[Taxacom] Taxonomy in Europe in the 21st century

[Jim Croft]

deprecation?  isn't that what conservation is - minus the 'fast and
efficient' bit?  :)

jim

On Fri, May 9, 2008 at 8:17 PM, Roger Hyam (TDWG) <rogerhyam at mac.com> wrote:
>
> We could have a register of botanical names  with a fast and efficient
> system for deprecating names which are not in current use or supported
> by good descriptions and types (instead of spending years trying to
> lectotypify them) that would save some time and cost comparatively
> little.
>
> But then I'll probably get flamed for even suggesting such a thing :)
>
> Roger
>
>
> On 6 May 2008, at 11:32, Gael Lancelot wrote:
>
>> Dear TAXACOMers,
>>
>> As we all know, taxonomy is at a crossroads. As the most fundamental
>> of life sciences, is more vital than ever to our understanding and
>> management of biodiversity. Societal changes and new technologies
>> currently lead to fast and deep-ranging transformations in taxonomic
>> science.
>>
>> To plan for the future, the European Distributed Institute of
>> Taxonomy has gathered prominent researchers in the relevant fields
>> as well as young scientists, all with an established production of
>> excellent research. They have produced a scientific vision for the
>> future of taxonomy in the next 10 to 20 years. This report,
>> *"Taxonomy in Europe in the 21^st Century",* is now released for
>> discussion in the scientific community and general public. It is
>> available at the following address: http://ww2.bgbm.org/EditDocumentRepository/Taxonomy21report.pdf
>>
>> The overall conclusions of the report are:
>>
>>   * That taxonomy faces exciting challenges and opportunities in the
>>     future to meet the demand for an ever more profound understanding
>>     of the diversity of life on this planet, how it developed and the
>>     impact of increasingly destructive human activity including
>>     climate change, factors that are predicted to have an enormous
>>     negative influence on the diversity and distribution of
>>     biodiversity (the biodiversity crisis)
>>   * Pivotal to the development of taxonomy are the rapidly expanding
>>     fields of high throughput DNA sequencing, automated digital
>>     data-gathering and biodiversity informatics. Incorporating these
>>     technologies will be critical to the science of taxonomy.
>>   * Scientific collaborators and users of taxonomy will require new
>>     ways of working and interacting with taxonomists. It is essential
>>     that taxonomists and their users respond to this need. Taxonomists
>>     integrated into interdisciplinary teams will be an essential way
>>     of working.
>>   * Although an ever expanding repertoire of theoretical and practical
>>     tools is available to taxonomists, unheralded in the history of
>>     the subject, there will have to be substantial, even radical,
>>     changes in how taxonomy is done and its supporting infrastructure
>>     operated, to exploit these opportunities to the full. "Business as
>>     usual", even if scaled up, is simply not an option.
>>
>> The Board of Directors of EDIT, representing 27 major taxonomic
>> institutions in and outside Europe, has approved this document as a
>> scientific roadmap for future development of taxonomy in research,
>> training and technology in the coming decades.
>>
>> More information on EDIT is available at http://e-taxonomy.eu <http://e-taxonomy.eu/
>> >. Any questions or reactions will be welcome at lancelot at mnhn.fr <mailto:lancelot at mnhn.fr
>> >.
>>
>> Thank you,
>>
>> --
>> Gaël Lancelot
>> Communication Officer
>> European Institute of Taxonomy
>> Tel: (0033)1 40 79 80 19
>> lancelot at mnhn.fr
>> http://e-taxonomy.eu
>>
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>
>
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-- 
_________________
Jim Croft
jim.croft at gmail.com