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Conservationists, ecologists, biodiversity scientists, lawmakers, and many others rely heavily on
taxonomic 280px, Generalized scheme of taxonomy Taxonomy is a practice and science concerned with classification or categorization. Typically, there are two parts to it: the development of an underlying scheme of classes (a taxonomy) and the allocation ...
information to manage, conserve, use, and share our biodiversity. The world-wide shortage of this important taxonomic information, the gaps in our taxonomic knowledge, and the shortage of trained taxonomists and curators to fill this need has come to be known as the taxonomic impediment. The importance of this phenomenon was recognized by the
Convention on Biological Diversity The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), known informally as the Biodiversity Convention, is a multilateral treaty. The Convention has three main goals: the conservation of biological diversity (or biodiversity); the sustainable use of its ...
, signed at the 1992 Rio
Earth Summit The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Rio de Janeiro Conference or the Earth Summit (Portuguese: ECO92, Cúpula da Terra), was a major United Nations conference held in Rio de Janeiro from 3 ...
, and initiatives have occurred that have not yet solved the problem.
The greatest contributions of taxonomy to science and humanity are yet to come. Against formidable odds and with minimal funding, equipment, infrastructure, organization and encouragement, taxonomists have discovered, described, and classified nearly 1.8 million species. While increasing attention is being paid to making this substantial amount of accumulated taxonomic information more easily accessible, comparatively little attention has been paid to opening access to the research resources required by taxonomists themselves. Benefits associated with ease of access to museum records (e.g.
Global Biodiversity Information Facility The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is an international organisation that focuses on making scientific data on biodiversity available via the Internet using web services. The data are provided by many institutions from around th ...
) or 'known' species (e.g.
Encyclopedia of Life The Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) is a free, online encyclopedia intended to document all of the 1.9 million living species known to science. It aggregates content to form "pages" for every known species. Content is compiled from existing trusted ...
) are seriously restricted when such information is untested for validity or is simply unavailable, as is the case for three-quarters or more of the species on Earth. We act as if taxonomy is done but nothing could be farther from the truth.


The term "taxonomic impediment"

The history of the term "taxonomic impediment" can be traced, with the first documented use in any context being in 1976, though this and a few later uses were made with regards to "aspects of taxonomic poverty other than lack of taxonomic expertise."Evenhuis, N.L. (2007). Helping solve the “other” Taxonomic Impediment: Completing the eight steps to Total Enlightenment and Taxonomic Nirvana. ''Zootaxa'' 1407: 3-12. It was not until the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 2) meeting in
Jakarta Jakarta (; , Betawi language, Betawi: ''Jakartè''), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta (; ''DKI Jakarta'') and formerly known as Batavia, Dutch East Indies, Batavia until 1949, is the capital and largest city of Indonesia and ...
in 1995 that the term "taxonomic impediment" was first used in the modern sense, referring explicitly to a shortage of taxonomists and lack of support for their research, and subsequently first formally published in the broader scientific literature in 1996.


Impediments to taxonomy

The causes of the current crisis in taxonomy have been ascribed to a loss of perspective in ecology and evolutionary biology as the
modern evolutionary synthesis Modern synthesis or modern evolutionary synthesis refers to several perspectives on evolutionary biology, namely: * Modern synthesis (20th century), the term coined by Julian Huxley in 1942 to denote the synthesis between Mendelian genetics and s ...
developed during the 1930s and 40s: a conflation of "pattern with process", "confusing the methods and goals of the emerging science of population genetics with those of the established science of taxonomy", which caused the traditional fundamental taxonomy to be disparaged, and consequently underfunded. It is argued that some initiatives that aim to bypass the bottleneck of insufficient taxonomic expertise continue to draw funds away from solving the fundamental problem.Bortolus, A., 2012b. Good habits come first in Science too: a reply to Straka and Starzomski. Trends Ecol. Evol. 27, 655.


See also

*
Automated species identification Automated species identification is a method of making the expertise of taxonomists available to ecologists, parataxonomists and others via digital technology and artificial intelligence. Today, most automated identification systems rely on imag ...
*
DNA barcoding DNA barcoding is a method of species identification using a short section of DNA from a specific gene or genes. The premise of DNA barcoding is that by comparison with a reference library of such DNA sections (also called " sequences"), an indiv ...


References

{{reflist Ecology
Impediment An obstacle (also called a barrier, impediment, or stumbling block) is an object, thing, action or situation that causes an obstruction. A obstacle blocks or hinders our way forward. Different types of obstacles include physical, economic, biop ...