Taxonomy as an eScience

Clark, Benjamin R.; Godfray, H. Charles J.; Kitching, Ian J.; Mayo, Simon Joseph; Scoble, Malcolm J.

doi:10.1098/rsta.2008.0190

Cited by 37 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Taxonomic products will incorporate real-time accrual of changes and improvements, including new species as they are discovered and described'' ( [77] p. 51). Although we do not promote the notion that taxonomy will or should one day be automated, automating species identification has gained momentum [78][79][80][81] in large measure from the barcoding endeavor. As barcode data are sure to be used in formal taxonomy with growing frequency, standards for doing so are desirable.…”

Section: Dna Barcode Information In Taxonomic Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Integrating DNA barcode data and taxonomic practice: Determination, discovery, and description

2010

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DNA barcodes, like traditional sources of taxonomic information, are potentially powerful heuristics in the identification of described species but require mindful analytical interpretation. The role of DNA barcoding in generating hypotheses of new taxa in need of formal taxonomic treatment is discussed, and it is emphasized that the recursive process of character evaluation is both necessary and best served by understanding the empirical mechanics of the discovery process. These undertakings carry enormous ramifications not only for the translation of DNA sequence data into taxonomic information but also for our comprehension of the magnitude of species diversity and its disappearance. This paper examines the potential strengths and pitfalls of integrating DNA sequence data, specifically in the form of DNA barcodes as they are currently generated and analyzed, with taxonomic practice.

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Section: Dna Barcode Information In Taxonomic Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Integrating DNA barcode data and taxonomic practice: Determination, discovery, and description

2010

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“…The need to develop a new 'e-taxonomy' is now widely recognized (Mayo et al 2008), and a number of initiatives exist to develop online tools to speed taxonomic work (e.g. CATE, 28 EDIT, 29 Scratchpads, 30 and PBI sites 31 ), most based around the idea of a 'unitary taxonomy,' a web resource where taxonomic information is collated and served (Godfray 2002;Scoble 2004;Clark et al 2009). However, the problem remains of how to organize and describe the thousands of clades of tropical organisms that are not, and will not be, the focus of unitary taxonomy projects.…”

Section: From Inventory To Species Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biodiversity inventory and informatics in Southeast Asia

2010

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Rapidly changing land use in Southeast Asia threatens plant diversity, and reduces the time we have left to document it. Despite over 200 years of scientific plant exploration, many plant species have yet to be discovered. Moreover, we still have a very poor understanding of the distribution of known taxa in this biogeographically complex region. We review the current state of biodiversity exploration, using plants in Indonesia as an example. Traditional methods of collecting and describing species have provided a solid foundation for our understanding of plant biodiversity, but are insufficient for the pragmatic task of rapidly discovering and documenting today's biodiversity before it is gone, because general collecting expeditions tend to be infrequent, and documentation of most new species must await taxonomic revisions many years in the future. Solutions to this exploration and documentation crisis (i) could use the abundant resource of enthusiastic, networked, national biology students, (ii) should employ biodiversity informatics tools to efficiently engage both specialists and parataxonomists, and (iii) might require adoption of new types of a-taxonomy, utilizing increasingly low-cost molecular methods and high resolution photographs. We describe emerging technologies that will facilitate this Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (

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“…There is also much interest in how taxonomy itself, the field invented by Linnaeus to solve an eighteenth-century bioinformatics crisis, might move to the Web. Clark et al (2009) in this issue describe a pilot project that explored how the taxonomy of two representative groups of plants and animals might be moved completely to the Web. More importantly, the project considered how taxonomy itself might be conducted on the Web, so that the site would evolve and reflect current taxonomic thinking.…”

Section: Environmental Bioinformaticsmentioning

confidence: 99%