vanishing taxonomists reference?

[Amelie H. Scheltema]

Dear taxacomers,

Here are some data that I find useful in talking about the decline in
taxonomists--numbers not easily obtained.

The following were derived from species lists in Tunnecliffe, V., McArthur,
A.G., & McHugh, D. 1998. A biogeographical perspective of the deep-sea
hydrothermal vent fauna. pp 543-448 + taxonomic index in Advances in Marine
Biology 34.

Total species from all sites (31): 446
Total endemic species  (taken as all new species at the 31 sites): 367
No. taxonomists, endemic species (many naming only one or two species): 78

25% of the endemics were described by 3 authors; 2 of these are deceased since
1998, and the 3rd has no support at present for finishing the vent faunas.

I have also found the following list useful:

Expenses of morphological taxonomic research:

Researcher's time
Supplies
Upkeep, amortization of equipment
Charges for use of specialized equipment (SEM, TEM)
Page charges (monographs are notoriously long)
Shipping
Curating
Assistants' salaries
Training for students & postdocs
Development of web sites for databases, descriptions, keys, classification,
etc. (and a webmaster to produce them)

A still incomplete survey of museums being done by Christoffer Schander
indicates that in 71 museums the curators of invertebrates have dropped from
364 in 1980 to 315 in 2001. I suppose that many of those remaining are elders
like me.

It has also occurred to me that it is a long tradition not to pay taxonomists
for identifying organisms collected by others. Gentlemen taxonomists of the
19th century did not need to be recompensed, and earlier in the 20th century
those in universities were not required to find funding for their research as
well as part of their salaries. All this has changed, and the tradition needs
to come to an end. My suggestion is that those who collect organisms which
they themselves are not going to identify/describe/classify must include
taxonomic costs in their proposals along with a list of the taxonomists who
will be doing the taxonomic research. I imagine that such costs could be
handled on a contractual basis.

I hope these ideas and data will be useful. It really is up to taxonomists to
spread the word and insist that our research be supported. Otherwise, young
people will not  see taxonomy as a viable career.

Amélie Scheltema

--
Amélie H. Scheltema
Department of Biology
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution  MS #34
Woods Hole, MA 02543 USA
ascheltema at whoi.edu
Tel.: Int +1 508-289-2337
FAX: Int +1 508-457-2134





"P. F. Stevens" wrote:

> While not denying that numbers of taxonomists seem to be decreasing, this
> seems to have been a problem for over a hundred years.  Either there were
> very many of us to start with, or reports of our impending death need
> careful documentation..... :-)   .
>
> Peter S.
>
> >For some reason, I can't locate the citation for the article that came out
> >a few years back (I think it may have been in The American Entomologist,
> >but now I'm not so sure) examining the attrition rate in the taxonomy
> >profession. Surely someone must have this citation at their fingertips?
> >
> >TIA,
> >
> >
> >Doug Yanega        Dept. of Entomology         Entomology Research Museum
> >Univ. of California - Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521