回应评论"我们可以在灭绝之前命名地球的物种吗?"
Mark J Costello1, Robert M May, Nigel E Stork
1Leigh Marine Laboratory, Institute of Marine Science, University of Auckland, Post Office Box 349, Warkworth, New Zealand. m.costello@auckland.ac.nz
概括
科学家估计,地球上有200万到800万种物种. 尽管正在进行辩论,但目前的分类学努力是前所未有的,支持对物种描述和灭绝率的估计.
科学领域:
- 生物多样性科学 生物多样性科学
- 分类学 分类学是指分类学.
- 保护生物学 保护生物学
背景情况:
- 关于物种发现与灭绝的速度存在争论.
- 全球物种丰富程度的估计有很大的差异.
- 目前的分类学努力的有效性正在受到审查.
研究的目的:
- 解决有关物种发现时间表与灭绝有关的争议.
- 加强对物种描述和灭绝率的估计.
- 提供关于全球物种丰富性的最新数据.
主要方法:
- 对现有物种描述和灭绝数据的分析.
- 建模以评估未被发现的微观物种的影响.
- 评估当前的分类学努力水平.
主要成果:
- 尽管发现了更多的微观物种,但结论仍然坚实.
- 种类描述和灭绝率得到了当前数据的支持.
- 分类学努力处于历史最高水平.
- 据估计,全球物种丰富程度在200万到800万之间.
结论:
- 该研究对加速物种发现的核心建议是有效的.
- 目前的分类学工作是实质性的,并支持现有率估计.
- 地球可能拥有数百万未被发现的物种,这凸显了生物多样性研究的紧迫性.
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