the study of species in the era of biodiversity a tale of stupidity研究物种生物多样性的时代一个愚蠢的故事.pdfVIP

Diversity 2010, 2, 115-126; doi:10.3390/d2010115 OPEN ACCESS diversity ISSN 1424-2818 /journal/diversity Communication The Study of Species in the Era of Biodiversity: A Tale of Stupidity Ferdinando Boero Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Biologiche ed Ambientali DiSTeBA, Universita` del Salento, 73100 Lecce, Italy; E-Mail: boero@unisalento.it Received: 16 December 2009 / Accepted: 19 January 2010 / Published: 22 January 2010 __________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract: Research policies ensuing from the Convention on Biological Diversity made huge funds available to study biodiversity. These were mostly dedicated to projects aimed at providing services to taxonomy via information and technology, or to develop “modern”, i.e., molecular, approaches to taxonomy. Traditional taxonomy was overly neglected and is in serious distress all over the world. It is argued that both novel and traditional ways to study biodiversity are essential and that the demise of traditional taxonomy (based on phenotypes) in the era of biodiversity is the result of an unwise policy, mainly fostered by portions of the scientific community that aim at taking total advantage of the funds dedicated to the study of biodiversity. Keywords: biodiversity; traditional taxonomy; molecular taxonomy; information and technology; research policies __________________________________________________________________________________ 1. On a Mission from Go