Mapping the biosphere: exploring species to understand the origin, organization and sustainability of biodiversity
Quentin D. Wheeler,Sandra Knapp,Dennis W. M. Stevenson,J. Stevenson,Stan Blum,Brian M. Boom,Gary G. Borisy,James L. Buizer,M. R. de Carvalho,A. Cibrian,Michael J. Donoghue,Vinson P. Doyle,E. M. Gerson,Catherine H. Graham,P. Graves,Sara Graves,Robert P. Guralnick,Andrew Hamilton,James Hanken,Wayne Law,Diana L. Lipscomb,Thomas E. Lovejoy,Holly Miller,James S. Miller,Shahid Naeem,Michael J. Novacek,Lawrence M. Page,Norman I. Platnick,Holly Porter-Morgan,Peter H. Raven,M. A. Solis,Antonio G. Valdecasas,S. Van Der Leeuw,Alejandra Vasco,Niki Vermeulen,Johannes C. Vogel,Ramona Walls,Edward O. Wilson,James B. Woolley +38 more
TLDR
It is concluded that an ambitious goal to describe 10 million species in less than 50 years is attainable based on the strength of 250 years of progress, worldwide collections, existing experts, technological innovation and collaborative teamwork.Abstract:
The time is ripe for a comprehensive mission to explore and document Earth's species. This calls for a campaign to educate and inspire the next generation of professional and citizen species explorers, investments in cyber-infrastructure and collections to meet the unique needs of the producers and consumers of taxonomic information, and the formation and coordination of a multi-institutional, international, transdisciplinary community of researchers, scholars and engineers with the shared objective of creating a comprehensive inventory of species and detailed map of the biosphere. We conclude that an ambitious goal to describe 10 million species in less than 50 years is attainable based on the strength of 250 years of progress, worldwide collections, existing experts, technological innovation and collaborative teamwork. Existing digitization projects are overcoming obstacles of the past, facilitating collaboration and mobilizing literature, data, images and specimens through cyber technologies. Charting ...read more
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Diversity of life
TL;DR: It is clear that the above can lead to confusion when scientists of different countries are trying to communicate with each other, so an internationally recognized system of naming organisms is created.
Journal ArticleDOI
Mapping species distributions with MAXENT using a geographically biased sample of presence data: a performance assessment of methods for correcting sampling bias.
TL;DR: The ability of methods to correct the initial sampling bias varied greatly depending on bias type, bias intensity and species, but the simple systematic sampling of records consistently ranked among the best performing across the range of conditions tested, whereas other methods performed more poorly in most cases.
Journal ArticleDOI
Can We Name Earth's Species Before They Go Extinct?
TL;DR: It is argued that the number of species on Earth today is 5 ± 3 million, of which 1.5 million are named, and practical actions are proposed to improve taxonomic productivity and associated understanding and conservation of biodiversity.
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Encyclopedia of Life
TL;DR: Imagine an electronic page for each species of organism on Earth, available everywhere by single access on command, that comprises a summary of everything known about the species’ genome, proteome, geographical distribution, phylogenetic position, habitat, ecological relationships and, not least, its perceived practical importance for humanity.
Journal ArticleDOI
Biodiversity data should be published, cited, and peer reviewed
TL;DR: A staged publication process involving editorial and technical quality controls, of which the final (and optional) stage includes peer review, the most meritorious publication standard in science.
References
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Book
On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or, The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life
TL;DR: The "Penguin Classics" edition of "On the Origin of Species" as discussed by the authors contains an introduction and notes by William Bynum, and features a cover designed by Damien Hirst.
Journal ArticleDOI
Enterotypes of the human gut microbiome
Manimozhiyan Arumugam,Jeroen Raes,Eric Pelletier,Denis Le Paslier,Takuji Yamada,Daniel R. Mende,Gabriel Fernandes,Julien Tap,Thomas Brüls,Jean-Michel Batto,Marcelo Bertalan,Natalia Borruel,Francesc Casellas,Leyden Fernández,Laurent Gautier,Torben Hansen,Masahira Hattori,Tetsuya Hayashi,Michiel Kleerebezem,Ken Kurokawa,Marion Leclerc,Florence Levenez,Chaysavanh Manichanh,H. Bjørn Nielsen,Trine Nielsen,Nicolas Pons,Julie Poulain,Junjie Qin,Thomas Sicheritz-Pontén,Sebastian Tims,David Torrents,Edgardo Ugarte,Erwin G. Zoetendal,Jun Wang,Francisco Guarner,Oluf Pedersen,Willem M. de Vos,Søren Brunak,Joël Doré,Jean Weissenbach,S. Dusko Ehrlich,Peer Bork +41 more
TL;DR: Three robust clusters (referred to as enterotypes hereafter) are identified that are not nation or continent specific and confirmed in two published, larger cohorts, indicating that intestinal microbiota variation is generally stratified, not continuous.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection; or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life
TL;DR: A man is unworthy of the name of a man of science who, whatever may be his special branch of study, has not materially altered his views on some important points within the last twelve years.
Journal ArticleDOI
Geology of mankind
TL;DR: It seems appropriate to assign the term ‘Anthropocene’ to the present, in many ways human-dominated, geological epoch, supplementing the Holocene—the warm period of the past 10–12 millennia.
Journal ArticleDOI
Has the Earth’s sixth mass extinction already arrived?
Anthony D. Barnosky,Nicholas J. Matzke,Susumu Tomiya,Susumu Tomiya,Guinevere O. U. Wogan,Guinevere O. U. Wogan,Brian Swartz,Tiago B. Quental,Tiago B. Quental,Charles R. Marshall,Jenny L. McGuire,Emily L. Lindsey,Kaitlin C. Maguire,Ben Mersey,Elizabeth A Ferrer +14 more
TL;DR: Differences between fossil and modern data and the addition of recently available palaeontological information influence understanding of the current extinction crisis, and results confirm that current extinction rates are higher than would be expected from the fossil record.