Taxonomy taxonomists

M. P. Lechevalier, Lipids in bacterial taxonomy a taxonomist s view, Crit. Rev. Microbiol. 5 109 (1976). 

Classification is the distinguishing and naming of units (taxa) in a hierarchies system usually simply called "the" system. The part of systematic, particularly involved with classification one can differentiate as taxonomy but often the terms systematica and taxonomy systematist and taxonomist are seen and used as synonyms. 

In September 1985 Training Course on Research Methodology in Plant Taxonomy win conducted in the Herbarium Bogoriense under the auspices of the former National Biological Institute - LI PI, the Rijksherbarium Leiden, and UNESCO-MAB. The course was attended by Indonesian junior scientists and junior lecturers at the beginning of their career and specialization as practicing plant taxonomists.. For that purpose special hand outs were prepared and accumulated into a handy manual which was consulted daily by the trainees throughout the course. 

In these sponge studies every care was taken to secure the identification of the material. The results obtained were unsuspected leading to additional concern to secure the correct taxonomy. Incidentally, the two investigations last mentioned were coauthored by P. R. Bergquist, one of the internationally leading sponge taxonomists and the material was collected in New Zealand waters, her domestic area. The risk of misidentification is thus minimal. 

The undergraduate situation has not been compensated by any increase in postgraduate teaching. The ABRC (1979, para 829) working party believed "that the numbers of potential taxonomists who annually pass through our universities and polytechnics are adequate to maintain taxonomy in a viable condition , but this is increasingly perceived as over-optimistic. 

Second, this emphasis on promoting service roles spoke directly to many potential members. Taxonomists rarely lack a service role in their employment. More specifically, Wharton assisted the U.S. Navy in pest identification and control during the war. Schmitt watched innumerable consultancies under way at the U.S. National Museum. In postwar America, professional societies of biologists with service roles dwarfed those with predominantly academic interests. The interest in mixing practical diagnostic taxonomy with discussions of systematic principles also arose in the only newsletter produced by the Society for the Study of Speciation in 1940. ... 

In the early days of spirited debate between cladists and the then traditional taxonomists, Walter Bock was one of the first to argue the case for evolutionary taxonomy from a philosophical point of view. Part of those early arguments concerned Karl Popper s distinc-... 

Taxonomy s digital revolution will directly benefit far more people and communities than taxonomists themselves. While the core of this revolution should address the infrastructure needs of a transformed descriptive taxonomy, it is equally important that the fruits of a highly productive... 

We should take courage from the impressive progress that has been and continues to be made. As a community, taxonomists and institutions engaged in taxonomy should resolve over the period of a decade to transform the infrastructure of taxonomy, including access to existing resources (literature, data in collections, etc.) - and especially development of cyberinfrastructure (hardware and software) for taxonomic research and in support of the full range of taxonomic activities from... 

---