Lecture 1: The Science of Taxonomy and Systematics PDF

BIOLOGY 1 1 0 The Science of Taxonomy and Systematics Lecture 1 TAXONOMY Describing, naming, and classifying or organisms W H AT I S TA XO N O M Y ? Taxonomy WHAT TAXONOMISTS DO Discover, discern, describe, name, classify, study, compare, and identify the world’s li...

BIOLOGY 1 1 0 The Science of Taxonomy and Systematics Lecture 1 TAXONOMY Describing, naming, and classifying or organisms W H AT I S TA XO N O M Y ? Taxonomy WHAT TAXONOMISTS DO Discover, discern, describe, name, classify, study, compare, and identify the world’s living and extinct species and other taxa. Document the living world. Taxonomists use a universal and internationally accepted naming system, governed by a body of agreed rules, to ensure that taxon names are unambiguous and precise. Make sure that knowledge and understanding of biodiversity is organised and can accessed. SYSTEMATICS..."the study of the nature and origin of the natural populations of living organisms, both present and past” (Myers, 1952) W H AT I S SYST E M AT I CS SYSTEMATICS...“the production of cladograms that link taxa through their observed variation” (Wheeler, 2005) W H AT I S SYST E M AT I CS Systematics Conceptual and procedural relationships among and within areas of systematics. STUESSY, 2009 Systematics WHAT BIOSYSTEMATISTS DO Biosystematists study the big picture. The diversity of living organisms on Earth is the result of billions of years of evolution. Seek to ensure that the classification of organisms, into genera, families and higher categories, is founded on evolutionary relationships. Allow predictions about the properties and traits of organisms, and this is an important requirement for many other branches of biology  FE E D IN G TH E WOR LD D ISC OVE R ING T HE taxonomy of pests and pathogens D RUGS OF TH E F UT UR E discovering biological control agents; Fifty per cent of all pharmaceutical compounds documenting wild relatives of crop plants and registered for use in the USA are derived from, or animals to discover genes that may improve yields were originally discovered in, living organisms. or resist disease; exploring the taxonomy of soil and aquatic microbes Systematics as a useful Science Taxonomy and IMPR OVIN G H UMAN E N AB LIN G IN D USTR IAL H E ALTH IN N OVATION Many disease-causing organisms have not yet Organisms that produce medicines, fuels, plastics been named or studied and other organic chemicals Ecologists and farmers of the human microbiome, carefully manipulating our internal biodiversity to cure disease and keep us healthy  E N AB LIN G SUSTAIN AB ILITY By characterising biodiversity, taxonomists and biosystematists provide the framework and tools by which others can study change and resilience of the Earth system in the face of past, present and future stresses. “Trying to manage the Earth sustainably without an adequate taxonomy is like trying to manage the world’s largest, most Systematics as a complex corporation without an adequate inventory of stock and with no real idea of what most of the products look like or do.” useful Science Taxonomy and T H R E AT F R O M H U M A N - I N DU CE D E N VI R O N M E N TA L CHA N GE I N CLU DI N G Global warming pollution extractive industries  TAXONOMY AND SYSTEMATICS SUPPORT THE OTHER FIELDS OF SCIENCES Ecology by ensuring that species and other taxa (the subjects of most ecological studies) are scientifically robust, well characterised, and can be accurately identified  TAXONOMY AND SYSTEMATICS SUPPORT THE OTHER FIELDS OF SCIENCES Genetics by providing the evolutionary and taxonomic framework that allows an understanding of genetic diversity and evolution  TAXONOMY AND SYSTEMATICS SUPPORT THE OTHER FIELDS OF SCIENCES Geology by characterising and documenting the fossils that form the basis of much of stratigraphy and, hence, are key to mining and oil and gas exploration  TAXONOMY AND SYSTEMATICS SUPPORT THE OTHER FIELDS OF SCIENCES Earth Science by enabling documentation of biogeochemical cycles that help stabilise and drive the Earth system  TAXONOMY AND SYSTEMATICS SUPPORT THE OTHER FIELDS OF SCIENCES Oceanography by discovering and documenting the organisms, many of them microscopic and poorly studied, that underpin and drive ocean productivity  TAXONOMY AND SYSTEMATICS SUPPORT THE OTHER FIELDS OF SCIENCES Climate Science by enabling past, current and future climate change to be tracked, through an understanding of their effects on species and ecological communities.  TAXONOMY AND SYSTEMATICS SUPPORT THE OTHER FIELDS OF SCIENCES Agricultural Science by characterising pests, diseases, beneficial organisms and the wild relatives of crop plants TAXONOMY AND SYSTEMATICS SUPPORT THE OTHER FIELDS OF SCIENCES Medicine by enabling deeper, more accurate knowledge of the microbiome, i.e. human pathogens and probiotics  TAXONOMY AND SYSTEMATICS SUPPORT THE OTHER FIELDS OF SCIENCES Environmental Science by discriminating species and supporting an understanding of life histories and management of natural resources and species stocks  TAXONOMY AND SYSTEMATICS SUPPORT THE OTHER FIELDS OF SCIENCES Conservation Science by providing the authoritative species names that underpin conservation planning and legislation.  16th Century – the rise of botany and zoology as applied sciences ⚬ Botany – study of medicinal herbs ⚬ Zoology – study of the human anatomy and physiology 18th and 19th Century – extensive botanical and zoological taxonomy (identification) The History 19th Century – introduction of the theory of evolution and ⚬ Systematics – studied in universities ⚬ Taxonomy – (assigned in museums) Science of ￭ Geographic isolation ￭ Biological species concept Taxonomy ￭ Ecological and behavioral research  TAXONOMY SYSTEMATICS Refers to the classification of Refers to the study and classification of organisms organisms for the determination of the evolutionary relationship of organisms A branch of systematics Studies the relationship of organisms Involved in the classification VS and naming of organisms Involved in the classification, naming, cladistics, and phylogenetics Does not deal with the evolutionary history of Deals with the evolutionary history organisms of organisms Can change with further studies Does not change with further studies  ￭ Myers, G. S. 1952. The nature of systematic biology and of species description. Syst. Zool. 1:106—111. ￭ Stuessy, T. F. 2009. Plant Taxonomy: The Systematic Evaluation of Comparative Data, 2nd ed. NY: Columbia University Press. ￭ Wheeler, Q. D. 2005. Losing the plot: DNA “barcodes” and taxonomy. Cladistics 21:405—407. References