Taxonomy based on science is necessary for global conservation

Thomson, Scott A.; Pyle, Richard L.; Ahyong, Shane T.; Alonso-Zarazaga, Miguel; 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, Andras; Csuzdi, Csaba; Culham, Alastair; D’Elía, Guillermo; d’Udekem d’Acoz, Cédric; Daneliya, Mikhail E.; Dekker, René; Dickinson, Edward C.; Dickinson, Timothy A.; van Dijk, Peter Paul; 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 L.; Fiesler, Emile; Fishbein, Mark; Fordham, Barry G.; Freitas, André V.L.; Friol, Natália R.; Fritz, Uwe; Frøslev, Tobias; Funk, Vicki A.; Gaimari, Stephen D.; Garbino, Guilherme S.T.; Garraffoni, André R.S.; Geml, József; Gill, Anthony C.; Gray, Alan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6785-0590; Grazziotin, Felipe G.; Greenslade, Penelope; Gutiérrez, Eliécer E.; Harvey, Mark S.; Hazevoet, Cornelis J.; He, Kai; He, Xiaolan; Helfer, Stephan; Helgen, Kristofer M.; van Heteren, Anneke H.; Hita Garcia, Francisco; Holstein, Norbert; Horváth, Margit K.; Hovenkamp, Peter H.; 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, Sven; Latella, Leonardo; Lattke, John E.; Lencioni, Valeria; Lewis, Gwilym P.; Lhano, Marcos G.; Lujan, Nathan K.; Luksenburg, Jolanda A.; Mariaux, Jean; Marinho-Filho, Jader; Marshall, Christopher J.; Mate, 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; Ohl, Michael; Oleas, Nora H.; Orrell, Thomas; Páll-Gergely, Barna; Pape, Thomas; Papp, Viktor; Parenti, Lynne R.; Patterson, David; Pavlinov, Igor Ya.; Pine, Ronald H.; Poczai, Péter; Prado, Jefferson; Prathapan, Divakaran; Rabeler, Richard K.; Randall, John E.; Rheindt, Frank E.; Rhodin, Anders G.J.; Rodríguez, Sara M.; 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 S.; Schmidt, Stefan; Schueler, Frederick W.; Segers, Hendrik; Snow, Neil; Souza-Dias, Pedro G.B.; Stals, Riaan; Stenroos, Soili; Stone, R. 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.; de Vos, Jurriaan M.; Wagner, Philipp; Watling, Les; Weakley, Alan; Welter-Schultes, Francisco; Whitmore, Daniel; Wilding, Nicholas; Will, Kipling; Williams, Jason; Wilson, Karen; Winston, Judith E.; Wüster, Wolfgang; Yanega, Douglas; Yeates, David K.; Zaher, Hussam; Zhang, Guanyang; Zhang, Zhi-Qiang; Zhou, Hong-Zhang. 2018 Taxonomy based on science is necessary for global conservation. PLoS Biology, 16 (3), e2005075. 12, pp. 10.1371/journal.pbio.2005075

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Abstract/Summary

Taxonomy is a scientific discipline that has provided the universal naming and classification system of biodiversity for centuries and continues effectively to accommodate new knowledge. A recent publication by Garnett and Christidis expressed concerns regarding the difficulty that taxonomic changes represent for conservation efforts and proposed the establishment of a system to govern taxonomic changes. Their proposal to "restrict the freedom of taxonomic action" through governing subcommittees that would "review taxonomic papers for compliance" and their assertion that "the scientific community's failure to govern taxonomy threatens the effectiveness of global efforts to halt biodiversity loss, damages the credibility of science, and is expensive to society" are flawed in many respects. They also assert that the lack of governance of taxonomy damages conservation efforts, harms the credibility of science, and is costly to society. Despite its fairly recent release, Garnett and Christidis' proposition has already been rejected by a number of colleagues. Herein, we contribute to the conversation between taxonomists and conservation biologists aiming to clarify some misunderstandings and issues in the proposition by Garnett and Christidis.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	10.1371/journal.pbio.2005075
UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:	Biodiversity (Science Area 2017-)
ISSN:	1544-9173
Additional Information. Not used in RCUK Gateway to Research.:	Open Access paper - full text available via Official URL link.
Additional Keywords:	taxonomy, conservation biology, conservation science, controlled vocabularies, biodiversity, legislation, species delimitation, endangered species
NORA Subject Terms:	Ecology and Environment Zoology
Date made live:	04 Apr 2018 10:04 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/519734

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