Tracking Taxonomic Changes: how, where and why

Presented at the BIGCB workshop on taxon concepts in Berkeley, CA on November 7, 2014.

Transcript

1. How, Where & Why Tracking Taxonomic Changes Gaurav Vaidya! University of Colorado Boulder! www.ggvaidya.com
2. Trends in Taxonomic Changes 1880 1887 1894 1901 1908 1915 1922 1929 1936 1943 1950 1957 1964 1971 1978 1985 1992 1999 2006 2013 Number of splits and lumps in the AOU's Checklist of North and Middle American birds between 1889 and 2014 0 10 20 30 40 Splits Lumps
3. Names and meanings
4. Names and meanings
5. How? — Concept relationships http://www.herbarium.unc.edu/flora.htm
6. How? — Concept relationships http://www.herbarium.unc.edu/flora.htm
7. How? — Concept relationships http://labs.bio.unc.edu/Peet/pubs/SystBiodiv2009.pdf
9. How? — Distinct taxon concepts http://zookeys.pensoft.net/articles.php?id=3906
13. 10,964 species-level taxonomic concepts from 151 bird checklists
14. How? — Checklist series 7 major editions, 55 minor updates = 62 checklists in 128 years
15. 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000 500 1000 1500 2000 Species description curve Year Accumulated species descriptions
16. 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000 0 50 100 150 200 250 Species redescription effort Year Accumulated species definitions
17. 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000 0 500 1000 1500 2000 Species redescription effort beyond species description effort Year Accumulated species definitions Species descriptions as of 2014 Species definitions modified (1889 to 2014)
18. 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020 1800 1900 2000 2100 2200 2300 Species redescription effort beyond species description effort Year Accumulated species definitions Species descriptions as of 2014 Species definitions modified (1889 to 2014)
19. 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020 1800 1900 2000 2100 2200 2300 Species redescription effort beyond species description effort Year Accumulated species definitions Species descriptions as of 2014 Species definitions modified (1889 to 2014) Species definitions (ignoring Central American species)
20. 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020 1800 1900 2000 2100 2200 2300 Species redescription effort beyond species description effort Year Accumulated species definitions Species descriptions as of 2014 Species definitions modified (1889 to 2014) Best fit line (spdef = −53210 + 55.54(year) − 0.01363(year^2)
21. How? — Individual taxonomic changes
23. Tracking taxonomic changes ❖ Concept-to-concept relationships.
24. Tracking taxonomic changes ❖ Concept-to-concept relationships. ❖ Distinct concepts.
25. Tracking taxonomic changes ❖ Concept-to-concept relationships. ❖ Distinct concepts. ❖ Individual taxonomic changes.
26. Changes in the 55th Supplement to the AOU checklist (2014) Thank you! Any questions?