[Taxacom] The only systematics

[Richard Zander]

Okay, so alpha taxonomy slid in under biodiversity studies. What I mean,
I guess, are revisions, you know, the old standard monographs where,
yes, phenetic cluster analysis, parsimony trees, biosystematics,
chromosome numbers, and so on may help, but alpha taxonomy is primary.

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Richard H. Zander 
Voice: 314-577-0276
Missouri Botanical Garden
PO Box 299
St. Louis, MO 63166-0299 USA
richard.zander at mobot.org
Web sites: http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/resbot/
and http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/bfna/bfnamenu.htm
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-----Original Message-----
From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
[mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Brian O'Meara
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 4:38 PM
To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] The only systematics

Serendipitously, the link seemed to go to all of DEB awards, not just  
"phylogenetic systematics", where there seems to be funding for alpha  
taxonomy of the sort you want. For example, the first grant listed is  
<http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=0841734>, a  
biodiversity survey of freshwater algae of the Hawaiian islands under  
the Biodiversity Surveys and Inventory program. According to the  
study abstract, "The objectives are to 1) establish long-term  
archived collections of Hawaiian freshwater algae morphological and  
genetic studies, 2) make all data available through a project  
database and website, and 3) describe newly discovered freshwater  
algal taxa from the Hawaiian Islands." This sounds like alpha  
taxonomy to me (describing newly discovered species), plus some  
bioinformatics and training -- "phylogeny" or "evolution" or "tree"  
aren't mentioned at all.