Transcript Frank Howarth Future Directions for Taxonomy in Australia “Classical” or morphology-based taxonomy in Australia now •Ageing cohort of practising taxonomists •Declining numbers of practising taxonomists •Focussed.

Frank Howarth
Future Directions for Taxonomy in
Australia
“Classical” or morphology-based
taxonomy in Australia now
•Ageing cohort of practising taxonomists
•Declining numbers of practising taxonomists
•Focussed mainly on groups or families of organisms
•Significantly reduced university training available
•Declining numbers of jobs
•Largely people dependent, requiring substantial human
judgement
•Larger more charismatic organisms (plants and animals)
much better known at species level
“Classical” or morphology-based
taxonomy in Australia now cont’d
•Significant skill shortage problems in handling large
‘inventory’ style projects (eg Census of Marine Life)
•Work and funding priorities historically focussed on
‘completeness’ or ‘filling gaps’ (eg in floras) and driven
largely by the areas of interest of taxonomists
•Significant misalignment between taxonomic knowledge
‘strengths’ and emerging ‘problems’
•Widely held perception outside of the immediate
taxonomy field that taxonomic ‘problems’ have largely
been ‘fixed’ ie enough is known
Typical “problems” which require species
level knowledge to solve
•Managing some crop pests (eg aphids)
•Detecting and managing invasive marine organisms
•Detection of potential invasives (eg on islands in Torres
Strait)
•Conservation reserve location (marine and terrestrial)
•Location of corridors linking conservation reserves and
other wildlife rich areas
Typical “problems” which require species
level knowledge to solve cont’d
•Measuring effectiveness of catchment management
strategies
•Rehabilitating degraded lands
•Impacts of climate change on species distribution
•Understanding evolutionary processes
The current paradigm
The current paradigm
The current paradigm
A paradigm shift
A paradigm shift
A paradigm shift
Recommendations
•Develop and populate specimen databases (access to
existing knowledge)
•Accelerate production of master names indices
•Strengthen national (eg ALA) and international (eg
GBIF) methods of accessing databases
•Do prioritised inventories of the key parts of the
biosphere
•Develop lab and field usable technology to access
morphological and ‘barcode’ based taxonomic information
(keys, terminals, pads, comms)
Recommendations 2
•Develop multifaceted graduate and post graduate
programs that use elements of morphological taxonomy,
DNA/genetic/barcodes, bioinformatics, ecology and
modelling
•Develop career paths by creating jobs in relevant agencies
based around these skills, and by using strategies such as
targeted fellowships and post-doctoral appointments to
develop skills
Recommendations 3
•Prioritise taxonomy funding, job creation and research
effort by problem, not by group (unless a particular group
is a key to a problem) or solely for ‘completeness’ sake
•Conduct constructive PR about the fact that many
significant problems will require applied taxonomic
knowledge to solve.
•Treat our existing taxonomists as living treasures and do
as much as we can to utilise their skills for training and
problem-solving
Thank you
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