vanishing taxonomists

[Christoffer Schander]

Fabio Moretzsohn wrote:

>One way to obtain the data on taxonomists, their field of expertise,
>geographical distribution, etc, could be done relatively easy through an
>initiative such as ITIS' TRED (Taxonomic Resources and Expertise Directory)
>(http://www.nbii.gov/datainfo/syscollect/tred/index.html  ). This directory
>is restricted to the North American biota. Another project, with a worlwide
>scope is the World Taxonomist Database at ETI (Expert Center for Taxonomic
>Identification) (http://www.eti.uva.nl/Database/WTD.html). This site says
>that there is an estimated 5000 experienced taxonomists worldwide (I guess
>not only in zoology). If this figure is correct, then a quick comparison
>with the figure from the book quoted by Tom Parker shows a great decrease
>from the estimated zoological taxonomists (9000) in 1961


These databases are great, but incomplete. I searched the ETI
database for 50 taxonomists working on various groups (Birds,
Mammals, Fish, Molluscs, Polychaetes, Oligochaetes, Nemerteans,
Insects, Crustaceans, Meiofauna). 15 were in the database 35 were
not. I did the same thing with the TRED for 50 American zoologists
and only 14 were listed. The TRED database can not be searched using
Netscape since you will get a CGI script error. If anybody is going
to use TRED you will have to use Internet Explorer, like it or not.


Chris Schander