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Biodiversity research requires more boots on the ground

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 1, pages 1590–1591 (2017)Cite this article

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Our incomplete taxonomic knowledge impedes our attempts to protect biodiversity. A renaissance in the classification of species and their interactions is needed to guide conservation prioritization.

The discovery and description of Earth’s biodiversity is the oldest biological science, yet it is the least developed. The number of species characterized and given Latinized names by taxonomists recently passed 2 million. However, the full roster, comprising all those known and others awaiting discovery, is generally believed to be of the order of 10 million; one mathematically reasoned inference put the number of eukaryotic species alone at 8.7 million1. Thus, a very large fraction of living species, as many as 80%, remains unknown to science. Simply put, we live on a little-known planet.

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Fig. 1: Two of the 15,214 species of ant named globally by mid-2017.

both photographs, Christian Rabeling/Harvard University.

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  1. Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138-2902, USA

    Edward O. Wilson

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  1. Edward O. Wilson
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Correspondence to Edward O. Wilson.

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Wilson, E.O. Biodiversity research requires more boots on the ground. Nat Ecol Evol 1, 1590–1591 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0360-y

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