Collaborative Research: ARTS: Integrative Research and Training in Tropical Taxonomy

分类学是寻找、描述和命名生物的科学，对生物研究和保护生命多样性至关重要。目前正在进行的调查、清点和保护海洋生物多样性的努力受到了分类学专业知识短缺的威胁。虽然该项目的重点是加勒比的生物多样性，但其总体目标是促进全世界海洋生物多样性的养护。该项目将通过培训新的分类学家、开发支持分类学研究的因特网资源以及使非专业人员易于使用分类学方法，使正确识别和记录海洋生物多样性、发现入侵物种以及保护稀有和濒危物种变得更加容易。 该项目将创建新的分类学描述和修订目前未描述的物种从加勒比，这将是立即有用的任何研究人员，管理人员，或保护从业人员在该地区工作，并将有助于加勒比地区的物种清单。开放获取的视频和操作指南将使专家能够向公众、管理人员和政策制定者传达对这些生物的热情，并为学生和公众提供更多关于分类学的知识。该项目有三个部分，目标互补。A部分将记录南加勒比6类海洋生物的生物多样性，这些生物具有高度的多样性，但鲜为人知（海绵、水螅、海葵、海葵、带状蠕虫和海藻）。这项工作将强调传统的形态和分子特征与非传统的字符，如幼虫形态，活色，和字符来自共聚焦和电子显微镜的整合。资深专家将与受训专家密切合作，重点关注巴拿马加勒比海岸已知特别需要进行分类修订的物种。B部分将为有兴趣在6个重点小组之一发展分类学专门知识的研究生和初级研究人员举办培训讲习班;使他们能够（1）在野外识别物种，（2）有效地收集和保存材料用于随后的分类工作，（3）使用现有的检索表或专著来识别物种的材料，和（4）与其他学生和专家的全球网络建立个人联系。C部分将使生物多样性和保护方面的专家和非专家工作者都能在全球范围内获得所有6个群体的分类学所涉及的基本技能和词汇。这一部分将为每个小组开发一套标准的因特网工具，包括一套操作指南录像和技术术语的图解定义，并翻译成几种语文。这一工具包的设计将有助于迅速记录生物多样性，并提高初步实地鉴定的准确性。

Taxonomy, the science of finding, describing and naming organisms, is vital to biological research and conservation of life's diversity. The on-going effort to survey, inventory, and preserve the ocean's biological diversity is threatened by a shortage of taxonomic expertise. Although focused on Caribbean biodiversity, the overarching goal of this project is to promote conservation of marine biodiversity around the world. This project will make it easier to correctly identify and document marine biodiversity, to detect invasive species, and to protect rare and endangered species by training new taxonomists, by developing Internet-based resources to support taxonomic research, and by making taxonomic methods easily accessible to non-specialists. This project will create new taxonomic descriptions and revisions of currently undescribed species from the Caribbean, which will be immediately useful to any researcher, manager, or conservation practitioner working in the region, and will contribute to the species inventory of the Caribbean. Open-access videos and how-to guides will allow specialists to convey enthusiasm for these organisms to the public, to managers, and to policy makers, and provide a way for students and the general public to learn more about taxonomy. This project has three parts with complementary aims. Part A will document the biodiversity of 6 groups of marine organisms with high, but poorly known, diversity in the Southern Caribbean (sponges, hydroids, sea anemones, sea squirts, ribbon worms, and seaweeds). This work will emphasize the integration of traditional morphological and molecular characters with non-traditional characters such as larval morphology, live coloration, and characters derived from confocal and electron microscopy. Established experts will work closely with experts-in-training, with a focus on species from the Caribbean coast of Panama that are known to be in particular need of taxonomic revision. Part B will provide training workshops for graduate students and junior researchers interested in developing taxonomic expertise in one of 6 focal groups; enabling them to (1) identify species in the field, (2) efficiently collect and preserve material for subsequent taxonomic work, (3) use existing keys or monographs to identify material to species, and (4) develop personal connections with a global network of other students and specialists. Part C will make the basic skills and vocabulary involved in the taxonomy of all 6 groups globally accessible to both expert and non-specialist workers in biodiversity and conservation. This part will develop a standard package of internet-based tools for each group, including a set of how-to videos and illustrated definitions of technical terms, with translations into several languages. This toolkit will be designed to facilitate rapid biodiversity documentation and to increase the precision of preliminary field identifications.