Future Directions for Taxonomy in Australia

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Frank Howarth Future Directions for Taxonomy in
Australia
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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

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Classical or morphology-based taxonomy in
Australia now contd

• 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

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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

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Typical problems which require species level
knowledge to solve contd

• Measuring effectiveness of catchment management
  strategies
• Rehabilitating degraded lands
• Impacts of climate change on species distribution
• Understanding evolutionary processes

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The current paradigm

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The current paradigm

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The current paradigm

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A paradigm shift

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A paradigm shift

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A paradigm shift

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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)

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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

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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

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