Ramping up biodiversity discovery via online quantum contributions

The pace of species discovery and documentation remains too slow on a human-altered planet in the midst of a massive extinction event. Increasing this pace requires altering conventional workflows. In this review, we propose that systematics needs to shift to a model of quantum contributions whereby...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Trends in ecology & evolution (Amsterdam) 2012-02, Vol.27 (2), p.72-77
Main Authors: Maddison, David R., Guralnick, Robert, Hill, Andrew, Reysenbach, Anna-Louise, McDade, Lucinda A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biodiversity
Classification - methods
Databases, Factual
Extinction, Biological
Internet
Phylogeny
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Summary:The pace of species discovery and documentation remains too slow on a human-altered planet in the midst of a massive extinction event. Increasing this pace requires altering conventional workflows. In this review, we propose that systematics needs to shift to a model of quantum contributions whereby species hypotheses are published as they are formulated and data as they are collected in web-based repositories and content-management systems. If our recommendation is followed, many species will make their first appearance on the Internet as candidate new species before documentation is complete. Acknowledging the changes that we describe may be controversial, we discuss problems that may be encountered along with possible solutions.
ISSN:0169-5347
1872-8383
DOI:10.1016/j.tree.2011.10.010