[Taxacom] Does the species name have to change when it moves genus?

[Karen Cranston]

> In terms of making automated global databases, it's definitely an issue. But who actually needs them? I know that that might sound like heresy, but please tell us who needs those names who is not already an expert or know/be-in-contact-with an expert.

*Raises hand*
At NESCent, I see many examples of scientists (evolutionary
biologists, paleontologists, ecologists...) collecting trait data in
spreadsheets / databases, often broadly across biodiversity. One of
the critical steps is resolving taxonomic names from the literature.
There aren't good global resources for doing this (and instability of
names is one, but not the only, reason why), so most of our groups
develop their own solutions. It is a huge waste of effort for
non-taxonomists to re-invent this wheel over and over again.

Cheers,
Karen

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
karen.cranston at gmail.com
National Evolutionary Synthesis Center
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~