Open AccessSelf-help for taxonomists: three things we must do for taxonomy to survive
Author(s) -
Geoff A. Boxshall
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
megataxa
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2703-3090
pISSN - 2703-3082
DOI - 10.11646/megataxa.1.1.7
Subject(s) - taxonomy (biology) , relevance (law) , reciprocal , biodiversity , computer science , data science , political science , environmental resource management , ecology , biology , environmental science , linguistics , philosophy , law
Knapp & Boxshall (2010) concluded that “at the very time when the importance of biodiversity has been realised, our capability of describing and documenting it has been eroded to a crisis point.” It seems to me that little has changed since then but other contributions are focusing on the overall problem so I want to use this article to highlight three practical challenges for taxonomy going forwards. 1. Maintaining and enhancing the system of Reciprocal Illumination. 2. Building and maintaining taxonomic information systems. 3. Addressing issues of societal relevance.