ZooBank and theTaxonomic Renaissance

Quentin WheelerKeeper and Head of Entomology

The Natural History Museum, London

0100200300400500600700800900

1000

1000 SPP

INSECTSARTHROANIM ALSPLANTSFUNGIOTHER

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

known unknown

species inmillions

Applied Taxonom

y

Basic Taxonom

y

Services &

Problem-solving

Curiosity-driven

Taxonomy’s “Grand Challenge” Questions

Grand Challenge Questions

• What species exist?• Phylogeny?• Character Δ history?• Distribution in

geographic, ecological space?

• Δ distribution?• Informative, predictive

classification/names?

Need for reliable taxonomy information is urgent

•environmental sciences

•biodiversity conservation

•management natural products

•inform public policy

•evolutionary (historical) framework for biology

TAXONOMY

CL

ASS

IFICA

TIO

NS, N

AM

ES

Experimental Biology

Problem Solving

species

phylogeny

characters

ID’s

info

reference system

ID’s

Taxonomic services

• identifications

• reference system

• biodiversity language

• collections (vouchers)

Human & environmental welfare

• problem-solving

• resources

• security

• nature enjoyment

Basic biology• ecology & ecosystem science

• genetics & evolution

• developmental biology

• behavior & neurobiology

Applied biology• agriculture

• biomedicine

• conservation biology

• natural resource management

Biodiversity patterns Biodiversity processes

What are constraints?

Access:

•Existing species, names & literature

•Specimens & specimen data

•Instrumentation

•Colleagues

•Timely, complete, reliable information

E-monography:

modernize

improve efficiency

enable collaborative research

e-monographye-monography

Cyber facilitatedTaxonomic Expert

Network

CuratedCollections

CuratedVirtual

Monograph(Taxonomic

‘Knowledge Base’)

monographs

field guides

checklists

maps

morphological imagesand analyses

ID tools

user defined:

TAXONOMY CKC

Cyberinfrastructure-enabled Knowledge Community

High performance computing services

Data, info, knowledge

management services

Observation, measurement & fabrication

services

Interfaces, visualization

services

Collaborative services

Networking, Operating system, Middleware

Base technology: computation, storage, communication

= cyberinfrastructure (CI)

Cyber- infrastructure

Collections/specimen info

Species descriptions (=hypotheses)

Phylogeneticclassification

IDsapplied taxonomy

basic taxonomy

infrastructure

research & scholarship

Virtual Species Observatory (= Σcollections)

‘See’ Across all Scales: Geography | Ecosystems | Time

Known Species

Unknown Species

Specimens

Specimen-Data

ZooBank

Inventories (e.g.,PBIs)

Images, remote systems

Informatics (e.g., GBIF)

Literature

Phylogenetic Classifications

Nomenclature

Descriptions

Digital libraries

E-publications

Informatics (e.g., GBIF)

E-publications

ACCESS CONSTRAINTS: SOLUTIONS:

CI (cyber-infrastructure) will transform how we do, think about and use taxonomic information &

knowledge