Category: Uncategorized

The 5-year EU project Securing the Conservation of biodiversity across Administrative Levels and spatial, temporal, and Ecological Scales (SCALES) has come to an end in July 2014 resulting in a first of its kind description of challenges that arise in protecting biodiversity across different scales.

A wide range of practical methods and recommendations to improve conservation at regional, national and supranational scales are included in a book published as a synthesis of project outcomes. The book “Scaling in Ecology and Biodiversity Conservation” was published in advanced open access via Pensoft Publisher’s Advanced Books platform. This innovative format aimed at accelerating data publishing, mining, sharing and reuse, offers a range of semantic enhancements to book contents, including external sources.

Results are also presented in an easy to use interactive SCALETOOL, specifically developed for the needs of policy and decision-makers. The tool also provides access to a range of biodiversity data and driver maps compiled or created in the project.

Human actions, motivated by social and economic driving forces, generate various pressures on biodiversity, such as habitat loss and fragmentation, climate change, land use related disturbance patterns, or species invasions that have an impact on biodiversity.

Each of these factors acts at characteristic scales, and the scales of social and economic demands, of environmental pressures, of biodiversity impacts, of scientific analysis, and of governmental responses do not necessarily match. However, management of the living world will be effective only if we understand how problems and solutions change with scale.

‘The book and the tool are the first of their kind and would be of great help to everyone concerned with the conservation of biodiversity. They provide ideas of how to handle complex issues of scaling in applied and theoretical environmental studies’ says the chief editor Prof. Klaus Henle.

The book aims to bundle the main results of SCALES in a comprehensive manner and present it in a way that is usable not only for scientists but also for people making decisions in administration, management, policy or even business and NGOs; to people who are more interested in the “practical” side of this issue.

Guidelines, practical solutions and special tools are also presented as a special web based portal, SCALETOOL, which puts together scientific outcomes widely spread over the scientific literature.

Outcomes and products of the project are a result from 5-year collaboration between 31 institutions across Europe, Taiwan, and Australia. The book “Scaling in Ecology and Biodiversity Conservation” is edited by Klaus Henle and Josef Settele, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ; Simon Potts, University of Reading; William Kunin, University of Leeds; Yiannis G. Matsinos, University of the Aegean; Jukka Simila, University of Lapland; John Pantis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki; Vesna Grobelnik, Centre for Cartography of Fauna and Flora, Slovenia; Lyubomir Penev, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and Pensoft Publishers.

 

Original Source:

Henle K, Potts S, Kunin W, Matsinos Y, Simila J, Pantis J, Grobelnik V, Penev L, Settele J (Eds) (2014) Scaling in Ecology and Biodiversity Conservation. Advanced Books: e1169. doi: 10.3897/ab.e1169

Most people are familiar with Hibiscus flowers – they are an iconic symbol of tropical resorts worldwide where they are commonly planted in the landscape. Some, like Hawaii’s State Flower- Hibiscus brackenridgei – are endangered species.

Only a relatively few botanists and Hawaiian conservation workers, however, are aware of an equally beautiful and intriguing related group of plants known as Hibiscadelphus – literally “brother of Hibiscus”.

Brother of Hibiscus species are in fact highly endangered. Until recently only one of the seven previously known species remained in its natural habitat, the other having gone extinct. These trees are only known, or were known, from five of the eight main Hawaiian Islands. Two are still alive in cultivation, saved in part because of their beautiful showy blossoms. Several were only known from a single wild tree.

Remarkably, in 2012 field botanists Hank Oppenheimer & Keahi Bustament with the Plant Extinction Prevention Program, and Steve Perlman of the National Tropical Botanical Garden found a population of these unique trees in a remote, steep valley on the west side of Maui, near the resorts areas of Lahaina and Ka`anapali.

Until then the trees have never been known from this area. After careful study at the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum in Honolulu and elsewhere, comparing the new trees with all those previously known, it was concluded that these represented a species new to science. Even more astounding was the number of trees found – 99 – which is likely more than all the other species ever known combined. The study was published in the open-access journal PhytoKeys.

Co-discoverer Steve Perlman (now with the PEP Program) has done rough terrain field work on all the Hawaiian Islands as well as throughout the tropical Pacific since the 1970’s. “It was certainly a highlight of my life to be there knowing we found Hibiscadelphus” he said. “It makes me feel good to know all that hard work we do sometimes pays off.”

“What an important find” said Maggie Sporck, State Botanist for Hawaii’s Division of Forestry and Wildlife. “I loved hearing Hank tell the story about this.”

Hawaiians know these trees as hau kuahiwi- hau being a type of lowland Hibiscus common throughout the tropical Pacific, and kuahiwi referring to its upland or mountain habitat. They recognized their similarities while keenly observing their differences.

“Every new species discovered is exciting but this species, belonging to such a unique endemic island lineage, is more special than that” said Dr. Art Medeiros, biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey on Maui. “Besides being beautiful, it is a true contribution to Hawaiian natural history.”

Original Source:

Oppenheimer HL, Bustamente KM, Perlman SP (2014) A new species of Hibiscadelphus Rock (Malvaceae, Hibisceae) from Maui, Hawaiian Islands. PhytoKeys 39: 65. doi: 10.3897/phytokeys.39.7371

For more information about the Plant Extinction Prevention Program and the National Tropical Botanical Garden see http://www.pepphi.org and http://www.ntbg.org

 

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Scientists are searching through a massive collection of 20-million-year-old amber found in the Dominican Republic more than 50 years ago, and the effort is yielding fresh insights into ancient tropical insects and the world they inhabited.

When the collection is fully curated, a task that will take many years, it will be the largest unbiased Dominican amber collection in the world, the researchers report.

Perhaps the most striking discovery thus far is that of a pygmy locust, a tiny grasshopper the size of a rose thorn that lived 18- to 20-million years ago and fed on moss, algae and fungi. The specimen is remarkable because it represents an intermediate stage of evolution in the life of its subfamily of locusts (known as the Cladonotinae). The most ancient representatives of this group had wings, while modern counterparts do not. The newly discovered locust has what appear to be vestigial wings — remnant structures that had already lost their primary function.

The discovery is reported in the journal ZooKeys.

“Grasshoppers are very rare in amber and this specimen is extraordinarily well-preserved,” said Sam Heads, a paleontologist at the Illinois Natural History Survey, a division of the Prairie Research Institute at the University of Illinois.

Heads, laboratory technician Jared Thomas and study co-author Yinan Wang found the new specimen a few months after the start of their project to screen more than 160 pounds of Dominican amber collected in the late 1950s by former INHS entomologist Milton Sanderson. Sanderson described several specimens from the collection in a paper in Science in 1960, a report that inspired a generation of scientists to seek out and study Dominican amber, Heads said.

The bulk of the Sanderson amber collection remained in storage, however, until Heads uncovered it in 2010.

Heads has named the new pygmy locust Electrotettix attenboroughi, the genus name a combination of electrum (Latin from Greek, meaning “amber”) and tettix (Greek, meaning “grasshopper”). The species is named for Sir David Attenborough, a British naturalist and filmmaker (not to be confused with Richard Attenborough, David’s actor brother who appeared in the movie “Jurassic Park”).

“Sir David has a personal interest in amber, and also he was one of my childhood heroes and still is one of my heroes and so I decided to name the species in his honor — with his permission of course,” Heads said. (Attenborough narrates and appears in a new video about the Sanderson collection and the specimen that bears his name.)

The process of screening the amber is slow and painstaking. Much of the amber is clouded with oxidation, and the researchers must carefully cut and polish “windows” in it to get a good look at what’s inside. In addition to the pygmy locust, Heads and his colleagues have found mating flies, stingless bees, gall midges, Azteca ants, wasps, bark beetles, mites, spiders, plant parts and even a mammal hair.

The pygmy locust was found in a fragment that also contained wasps, ants, midges, plant remnants and fungi. Such associations are rich in information, Heads said, offering clues about the creatures’ physiological needs and the nature of their habitat.

“Fossil insects can provide lots of insight into the evolution of specific traits and behaviors, and they also tell us about the history of the time period,” Heads said. “They’re a tremendous resource for understanding the ancient world, ancient ecosystems and the ancient climate – better even, perhaps, than dinosaur bones.”

###

The National Science Foundation supports this work. Heads and his colleagues are digitizing the best specimens, and will upload the images onto a publicly available website.

 

Editor’s notes:

To reach Sam Heads, call 217-244-9448; email swheads@illinois.edu.

The paper, “A remarkable new pygmy grasshopper (Orthoptera, Tetrigidae) in Miocene amber from the Dominican Republic,” is available online or from the U. of I. News Bureau.

The Atlantic Forest is a hotspot of biodiversity and one of the most species richness biome of anurans (frogs, tree-frogs, and toads) in the world. However, current levels of diversity might be still underestimated. In the past few years has been an increase in the description of new endemic species of this biome along with the advance of molecular techniques and availability of samples for DNA analysis.

Using a more extensive number of samples for molecular and morphological analysis, researchers from the University of Richmond and The George Washington University described a tiny new species of narrow-mouthed frog from the Microhylidae family in the open access journal ZooKeys.

Chiasmocleis quilombola occurs in the Atlantic Forest of the Espírito Santo State, southeastern Brazil. Despite its modest size, adults reach only about 14 mm, the new species bears a heroic name inspired by the quilombos communities typical of the Espírito Santo State in Brazil, where the frogs were collected.

The specific epithet “quilombola” used for the species’ name refers to the people who inhabited these communities – slaves who dared to escape during colonial times and find a refuge in the depths of the Atlantic Forest.

Quilombos were used as a refuge for escaped slaves during colonial Portuguese rule in Brazil between 1530 and 1815. Nowadays in the north of Espírito Santo State quilombola communities still remain and maintain alive their traditions, such as quilombola food and craftwork.

“We were puzzling by the morphological variation of those frogs, which is little, but after the first results of the molecular phylogenies was clear the higher genetic disparity among them.”, say João Tonini, Ph. D. student at The George Washington University. Chiasmocleis quilombola occupy coastal areas north of Espírito Santo State, a region that is under strong human pressure, therefore the species may face imminent threat of habitat loss.

Original Source:

Tonini JFR, Forlani MC, de Sá RO (2014) A new species of Chiasmocleis (Microhylidae, Gastrophryninae) from the Atlantic Forest of Espírito Santo State, Brazil. ZooKeys 428: 109132. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.428.7352

Non-biting blow fly Chrysomya megacephala is commonly found in dead bodies and is used in forensic investigations to determine the time of death, referred to as the post mortem interval. A report of synanthropic derived form of C. megacephala from Tamil Nadu is provided for the first time based on morphological features and molecular characterization through generation of DNA barcoding. This study, significant in forensic investigations was published in the open access Biodiversity Data Journal.

Chrysomya megacephala is commonly found in corpse in many parts of the world. It is a tremendously abundant species and is used as fish bait in northern and south-west India. It is known to breed in human faeces, decomposed meat and fish as well as in discarded organic materials.

This dipteran fly, therefore, serves as a potential vector of many diseases due to its close association with human dwellings. In general, C. megacephala is considered important in medical, veterinary and forensic sciences. Post mortem interval (PMI) determination is useful in cases of homicide, suicide and accidental or unattended death because of natural causes. An important aspect of calculating the PMI is the accurate and quick identification of the dipteran fly collected from a crime scene.

Behaviour and developmental times of dipteran flies are essential in determining the PMI. Currently, the most common way is to identify dipteran flies for examining the adult stage under a compound microscope. It requires that the larvae collected from a crime scene should be reared until development is complete. The dipteran fly can be identified in the larval form, but if the critical characteristics are small or vary ever so slightly, misidentification is possible.

Morphological identification is difficult within the dipteran flies. A more precise method is to identify the dipteran flies genetically by encoding the collected DNA sequence at mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase gene subunit I (mtCOI). Presently, three forms of C. megacephala are recognized, namely, the normal form (nf), the synanthropic derived form (sdf) and the recently reported feral derived form (fdf).

The normal form is confined to forests of South Pacific Islands while synanthropic derived form has spread around the world from Papua New Guinea. The recently reported feral derived form (fdf) in the forests of the Himalaya, India is morphologically intermediate between normal and synanthropic derived forms. However, the occurrence of the synanthropic derived form of C. megacephala has not been documented in the State of Tamil Nadu, India.

In this context, a report for the first time for C. megacephala (sdf) from Royapuram fishing harbour, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, South East India is significant. A colony of C. megacephala was established from numerous second and third instar larvae collected from decaying fishes. The life expectancy of this fly is 40-45 days. Freshly emerged adults from pupae were identified through morphological and molecular studies.

Original Source:

Ramaraj P, Selvakumar C, Ganesh A, Janarthanan S (2014) Report on the occurrence of synanthropic derived form of Chrysomya megacephala (Diptera: Calliphoridae) from Royapuram fishing harbour, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Biodiversity Data Journal 2: e1111. doi: 10.3897/BDJ.2.e1111

During a recent survey of organisms collected from Bajo de Sico, a mesophotic coral reef ecosystem in Mona Passage off Puerto Rico, one pontarachnid mite species new to science was discovered. The new species was named after the famous Puerto Rican singer Jennifer Lopez. The study was published in the open access journal ZooKeys.

“The reason behind the unusual choice of name for the new species”, explains the lead author Vladimir Pešić, Department of Biology, University of Montenegro, “is that J.Lo’s songs and videos kept the team in a continuous good mood when writing the manuscript and watching World Cup Soccer 2014.”

Pontarachnid mites represent widely distributed but still unstudied group of marine animals. Nothing is known about the life cycle of these animals. The new mite species was collected from nearly 70 m depth, the greatest depth from which Pontarachnid mites have been found until now.

Mesophotic coral ecosystems (MCEs), like Bajo de Sico where the new species was found are light-dependent habitats dominated by macroalgae, sponges and scleractinian corals and are found on the insular and continental slopes of Caribbean islands between 30 and 100 m. Even at the lower depth range (70-100 m), there is enough light for photosynthesis to take place enhancing the growth of several scleractinian coral species and algae.

The MCEs of Puerto Rico represent a potential biodiversity hotspot for marine arthropods.

Original Source:

Pešić V, Chatterjee T, Alfaro M, Schizas NV (2014) A new species of Litarachna (Acari, Hydrachnidia, Pontarachnidae) from a Caribbean mesophotic coral ecosystem. ZooKeys 425: 89-97. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.425.8110

Serendipity leads University of Kansas scientists to the discovery and description of Rhipidocyrtus muiri – a 107 year old, lost in collections specimen, which turned out to represent a new genus and species. The long and tortuous history of the enigmatic ripidiine wedge beetle from Borneo is discussed in a recent paper published in the open access journal ZooKeys.

The holotype male, and only known specimen of Rhipidocyrtus muiri, was collected 107 years ago in Borneo but subsequent to this it was transferred among several researchers in the early 1900s. The specimen was dissected and many portions slide mounted, but these were disassociated from the pinned body for more than a generation to be finally put together by chance in 2011 and described as a new genus and species 3 years after.

Taxa within the ripiphorid tribe Ripidiini are both evolutionarily fascinating and woefully under-described. All members whose biology is known are internal parasitoids of roaches as larvae, a lifestyle likely established at least 90 million years ago resulting in highly derived yet incredibly stable morphologies.

“While the tribe has been widely discussed recently, only a handful of extant species have been named in the last half century, leaving the true evolutionary breadth and depth of the clade poorly understood.” comments the lead author Zachary H. Falin, University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute.

“The historical aspect of the type specimen itself and how it came to be described is indeed rather remarkable and deserves mention, if only to highlight the role of serendipity (and proper specimen curation) in systematics,” he adds about the unusual circumstances of the discovery.

The crux of the story takes place in the Casey Room of the Smithsonian in January, 2011, though it begins with Frederick Muir’s travels in Borneo in the summer of 1907.

“Muir, a quintessential field entomologist, traveled extensively in the Pacific region in the first quarter of the 20th Century. Reading accounts of his travels invokes an intense sense of wonder, adventure and nostalgia in all but the most jaded naturalists.” explains Falin.

One of his epic adventures was a 38-month expedition (July, 1906 – Sept., 1909) in search of sugarcane borer biological control agents. This outing led him back and forth from China to Macau, Hong Kong, Singapore and the current nations of Malaysia, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea, the expedition finally ending in Australia to recover from typhoid fever.

Indeed, it was in the midst of his 1906–1909 expedition, during a six week visit to the island of Borneo (July to September 1907), that Muir collected the specimen that is now recognized as Rhipidocyrtus muiri. Muir apparently deduced the creature’s parasitic nature and had it sent to William D. Pierce (1881–1967) at the USDA office in Washington, DC.

A terse handwritten note associated with the specimen provides the barest of insights as to its early history while simultaneously revealing Muir’s great interest in it: “This was left with Pierce and after his [Pierce’s] leaving [~1918] Muir visited USNM [~1918] and got [E.A.] Schwarz to find it. Then in 1928 Muir again visited us and called attention of H.S.B. [Herbert S. Barber] [to the specimen] but [Muir] declined to take it back.”

At some point the pinned specimen and its associated slides, vital for its taxonomic recognition, became separated. The pinned specimen travelled from Washington, DC to Kansas via Illinois while the slides remained “hidden” in a different section of the Smithsonian’s vast collection.

It was only a happenstance encounter that led to the rediscovery and reassociation of the body and slide-mounted abdomen and other sclerites in 2011, and to its eventual description. It has taken yet another three years to come to fruition, but Muir’s taxon, so deserving of a name, will finally receive one here, three institutions, at least five systematists, and approximately 107 years after its collection in the mountains of Borneo.

Original Source:

Falin ZH, Engel MS (2014) Serendipity at the Smithsonian: The 107-year journey of Rhipidocyrtus muiri Falin & Engel, new genus and species (Ripidiinae, Ripidiini), from jungle beast to valid taxon. ZooKeys 424: 101–116. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.424.7853

The yellow crazy ant Anoplolepis gracilipes is ranked amongst the top 100 worst global invasive species and is responsible for catastrophic ecological impacts on islands. A new study published in the open access journal NeoBiota examines and assesses the effects and dangers of the introduction of the yellow crazy ant to the unique,endemic ecosystem of the mature palm forest of the Vallée de Mai, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, on the Seychelles.

The palm forest of Vallée de Mai is a unique ecosystem containing many endemic species, including the iconic coco de mer palm Lodoicea maldivica.

Impacts of invasive ants can include direct effects such as displaced local species, and indirect effects on key ecological functions such as frugivory, pollination and seed dispersal.

“Although the impacts and ecology of A. gracilipes have been well documented in degraded habitats in the Seychelles, little is known about this ant’s invasion potential in endemic palm forest ecosystems. Praslin, the second largest granitic island of the archipelago, is home to Seychelles’ native mature palm forest. This habitat represents one of the last island palm forest ecosystems in the world and hosts many species that are endemic to Praslin or the Seychelles,” explains Dr. Christopher Kaiser-Bunbury, TU Darmstadt, Germany.

According to the new study in the palm forest Anoplolepis gracilipes was confined to the north-east of the Vallée de Mai and remained almost stationary between April 2010 and December 2012, with isolated outbreaks into the forest. Infested areas typically had significantly higher temperature and humidity and lower canopy cover.

Despite the limited distribution the study confirms some worrying trends. Abundance and species richness of the endemic arboreal fauna were lower in the A. gracilipes invaded area and Molluscs were absent from the invaded area. The current restricted distribution of A. gracilipes in this ecosystem, combined with lower abundance of endemic fauna in the invaded area, highlight the need for further research.

“Once an invasive species is established it is often difficult to eliminate or prevent further spread. In the case of A. gracilipes in the Vallée de Mai, further research into control or exclusion options, impacts and potential biotic resistance to ant invasion are required in addition to continued monitoring of distribution and abundance,” explains Dr. Kaiser-Bunbury.

Chemical control poses a considerable risk to non-target species, such as endemic ants. The study therefore advises promoting and researching resistance of the palm forest by creating and maintaining conditions which restrict A. gracilipes populations, such as the removal of introduced broadleaf trees which host high numbers of introduced hemipterans, and targeted control of ant nests in the most disturbed habitats.

Future research should experimentally assess and quantify parameters that ensure the resistance of the unique Vallée de Mai palm forest and its co-evolved plant and animal species.

Original Source:

Kaiser-Bunbury CN, Cuthbert H, Fox R, Darryl Birch, Bunbury N (2014) Invasion of yellow crazy ant Anoplolepis gracilipes in a Seychelles UNESCO palm forest. NeoBiota 22: 43–57. doi: 10.3897/neobiota.22.6634

A small, drab and highly inconspicuous moth has been flitting nameless about its special niche among the middle elevations of one of the world’s oldest mountain ranges, the southern Appalachian Mountains in North America. A team of American scientists has now identified this new to science species as Cherokeea attakullakulla and described it in a special issue of the open access journal ZooKeys.

In all probability, it has been frequenting these haunts for tens of millions of years before the first humans set foot on this continent, all the while not caring in the least that it had no name or particular significance.

Among the first humans to occupy those misty ridges now called the Great Smoky Mountains in what is today western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee were not Europeans, but native Americans, and they called themselves the Cherokee. It seems unlikely they had a name for this particular small creature, or distinguished it from tens of thousands of other insect species which constitute only a portion of the fauna and flora of this richly endowed region, but they shared their new home with it, and lived in harmony with all the creatures of the Appalachian forest.

In 1958 a professor from Cornell University, Dr. John G. Franclemont, was studying some of the insects he collected at the Highlands Biological Station in Macon County, North Carolina and recognized one or two specimens as something different. None were seen again for four decades until Dr. J. Bolling Sullivan III, now a retired biologist formerly working with the Duke University Marine Lab in Beaufort, North Carolina, encountered numbers of this same insect while conducting biological inventories in the mountainous regions of the western part of the state.

Recently he teamed up with Eric Quinter, a retired entomologist from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, who for several decades has been studying the group of moths to which this species belongs. Eric’s intensive work in the southeastern United States focused on a unique habitat there, called canebrakes. He has revealed the presence of at least two dozen species of moths and butterflies, many unknown to science, whose caterpillars either exclusively feed upon or are associated with the native bamboo species constituting these canebrakes.

The result: in 2014 this little moth finally has an epithet even larger than itself – Cherokeea attakullakulla – named to honor the Cherokee Nation, whose members were exemplary stewards of the habitats and resources of the region, and also to honor one of their most revered leaders, Chief Attakullakulla, who in 1730 travelled to London and throughout the Carolinas to represent his peoples in the negotiation of various treaties.

“Fortunately, today much of this wondrous place and its extraordinarily diverse biota remains preserved as the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and the memory of those who first settled there remains immortalized in a tiny creature oblivious to it all.” comments Dr. Eric Quinter.

Original Source:

Quinter EL, Sullivan JB (2014) A new apameine genus and species from the southern Appalachian Mountains, USA (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae, Noctuinae). In: Schmidt BC, Lafontaine JD (Eds) Contributions to the systematics of New World macro-moths V. ZooKeys 421: 181. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.421.7727

Avibase gives an answer for shifting meanings of biological names

Standardized scientific names for biological species have been in use for nearly 300 years, but – as global biodiversity databases grow deficiencies such as duplication and various name meanings become obvious. A new study published in the open-access journal ZooKeys explains how Avibase, an extensive online global database of birds, is able to successfully address issues related to this multiplicity of meanings, and to organize both scientific names and their definitions on an unprecedented scale.

For nearly three centuries, biologists have relied on standardized scientific names to describe the natural world and to communicate with colleagues from around the world. A scientific species name such as Gallinula chloropus is understood universally to refer to the animal English-speakers refer to as the Common Moorhen. However, if you generate a map of all Gallinula chloropus (Common Moorhen) distribution records available globally before 2011 and after 2011, you may conclude that the species recently all but disappeared across a large part of its range in a few years, particularly in North and South America. If you were familiar with bird taxonomy, you might know that this was not the result of some catastrophic population crash, but rather due to a taxonomic revision by which birds in the Americas are now considered a distinct species called Gallinula galeata.

This simple example illustrates that there are cases when a scientific name is not enough, and some additional knowledge is required to make a correct interpretation. And the problem is widespread: Even in a well-studied group like birds, species names change spelling and meaning surprisingly often. Between 1970 and 2013, the Clements’ Checklist of the Birds of the World changed about 34% of its names, and 931 species (about 9% of all bird species) have changed meanings without any change in name.

One solution to this problem of just relying on names is to use so-called taxonomic concepts, which solve the issue of imprecision by pairing each use of a scientific name with a citation to a particular source that defines a particular meaning for it. However, it remains challenging to determine how taxonomic concepts are related to each other and what they mean in real life. How can someone know whether two usages of the name Gallinula chloropus actually refer to the same population or not?

A new study published in the open-access journal ZooKeys explains how Avibase, an online global database on birds, has developed unique solutions to some of these problems, and explains how these solutions could be applied to other taxonomic groups. Avibase organizes species information by explicitly considering taxonomic concepts, which pair scientific names with the citation defining the particular meaning of that name. Avibase’s key accomplishment has been to create a comprehensive database that maps the relationships among 125 different taxonomic sources created and used by biologists, representing over 1.7 million species and subspecies taxonomic concepts, and to do so using a relatively simple design. Avibase is the first example of a database that successfully relies on taxonomic concepts to organize scientific names for an entire taxonomic group. One of the advantages of the approach used by Avibase is that it does not require any significant changes from the current practices of users of taxonomic names, except to name the taxonomic authority that they follow.

Dr. Denis Lepage, Senior Scientist at Bird Studies Canada, created Avibase and has been its curator for the last two decades. According to Dr. Lepage:

“The need to rely on taxonomic concepts in Avibase grew naturally from the need to organize names used by different sources that fundamentally referred to distinct populations. Even though Avibase wasn’t initially created to address this particular problem, I quickly realized that relying on names alone presented significant problems, and that I needed to find reliable solutions to address them in order to achieve what I had set out to do. Avibase provides a demonstration that taxonomic concepts can be used on a large scale to address the problems of scientific names, for birds or for any other taxonomic group.”

While there is still much to do to make a complete transition from scientific names to taxonomic concepts, even for birds, it is also important that all users start to appreciate the limitations of scientific names as they were originally designed, and start making the transition towards using taxonomic concepts. While the issues of scientific names appear manageable on a local scale, they become increasingly challenging as the volume of data and names in global database continue to grow. With greater awareness of these limitations, and better tools such as Avibase to understand relationships among concepts, these problems can be overcome.

Original source:

Lepage D, Vaidya G, Guralnick R (2014) Avibase – a database system for managing and organizing taxonomic concepts. ZooKeys 420: 117. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.420.7089

 

Image:

The Baltimore Oriole (Icterus galbula), formerly known as the Northern Oriole, is one of thousands of species for which the scientific name offers a less than perfect solution for referring precisely to biological organisms. (Credit: John Kees)

Contacts:

Dr Denis Lepage, Bird Studies Canada dlepage@birdscanada.org

Dr Robert Guralnick, University of Colorado Boulder Robert.Guralnick@colorado.edu

Gaurav Vaidya, University of Colorado Boulder http://ggvaidya.com/