species described since 2000, and they alleged that a further 46% were synonyms 200,000 400,000 600,000 800,000 1,000,000…”

Section: Higher Taxonomic Groupmentioning

confidence: 99%

Response to Comments on “Can We Name Earth’s Species Before They Go Extinct?”

Costello

May

Stork

2013

Science

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Mora et al. disputed that most species will be discovered before they go extinct, but not our main recommendations to accelerate species' discoveries. We show that our conclusions would be unaltered by discoveries of more microscopic species and reinforce our estimates of species description and extinction rates, that taxonomic effort has never been greater, and that there are 2 to 8 million species on Earth.

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“…Building the network between names, biological knowledge and molecular data is from far the biggest challenge of present-day systematics and other sciences of diversity , much beyond the molecular technical tour de force (Grandcolas et al 2013 ). We must keep in mind that this challenge takes place in a diffi cult moment when discovery rates of species new to science do not decline (Tancoigne and Dubois 2013 ) but in a context of rising rates of extinction (Régnier et al 2015 ).…”

Section: In Phase With Modern Systematics and Ngs Methods: The Tree Fmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Future of Phylogenetic Systematics in Conservation Biology: Linking Biodiversity and Society

Pellens

Faith

Grandcolas

2016

Biodiversity Conservation and Phylogenetic Systematics

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Phylogenetic diversity has become invaluable for conservation biology in the last decades, refl ecting its link to option values and to evolutionary potential. We argue that its use will continue to grow rapidly in the next decades because of the transformation of systematics with new molecular techniques and especially metagenomics. In a near future, phylogenetic diversity typically will be the very fi rst result at hand, and the great challenge of biodiversity sciences will be to preserve its link with natural history and the remainder of biological knowledge through species vouchers and names. The phylogeny availability and the very wide sampling allowed will facilitate obtaining detailed biodiversity information at local scale and considering the transition across scales -a fundamental need well highlighted in international conservation guidelines, and historically so diffi cult to achieve. All this suggests that phylogenetic diversity might be at the center of more explicit identifi cation of conservation priorities and options. For concluding, we explore an emerging local-to-regional-to-global challenge: the possibility of defi ning "planetary boundaries" for biodiversity on the basis of phylogenetic diversity.

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Taxonomy: no decline, but inertia

Cited by 61 publications

References 10 publications

Update of the Brazilian floristic list of Algae and Cyanobacteria

Update of the Brazilian floristic list of Algae and Cyanobacteria

Response to Comments on “Can We Name Earth’s Species Before They Go Extinct?”

The Future of Phylogenetic Systematics in Conservation Biology: Linking Biodiversity and Society

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