Author inflation masks global capacity for species discovery in flowering plants
Author inflation masks global capacity for species discovery in flowering plants
复制标题
DOI：
10.1111/nph.12522
复制
发表时间：
2014-01-01
期刊：
影响因子：
9.4
通讯作者：
Scotland, Robert W.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Bebber, Daniel P.;Wood, John R. I.;Scotland, Robert W.
物种发现是生物多样性科学的第一步。最近的研究表明，越来越多的作者与新物种的描述相关，这代表了一个不断扩大的劳动力，从一个不断减少的游泳池中发现剩余的新物种。在这里，我们提出了一个全面的数据集，从国际植物名称索引（IPNI）的新物种的显花植物在1970年和2011年之间出版。我们发现，自1970年以来，平均每年有1855个新物种被描述。我们发现，与其他科学学科相比，分类学论文作者数量的增加相对较小，可能反映了科学实践的变化，而不是分类能力的增加。这些数据，以及已发表的结果表明，标本收集和作为新物种发表之间有35年的滞后期，强烈表明，在对保护和灭绝前所未有的关注之际，全球分类学描述开花植物新物种的能力停滞不前。
Species discovery is a fundamental first step for all of biodiversity science. Recent research has claimed that the increasing number of authors associated with the description of new species represents an expanding workforce discovering the remaining new species from an ever-diminishing pool. Here, we present a comprehensive dataset from The International Plant Names Index (IPNI) of new species of flowering plant published between 1970 and 2011. We show that, on average, 1855 new species have been described annually since 1970. We show that compared to other scientific disciplines the increased number of authors on taxonomic papers is relatively small and may reflect changes in scientific practice rather than an increase in taxonomic capacity. These data, alongside published results demonstrating a lag period of 35yr between a specimen being collected and published as a new species, strongly suggest that the global taxonomic capacity to describe new species of flowering plant is stagnant at a time of unprecedented concern for conservation and extinction.