[Taxacom] Biodiversity in the news

[Stephen Thorpe]

or perhaps one database of unknown accuracy, plus another of same (which harvests from the first), adds up to a margin of error of whatever the heck you like ...
 
Stephen

From: Michael Heads <michael.heads at yahoo.com>
To: Stephen Thorpe <stephen_thorpe at yahoo.co.nz>
Cc: "taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu" <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
Sent: Thursday, 25 August 2011 3:40 PM
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Biodiversity in the news


They used WORMS and Catalogue of Life. Both showed maximum species numbers described around 1910. Perhaps the Edwardian era really was a golden age after all... 
 
Michael

Wellington, New Zealand.


My papers on biogeography are at: http://tiny.cc/RiUE0

From: Stephen Thorpe <stephen_thorpe at yahoo.co.nz>
To: David Patterson <dpatterson at mbl.edu>; Michael Heads <michael.heads at yahoo.com>
Cc: "taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu" <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
Sent: Thursday, 25 August 2011 3:21 PM
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Biodiversity in the news


>I presume Costello et al report described species 
at any rate, they probably extrapolate from WoRMS data of described taxa, but nobody knows quite how accurate (or not) WoRMS data really is ...

From: David Patterson <dpatterson at mbl.edu>
To: Michael Heads <michael.heads at yahoo.com>
Cc: "taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu" <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
Sent: Thursday, 25 August 2011 3:07 PM
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Biodiversity in the news

I presume Costello et al report described species (ignoring taxa known only
from sequence information?

PLOS deals with likely number of species to be described (although
prokaryotologists are up in arms at the handling of Eubacteria (Bacteria)
and Archaebacteria (Archaea)

D. Patterson

On Tue, Aug 23, 2011 at 11:54 PM, Michael Heads <michael.heads at yahoo.com>wrote:

> Hi Richard,
>
> In the latest Syst Biol (early access) Costello et al. estimated there
> are 1.8 - 2 million (0.3 million marine) species, not 8.7 million as in the
> PLoS paper.  Quite a difference.
>
> Michael Heads
>
> Wellington, New Zealand.
>
>
> My papers on biogeography are at: http://tiny.cc/RiUE0
>
> From: Richard Pyle <deepreef at bishopmuseum.org>
> To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu; ICZN Zoological Nomenclature Discussion
> Group <iczn-list at afriherp.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, 24 August 2011 2:33 PM
> Subject: [Taxacom] Biodiversity in the news
>
> Apologies for the cross-posting, but it seems that a recent publication of
> an estimate for the total number of species on Earth has put biodiversity
> in
> the spotlight (within the top-three Science & Technology stories on Google
> news).
>
> See:
> http://news.google.com/news/more?ncl=d5aw5ehpXOkr8SMoJdms_aUYLBQgM
>
> As usual, Carl Zimmer has a particularly well-written piece (in the New
> Your
> Times):
> http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/science/30species.html
>
> Whether or not you agree with the recently published estimate, I think it's
> always (well....usually, anyway) good to see biodiversity issues draw such
> high-profile attention.
>
> Aloha,
> Rich
>
> Richard L. Pyle, PhD
> Database Coordinator for Natural Sciences
> Associate Zoologist in Ichthyology
> Dive Safety Officer
> Department of Natural Sciences, Bishop Museum
> 1525 Bernice St., Honolulu, HI 96817
> Ph: (808)848-4115, Fax: (808)847-8252
> email: deepreef at bishopmuseum.org
> http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/staff/pylerichard.html
>
>
>
>
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-- 
___________________________________
David J Patterson

Senior Scientist, Marine Biological Laboratory
Life Sciences Lead, Data Conservancy
globalnames.org

7 MBL Street, Woods Hole, MASS 02543, USA.
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