CCPortal
DOI10.1371/journal.pone.0183903
On specimen killing in the era of conservation crisis - A quantitative case for modernizing taxonomy and biodiversity inventories
Waeber, Patrick O.1; Gardner, Charlie J.2; Lourenco, Wilson R.3; Wilme, Lucienne4,5
发表日期2017
ISSN1044-3983
卷号12期号:9
英文摘要

Background to the work


For centuries taxonomy has relied on dead animal specimens, a practice that persists today despite the emergence of innovative biodiversity assessment methods. Taxonomists and conservationists are engaged in vigorous discussions over the necessity of killing animals for specimen sampling, but quantitative data on taxonomic trends and specimen sampling over time, which could inform these debates, are lacking.


Methods


We interrogated a long-term research database documenting 2,723 land vertebrate and 419 invertebrate taxa from Madagascar, and their associated specimens conserved in the major natural history museums. We further compared specimen collection and species description rates for the birds, mammals and scorpions over the last two centuries, to identify trends and links to taxon descriptions.


Results


We located 15,364 specimens documenting endemic mammals and 11,666 specimens documenting endemic birds collected between 1820 and 2010. Most specimens were collected at the time of the Mission Zoologique Franco-Anglo-Ame A ricaine (MZFAA) in the 1930s and during the last two decades, with major differences according to the groups considered. The small mammal and bat collections date primarily from recent years, and are paralleled by the description of new species. Lemur specimens were collected during the MZFAA but the descriptions of new taxa are recent, with the type series limited to non-killed specimens. Bird specimens, particularly of non-passerines, are mainly from the time of the MZFAA. The passerines have also been intensely collected during the last two decades; the new material has been used to solve the phylogeny of the groups and only two new endemic taxa of passerine birds have been described over the last two decades.


Conclusions


Our data show that specimen collection has been critical for advancing our understanding of the taxonomy of Madagascar's biodiversity at the onset of zoological work in Madagascar, but less so in recent decades. It is crucial to look for alternatives to avoid killing animals in the name of documenting life, and encourage all efforts to share the information attached to historical and recent collections held in natural history museums. In times of conservation crisis and the advancement in digital technologies and open source sharing, it seems obsolete to kill animals in well-known taxonomic groups for the sake of enriching natural history collections around the world.


语种英语
WOS记录号WOS:000410669200023
来源期刊PLOS ONE
来源机构世界资源研究所
文献类型期刊论文
条目标识符http://gcip.llas.ac.cn/handle/2XKMVOVA/56157
作者单位1.ETH, Dept ITES, Forest Management & Dev ForDev Grp, Univ Str 16, Zurich, Switzerland;
2.Univ Kent, DICE, Canterbury, Kent, England;
3.UPMC, Muse Natl Hist Nat, Sorbonne Univ,MNHN,EPHE, Inst Systemat Evolut Biodiversite ISYEB,UMR7205,C, CP 53,57 Rue Cuvier, Paris, France;
4.Missouri Bot Garden, Madagascar Res & Conservat Program, Antananarivo 101, Madagascar;
5.World Resources Inst, Washington, DC 20006 USA
推荐引用方式
GB/T 7714
Waeber, Patrick O.,Gardner, Charlie J.,Lourenco, Wilson R.,et al. On specimen killing in the era of conservation crisis - A quantitative case for modernizing taxonomy and biodiversity inventories[J]. 世界资源研究所,2017,12(9).
APA Waeber, Patrick O.,Gardner, Charlie J.,Lourenco, Wilson R.,&Wilme, Lucienne.(2017).On specimen killing in the era of conservation crisis - A quantitative case for modernizing taxonomy and biodiversity inventories.PLOS ONE,12(9).
MLA Waeber, Patrick O.,et al."On specimen killing in the era of conservation crisis - A quantitative case for modernizing taxonomy and biodiversity inventories".PLOS ONE 12.9(2017).
条目包含的文件
条目无相关文件。
个性服务
推荐该条目
保存到收藏夹
导出为Endnote文件
谷歌学术
谷歌学术中相似的文章
[Waeber, Patrick O.]的文章
[Gardner, Charlie J.]的文章
[Lourenco, Wilson R.]的文章
百度学术
百度学术中相似的文章
[Waeber, Patrick O.]的文章
[Gardner, Charlie J.]的文章
[Lourenco, Wilson R.]的文章
必应学术
必应学术中相似的文章
[Waeber, Patrick O.]的文章
[Gardner, Charlie J.]的文章
[Lourenco, Wilson R.]的文章
相关权益政策
暂无数据
收藏/分享

除非特别说明,本系统中所有内容都受版权保护,并保留所有权利。