Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-31T19:08:22.047Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

3 - The perils of addressing long-term challenges in a short-term world: making descriptive taxonomy predictive

from Section 1 - Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2011

By
R. M. Bateman
Edited by
Trevor R. Hodkinson ,
Michael B. Jones ,
Stephen Waldren  and
John A. N. Parnell
R. M. Bateman
Affiliation:
University of Birmingham, UK
Trevor R. Hodkinson
Affiliation:
Trinity College, Dublin
Michael B. Jones
Affiliation:
Trinity College, Dublin
Stephen Waldren
Affiliation:
Trinity College, Dublin
John A. N. Parnell
Affiliation:
Trinity College, Dublin
Get access

Summary

Abstract

Increased political interest in addressing environmental issues, notably climate change, conservation and landscape restoration, has the potential to strengthen the focus, integration and profile of systematic biology. In particular, it could rescue descriptive taxonomy from its current state of near-extirpation in the developed world. However, exploiting this opportunity will require greater consensus than the systematics community has previously achieved, together with the determination to resist exaggerating the value of existing systematic data and of technological advances such as DNA barcoding and web-based identification. Descriptive taxonomy erects hypotheses of species existence that must be tested using other categories of data if systematics is to become a genuinely predictive enterprise. Prediction followed by recommendations for adaptation and/or mitigation, each essential to address the consequences of climate change, are possible only with good knowledge of the species and ecosystems under scrutiny. Taxonomic data alone are of little value, but, equally, non-taxonomic data are rarely of value in the absence of a taxonomic framework. Instead of seeking shortcuts to, or even substitutes for, taxonomy in the hope of accelerating the rate of superficial species description (and redescription), the climate change challenge is best addressed by obligatorily increasing the rigour required in taxonomic descriptions. This especially requires: (1) escaping from traditional typology by prescribing minimum levels of both morphological and molecular data via obligatory online registration of species; (2) requiring taxonomists to state the species concept(s) employed in each study; (3) improving feedback to taxonomy from identifications performed by non-systematists; and (4) prioritising groups for taxonomic study according to the importance of the questions that the study group can address.

Type
Chapter
Information
Climate Change, Ecology and Systematics , pp. 67 - 96
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abzhanov, A., Protas, M., Grant, P. R., Grant, B. R. and Tabin, C. J. (2004). Bmp4 and morphological variation of beaks in Darwin's finches. Science, 305, 1462–1465.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Alley, R. B., Meese, D. A., Shuma, C. A. et al. (1993). Abrupt accumulation increase of the Younger Dryas termination in the GISP2 ice core. Nature, 262, 527–529.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Als, T. D., Vila, R., Kandul, P. et al. (2004). The evolution of alternative parasitic life histories in large blue butterflies. Nature, 432, 386–390.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Avise, J. C. (2000). Phylogeography: the History and Formation of Species. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Barnard, P. and Thuiller, W. (2008). Global change and biodiversity: future challenges. Biology Letters, 4, 553–555.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bateman, R. M. (2001). Evolution and classification of European orchids: insights from molecular and morphological characters. Journal Europäischer Orchideen, 33, 33–119.Google Scholar
Bateman, R. M. (2008). When diagnosis is easier than cure. Research Fortnight, 10, 16.Google Scholar
Bateman, R. M. (2009a). Field-based molecular identification within the next decade? Journal of the Hardy Orchid Society, 6, 31–34.
Bateman, R. M. (2009b). What's in a name?Journal of the Hardy Orchid Society, 6, 53–63 and 88–99.Google Scholar
Bateman, R. M., James, K. E., Rudall, P. J. and Cozzolino, S. (in press). Contrast in morphological versus molecular divergence between two closely related Eurasian species of Platanthera (Orchidaceae) suggests recent evolution with a strong allometric component. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society.
,BBC (2006). Research lab closures to go ahead. BBC News, 13 March 2006. news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/4801814.stm.
Blackmore, S., Watson, E., Bateman, R. M. et al. (1998). The Web of Life: A Strategy for Systematic Biology in the United Kingdom. London: UK Systematics Forum/Office of Science and Technology.Google Scholar
Blasej, R. G., Kumareson, P. and Mathies, R. A. (2006). Microfabricated bioprocessor for integrated nanoliter-scale Sanger DNA sequencing. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, 103, 7240–7245.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, A. and Webber, J. (2008). Red Band Needle Blight of Conifers in Britain. Research Note 0002, Forestry Commission.
Condit, R., Ashton, P., Balslev, H. et al. (2005). Tropical tree alpha-diversity: results from a worldwide network of large plots. Biologiske Skrifter Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, 55, 565–582.Google Scholar
Corbyn, Z. (2009). Elite v-cs fear ‘end of road’ for concentration of research. Times Higher Education (1 January), 4–5.Google Scholar
Cracraft, J., Donoghue, M., Dragoo, J., Hillis, D. and Yates, T., eds. (2002). Assembling the Tree of Life. National Science Foundation.
Crane, P. R., ed. (2003). Measuring Biodiversity for Conservation, Policy document 11/03. London: The Royal Society.
Devey, D. S., Bateman, R. M., Fay, M. F. and Hawkins, J. A. (2008). Friends or relatives? Phylogenetics and species delimitation in the controversial European orchid genusOphrys. Annals of Botany, 101, 385–402.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Duraiappah, A. K. and Naeem, S., eds. (2005). Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: Biodiversity Synthesis. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute.
Enghoff, H. and Seberg, O. (2006). A taxonomy of taxonomy and taxonomists. The Systematist, 27, 13–15.Google Scholar
Flann, C. (2006). Why taxonomy is fundamental to conserving the plants of this world: a review of E. Leadlay and S. Jury. Taxonomy and plant conservation. The Systematist, 27, 19–21.Google Scholar
Flowers, R. W. (2007). Taxonomy's unexamined impediment. The Systematist, 28, 3–7.Google Scholar
Frost, M. T., ed. (2007). The Marine Environmental Change Network – Strategy Meeting Report. London: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Frost, M. T., Jefferson, R. and Hawkins, S. J., eds. (2006). The Evaluation of Time Series: Their Scientific Value and Contribution to Policy Needs. Plymouth: Marine Biology Association.Google Scholar
Futuyma, D. J., ed. (1998). Evolution, Science, and Society: Evolutionary Biology and the National Research Agenda. American Society of Naturalists [etc.]. www.rci.rutgers.edu/~ecolevol/fulldoc.pdf.
Garwood, N. C. (1999). A new forest dynamics plot in Belize. Inside the Center of Forest Dynamics, Summer, 2.
Godfray, H. C. J. and Knapp, S., eds. (2004). Taxonomy for the Twenty-First Century. London: The Royal Society.PubMed
Grant, P. R. and Grant, B. R. (2002). Unpredictable evolution in a 30-year study of Darwin's finches. Science, 296, 707–711.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grant, P. R. and Grant, B. R. (2008). How and Why Species Multiply: The Radiation of Darwin's Finches. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Grant, P. R., Grant, B. R., Markert, J. A., Keller, L. F. and Petren, K. (2004). Convergent evolution of Darwin's finches caused by introgressive hybridization and selection. Evolution, 58, 1588–1599.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gutierrez, T. (in press). Field identification of vectors and pathogens of military significance. In Descriptive Taxonomy Serving Biodiversity, ed. Watson, M. F. and Lyal, C.. Systematics Association Special Volume 79. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
,House of Commons (2007). Are Biofuels Sustainable? House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee 1st Report of Session 2007–08, HC76–11. London: Stationery Office.Google Scholar
,House of Lords (2002). What on Earth? The Threat to the Science Underpinning Conservation, House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology Paper 118. London: Stationery Office.Google Scholar
,House of Lords (2008). Systematics and Taxonomy: Follow-up (S. Sutherland, chair). 5th report of Session 2007–08, House of Lords Science and Technology Committee, HL162. London: Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Humphries, C. J. (2003). Biennial meeting: a presidential review. The Systematist, 22, 10–14.Google Scholar
Huxley, J. (1940). The New Systematics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kobashi, T., Severinghaus, J. P. and Barnota, J. M. (2008). 4 ± 1.5 °C abrupt warming 11,270 years ago identified from trapped air in Greenland ice. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 268, 397–407.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loebl, I. and Leschen, R. A. B. (2005). Demography of coleopterists and their thoughts on DNA barcoding and the Phylocode, with commentary. Coleopterists Bulletin, 59, 284–292.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacLeod, N., ed. (2007). Automated Taxon Identification in Systematics: Theory, Approaches and Applications. Systematics Association Special Volume 74. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press/Taylor and Francis.CrossRef
May, R. M. (1999). The dimensions of life on earth. In Nature and Human Society: The Quest for a Sustainable World, ed. Raven, P. H. and Williams, T.. Washington DC: National Academy of Sciences, pp. 30–45.Google Scholar
Mayden, R. L. (1997). A hierarchy of species concepts: the denouement in the saga of the species problem. In Species: the Units of Biodiversity, ed. Claridge, M. F., Dawah, H. A. and Wilson, M. R.. London: Chapman and Hall, pp. 381–421.Google Scholar
Meier, R. (2008). DNA sequences in taxonomy: opportunities and challenges. In The New Taxonomy, ed. Q. D. Wheeler. Systematics Association Special Volume 76. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, pp. 95–127.Google Scholar
,Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) (2007). Next Generation Science for Planet Earth. Swindon: NERC.Google Scholar
Page, L. M., Bart, H. L., Beaman, R. et al. (2005). LINNE: Legacy Infrastructure Network for Natural Environments. Champaign, IL: Illinois Natural History Survey.Google Scholar
Plotkin, J. B., Potts, M. D., Yu, D. W. et al. (2000). Predicting species diversity in tropical forests. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, 97, 10850–10854.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Polaszek, A., Pyle, R. and Yanega, D. (2008). Animal names for all: ICZN, ZooBank and the New Taxonomy. In The New Taxonomy, ed. Wheeler, Q. D.. Systematics Association Special Volume 76. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, pp. 129–141.Google Scholar
Preston, C. D., Pearman, D. A. and Dines, T. D. (2002). New Atlas of the British and Irish Flora. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Quicke, D. L. (2004). The world of DNA barcoding and morphology. The Systematist, 23, 8–12.Google Scholar
Rieseberg, L. H., Wood, T. E. and Baack, E. J. (2006). The nature of plant species. Nature, 440, 524–527.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roach, J. (2005). Handheld DNA scanners to ID instantly? National Geographic News, 26 January.
Savolainen, V., Cowan, R. S., Vogler, A. P., Roderick, G. K. and Lane, R., eds. (2005). DNA Barcoding of Life. London: Royal Society.PubMed
Schram, F. R. (2004). The truly new systematics: megascience in the information age. Hydrobiologia, 519, 1–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scoble, M. J. (2008). Networks and their role in e-taxonomy. In The New Taxonomy, ed. Q. D. Wheeler. Systematics Association Special Volume 76. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, pp. 19–31.CrossRef
Seberg, O. (2004). The future of systematics: assembling the tree of life. The Systematist, 23, 2–8.Google Scholar
Silvertown, J., Poulton, P., Johnston, E. et al. (2006). The Park Grass experiment 1856–2006. Journal of Ecology, 94, 801–814.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stern, N. H. (2006). Stern Review of the Economics of Climate Change. London: HM Government.
,Systematics Agenda 2000 (1994). Systematics Agenda 2000: Charting the Biosphere. New York, NY: Society of Systematic Biologists, American Society of Plant Taxonomists, Willi Hennig Society and Association of Systematics Collections.Google Scholar
Wheeler, Q. D. (2003). Transforming taxonomy. The Systematist, 22, 3–5.Google Scholar
Wheeler, Q. D., ed. (2008a). The New Taxonomy. Systematics Association Special Volume 76. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.CrossRef
Wheeler, Q. D. (2008b). Taxonomic shock and awe. In The New Taxonomy, ed. Q. D. Wheeler. Systematics Association Special Volume 76. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, pp. 211–226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Worm, B., Barbier, E. B., Beaumont, N. et al. (2008). Impacts of biodiversity loss on ocean ecosystem services. Science, 314, 787–790.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×