Background
Simply put: despite over ten years of recognizing the problem and giving it a catchy phrase, we still lack the
taxonomic expertise to effectively describe the remaining biodiversity on earth. How can we enjoy and protect
something if we don’t know it is out there to enjoy and protect?
The Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biodiversity (COP) at their meeting in Jakarta in 1995
echoed the warnings of previous committees organized around the world to outline the problems we face in
the future of taxonomy. The perception by the COP of a lack of taxonomists to handle the enormous task
identifying and naming the biodiversity we have yet to describe on this earth led the IUBS/Diversitas to term
this lack of expertise as the “taxonomic impediment”1
. Elaine Hoagland (1996) highlighted the term in her
white paper on the subject for the COP. Her paper precipitated an overwhelming chorus of “I second that” by
fellow taxonomists as well as in their subsequent discussions that fine-tuned proclamations of the need and
the methods by which we could solve the problem.
Two years previous to Hoagland’s report, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) created the PEET
program (Partnerships for Enhancing Expertise in Taxonomy) to enhance and increase taxonomic expertise in
areas where it is deemed by colleagues and NSF review panels to be sorely lacking. Nine years later, NSF
proudly declared “Taxonomic Impediment Overcome” (Rodman & Cody, 2003). The article’s headline may
have been a bit more embellishment than reality, but nevertheless, the effort by NSF in creating the PEET program—and
also at about the same time the Biotic Surveys and Inventories Program (BS&I) (meant to foster
broadscale collecting and discovery of species throughout the world) cannot be understated. They were both
major leaps forward in showing the world that governments could in fact get behind taxonomy and support
increasing the expertise that was lacking in that discipline and critical steps to helping solve that problem.
While even the most recent editorials on the taxonomic impediment and their respective responses (e.g.,
Wheeler et al., 2004; Lyal & Wietzmann, 2004; Martin, 2004; Geeta et al. 2004; Causey et al., 2004; Young,
2004; Carvalho et al., 2005) may argue the details, they clearly all agree with each other that we still lack
taxonomic expertise to adequately describe the biodiversity on this planet. However, they all have apparently
missed another “taxonomic impediment”: one that darkens the potential successes made by NSF funding and
other advances. Namely, that some of the existing taxonomists are not doing much or even any taxonomy.
Numerous reasons exist for this unfortunate dilemma (see Summary below). Some that are inherently
1. Earlier uses of the phrase “taxonomic impediment” (e.g., Taylor, 1976; Ramsay, 1986; McIntyre et al., 1992)
are for aspects of taxonomic poverty other than lack of taxonomic expertise.
4 · Zootaxa 1407 © 2007 Magnolia Press EVENHUIS
common in collaborative survey work are outlined here with examples from a recently-funded NSF BS&I
terrestrial arthropod survey in Fiji. That discussion is supplemented with a step-by-step process that explains
the process of taxonomy and the sociological pros and cons to each step; and, if followed correctly by all
taxonomists, will ultimately solve this “other” impediment.
“Cool. Gimme a free trip to Fiji”
Caveat: The Fiji BS&I Survey is very successful and it is only because it is that I can safely write this article warning of
some of the pitfalls that may befall someone who tries to organize such a collaborative survey.
Among the many tasks in formulating a logical process and project design to the initial NSF Fiji Terrestrial
Arthropod Survey (termed henceforth as “Fiji project”) was creating an essential team of experts who would
be critical to the success of the project by identifying taxa in their specialty group(s) [= target group(s)] and
describing new species that was resulting from the massive Malaise trapping program that was already in
place on many of the islands scattered throughout the Fiji Archipelago. To supplement and enhance the identification
and description of those selected biodiverse elements in Fiji, team members were asked to participate
in all-expenses-paid collecting trips to Fiji to personally collect their target group by whatever specialized
method they deemed most appropriate and to help train in-country students and parataxonomists, the latter
who were employed in collecting, sorting, and identifying the specimens collected primarily by Malaise traps
and leaf-litter catches.
A certain amount of trust was put into each participant that they would indeed take the time out of their
busy schedules and volunteer their efforts toward fulfilling the objectives of the grant and describe the biodiverse
taxa they stated existed in Fiji. For the most part, this trust was reciprocated by diligent reporting of the
identifications of material they were being sent and in submissions of their manuscripts to the journal series
created and dedicated to the Fiji project: Fiji Arthropods. But this diligence was not always the case. All team
members were told they could participate in a trip to Fiji under the condition that they would submit before or
soon afterwards a manuscript describing any new taxa discovered. Unfortunately in some cases, no such paper
ever was forthcoming.
Table 1 shows the list of the target taxa of the Fiji project, the known number of species prior to the inception
of the project, the estimated new taxa that would be found in Fiji, and how many new species were published
or in press/in preparation since the Fiji project began. The names of specialists and their target taxa are
not included but the numbers are real. Identifying those who did not meet their original expectations of the
project by name or taxon is not the purpose of this paper. It is to illuminate the problem and offer a solution to
it.
After not getting the number of manuscripts I had hoped for from some team members or even progress
reports from them of what taxa had been identified by them, I began to think that the only reason some participants
signed on to the project was merely to get a free trip to Fiji, soak up some sun, go collecting, go back to
their labs with their booty, and reminisce with digital pictures and collected specimens of the pleasant 10–14
days they had amongst the warm climes and friendly people of that South Pacific island nation. This, of
course, would not only be disingenuous to the project, but also to science. And especially to NSF and the
republic of Fiji since the Biotic Surveys and Inventories program was created to conduct broadscale collecting,
foster descriptions of new taxa, and require vouchering of specimens in the home nation. BS&I projects
are essentially taxonomic capacity-building programs and they also assist with building infrastructure incountry
where needed. Since the finances of the Fiji Government were such that they looked forward to and
strongly encouraged outside funding to help such programs as ours in their country, our obligations and
responsibility to the island nation of Fiji were immense.
HELPING SOLVE THE “OTHER” TAXONOMIC IMPEDIMENT Zootaxa 1407 © 2007 Magnolia Press · 5
TABLE 1. Original and Added* Target Taxa for the Fiji project.
* added after project was funded but worked on by original NSF participants
** may be families, orders, or classes; 17 different taxonomists signed on to work on these 21 taxa (some working
on more than one taxon group)
But all the participants in the Fiji project are good-natured and honest colleagues who were chosen not
only for their expertise with their taxon, but because they showed a genuine interest in the Fijian arthropod
fauna. What then could be the reason for their inactivity of some in publishing? Brian Brown [also an organizer
of a NSF-funded BS&I survey: in Colombia] (2005) opined in his analysis that the lack of resources for
Diptera taxonomists may have been the reason for so few papers on Neotropical Diptera being published
despite the Malaise trap catches of his study and a few others showing the greatest diversity in insects being
with the Diptera specimens collected. A paper written over 50 years ago (Hedgpeth et al., 1953) essentially
said the same thing. Apparently not much has changed. I agree that there is indeed be a lack of proper
resources for taxonomists in some institutions and this has had a significant impact on the taxonomic productivity
of many researchers, but this is not the only reason for so few papers being published.
In speaking with NSF staff and organizers of other BS&I surveys I found that the inactivity in publishing
was found not only in our Fiji project but seemed to be an inherent factor in virtually every collaborative survey
effort that had publications of new taxa as one of the expectations. If one agreed to do the work when
signing up for a survey project, an organizer would expect that person to come through with the promised
goods. However, this would not always be the case.
There was apparently a common symptom that pervaded a number of taxonomists preventing them from
being productive in the publishing arena. Given this assumption, it would then seem that if true and affecting
a significant number of taxonomists, it would have a resulting negative impact on taxonomic production in
Taxon Group** Known Spp. Estimated New Described new or
(In Press/in Prep)
Notes
A 40+ >15 0(0)
B 10+ >10 2(3)
C 5+ >20 0(0)
D 5+ >10 4(2)
E 40+ >10 0(0)
F 50+ >10 0(1)
G 50+ >50 0(0)
H 20+ >50 10(15)
I 20+ >50 3(0) n. spp. described by a non-NSF participant
J 50+ >20 4(3)
K 50+ >50 0(5)
L 1 >10 3(8)
M 20+ >50 0(0)
N 1 >20 3(10)
O 1 >50 0(0)
P 20+ >20 0(1)
Q 10+ >10 0(0)
R 10 0(0)
S 0 1 0(0)
T 10 0(0)
U