Std Research: Documenting Biodiversity: Biological Systematics in Historical and Conceptual Context

目前，现代系统分类学的从业者对他们研究对象的性质没有达成共识，对于那些致力于生物多样性编目的人来说也是如此。该项目旨在通过以一种新的方式提出基础性问题，同时仍然关注系统学及其应用的哲学，历史和社会意义，重新定位这些主题的旧辩论。该项目有两个目标。第一个是检查和测试现代系统学和当代理解生物多样性的努力背后的一些基本的本体论假设。一旦解决了关于分析单位的问题，就有可能以一种明智的方式提出价值、后勤和政策问题：我们应该如何理解生物多样性？如何最好地分类？哪些物种概念在特定情况下最有效？是否有一个独特的最佳物种概念？在哪些方面，让一些或所有不同的数据库项目一起工作或采用相同的本体是有意义的？ 这项工作将通过两个讲习班进行。首先，PI将与亚利桑那州立大学的研究人员以及来自世界各地的著名物种理论家合作，使用相同的组（Eleodes属的甲虫）和相同的形态学，分子和组合数据集比较六种最广泛使用的物种发现方法。第二次研讨会将汇集来自几个生物多样性数据库项目的代表，以检查假设，比较分析单位，并寻找协调工作的方法。这个项目应该塑造每个参与者小组思考他们研究单元的方式，这有可能对从物种定义到项目任务到数据库本体论以及关于生物多样性是什么以及我们应该关心什么的更广泛的概念产生大规模的影响。

There is at present no consensus among practitioners of modern systematics with regards to the nature of their object of study, and the same goes for those who are working to catalog biodiversity. The proposed project is an attempt to re-orient old debates on these topics by asking foundational questions in a new way while still paying attention to the philosophical, historical, and social implications of systematics and its applications.The project has two goals. The first is to examine and test some foundational ontological assumptions behind modern systematics and contemporary efforts to understand biodiversity. Once questions about units of analysis have been addressed, it will be possible to ask value, logistical, and policy questions in an informed way: How should we understand biodiversity? How is it best cataloged? Which species concepts work best in particular situations? Is there a unique best species concept? In what ways does it make sense for some or all of the various database projects to work together or to adopt the same ontology? This work will proceed by way of two workshops. In the first, the PI will work with researchers at Arizona State University as well as with eminent species theorists from around the world to compare six of the most widely used approaches to species discovery using the same group (beetles of the genus Eleodes) and the same morphological, molecular, and combined data sets. The second workshop will bring together representatives from several biodiversity databasing projects to examine assumptions, compare units of analysis, and look for ways to work in concert. This project should shape the way each of the participant groups thinks about their units of study, and this has the potential for large-scale ramifications for everything from species definitions to project missions to database ontology and wider conceptions about what biodiversity is and what we should care about it.