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BIODIVERSITY - Can We Name Earth's Species Before They Go Extinct?

Posted by Wilf MOUND - 27 January 2013 at 9:39pm - Comments

by. Credit: Charles DARWIN

FROM: Science 25 January 2013: Vol 339;No 6118; pp413-416

Can We Name Earth's Species Before They Go Extinct?

1. Mark J. Costello¹^,^*,

2. Robert M. May²,

3. Nigel E. Stork³

4. + Author Affiliations

↵^*To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: m.costello@auckland.ac.nz

1. ¹Leigh Marine Laboratory, University of Auckland, Post Office Box 349, Warkworth, New Zealand.

2. ²Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.

3. ³Environmental Futures Centre, School of Environment, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Road, QLD 4111, Brisbane, Australia.

Abstract :Some people despair that most species will go extinct before they are discovered. However, such worries result from overestimates of how many species may exist, beliefs that the expertise to describe species is decreasing, and alarmist estimates of extinction rates. We argue that the number of species on Earth today is 5 ± 3 million, of which 1.5 million are named. New databases show that there are more taxonomists describing species than ever before, and their number is increasing faster than the rate of species description. Conservation efforts and species survival in secondary habitats are at least delaying extinctions. Extinction rates are, however, poorly quantified, ranging from 0.01 to 1% (at most 5%) per decade. We propose practical actions to improve taxonomic productivity and associated understanding and conservation of biodiversity. [ENDS]