Taxonomy must engage with new technologies and evolve to face future challenges

Orr, Michael C.; Ferrari, Rafael R.; Hughes, Alice C.; Chen, Jun; Ascher, John S.; Yan, Yue‐Hong; Williams, Paul H.; Zhou, Xin; Bai, Ming; Rudoy, Andrey; Feng, Zhang; Ma, Keping; Zhu, Chao‐Dong

doi:10.1038/s41559-020-01360-5

Cited by 33 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…A standardized, singular platform for data would be ideal (distributional, molecular, morphological, taxonomic, etc. ;Orr et al 2020Orr et al , 2021b, but it may be that the most we can hope for is a better interlinking of extant databases, which itself may already prove quite challenging. Such efforts could be explicitly linked to National Biodiversity and Action Plans (NBSAPs) that countries create within the framework of the Convention of Biological Diversity.…”

Section: Synthesismentioning

confidence: 99%

Sampling biases shape our view of the natural world

et al. 2021

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Spatial patterns of biodiversity are inextricably linked to their collection methods, yet no synthesis of bias patterns or their consequences exists. As such, views of organismal distribution and the ecosystems they make up may be incorrect, undermining countless ecological and evolutionary studies. Using 742 million records of 374 900 species, we explore the global patterns and impacts of biases related to taxonomy, accessibility, ecotype and data type across terrestrial and marine systems. Pervasive sampling and observation biases exist across animals, with only 6.74% of the globe sampled, and disproportionately poor tropical sampling. High elevations and deep seas are particularly unknown. Over 50% of records in most groups account for under 2% of species and citizen‐science only exacerbates biases. Additional data will be needed to overcome many of these biases, but we must increasingly value data publication to bridge this gap and better represent species' distributions from more distant and inaccessible areas, and provide the necessary basis for conservation and management.

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Section: Synthesismentioning

confidence: 99%

Sampling biases shape our view of the natural world

et al. 2021

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“…Cozzuol et al, 2013;Egan et al, 2017). This popularization of DNA barcoding has facilitated species identification by nonspecialists, something increasingly relevant in the context of declining taxonomic expertise (Ebach et al, 2011;Orr et al, 2021;Pearson et al, 2011), and has proved useful as a complement to morphology in species discrimination, particularly in groups with considerable cryptic morphological diversity (e.g. Smith et al, 2008;Xu et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Describing biodiversity in the genomics era: A new species of Nearctic Cynipidae gall wasp and its genome

Brandão-Dias

Zhang

Pirro

et al. 2022

Systematic Entomology

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Gall wasps (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae) specializing on live oaks in the genus Quercus (subsection Virentes) are a relatively diverse and well‐studied community with 14 species described to date, albeit with incomplete information on their biology, life history and genetic structure. Incorporating an integrative taxonomic approach, we combine morphology, phenology, behaviour, genetics and genomics to describe a new species, Neuroterus valhalla sp. nov. The alternating generations of this species induce galls on the catkins and stem nodes of Quercus virginiana and Quercus geminata in the southern United States. We describe both generations in the species' life cycle, and primarily use samples from a population in the centre of Houston, Texas, thus serving as an example of the undescribed biodiversity still present in well‐travelled urban centres. In parallel, we present a draft assembly of the N. valhalla genome providing a direct link between the type specimen and reference genome. The genome of N. valhalla is the smallest reported to date within the tribe Cynipini, providing an important comparative contrast to the otherwise large genome size of cynipids. While relatively small, the genome was found to be composed of >64% repetitive elements, including 43% unclassified repeats and 11% retrotransposons. A preliminary ab initio and homology‐based annotation revealed 32,005 genes, and a subsequent orthogroup analysis grouped 18,044 of these to 8186 orthogroups, with some evidence for high levels of gene duplications within Cynipidae. A mitochondrial barcode phylogeny linked each generation of the new species and a phylogenomic ultraconserved element (UCEs) phylogeny indicates that the new species groups with other Nearctic Neuroterus. However, both phylogenies present the genus Neuroterus in North America as polyphyletic.

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“…2018; Orr et al . 2020). The Australian bee taxonomists are working towards a barcode repository of reliably identified bee specimens (Hogendoorn et al .…”

Section: Neglecting Taxonomymentioning

confidence: 99%