Page:Principles for creating a single authoritative list of the world’s species.pdf/8

PLOS BIOLOGY

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9. List content should be traceable

The global species list should include full citations of the literature that originally established the taxa and their names, as well as of the taxonomic treatments used as the basis of the accepted status (classification and synonymy) for each taxon, to ensure explicit reference to both the underlying scientific nomenclature and the basis for the specific associated taxonomic concept.

10. A global listing process needs both to encompass global diversity and to accommodate local knowledge of that diversity

Given that biodiversity is global, that taxa are not constrained by national boundaries, and that there is a strong need for efficiencies of scale in any listing process, we believe that the appropriate scale for a unified list of accepted species and other taxa is global. However, national and infranational lists are also important, particularly when taxonomies are embedded in national and infranational legislation. Further, much taxonomic expertise is local rather than global; many highly competent taxonomists, for sensible reasons, have deep knowledge of taxa in their region but lack a global perspective on their taxonomic group. Global lists are only likely to be adopted locally if they are assembled with reference to local taxonomic knowledge.

A pathway to adoption

Current systems provide a solid foundation for the creation and management of global lists, with the CoL Consortium having a version that is progressing rapidly. However, neither the CoL nor any of the other aggregative lists have been adopted universally by users of taxonomic research. There are likely to be many reasons for this. Some are practical. The work involved in changing a taxonomy at a local or national level may be greater than the resources available to do so, and the savings from adopting a global list may not be apparent at a local level. More significantly, no existing list mechanism has established clear buy-in from either the broad taxonomic community or the broad stakeholder community. We believe that achieving such buy-in will require adoption of the principles listed above.

For reasons outlined above, we believe that a key step in establishing a mechanism for creating and maintaining a unified global list that will maximise engagement from both the taxonomy sector and the stakeholder and user community is to establish a governance mechanism that operates at a high level of global science (Fig 2). No such mechanism currently exists that

Fig 2. Steps in the process of global list aggregation highlighting current gaps.

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