Cataloguing the diversity of life on earth remains one of the incomplete goals of science. Taxonomists have tried to come up with a credible number for the species that have been identified as unique — and succeeded in entering some 1.2 million in a centralised database. The problem with this number is that it is a fraction of the whole; the majority of species both on land and in the oceans has not been catalogued. It is in this context that a new species count put out by a group of scientists becomes noteworthy. Camilo Mora and colleagues propose in an open access paper titled “How Many Species Are There on Earth and in the Ocean?” (published in the journal PLoS Biology) that the number of those with complex cell structures could be 8.7 million, plus-or-minus 1.3 million. Of them, the marine species could be about 2.2 million. This estimate is a projection based on consistent and predictable patterns in the system of classifying animals and plants. The real significance lies not in the absolute number — there could be many more species, other scientists think — but in the scale of effort needed to identify and save them in a human-dominated future. Given the magnitude of the task, taxonomy as a discipline should be drawing many more researchers. It also needs massive infusions of funding.
Underpinning the estimate arrived at by Dr. Mora and his group is the thesis that there has been a definite pattern to the discovery of new classes of animals from the year 1750. Reasonable predictions were possible in the past based on the classification pyramid that scientists could build. Now, based on that model, it is suggested there may be 7.7 million species of animals, 298,000 plants, and 611,000 fungi, among others. It will take an accelerated global campaign to validate these figures. It is worth pointing out that only about 15,000 new discoveries are added to the tally annually. At the same time, the mounting resource demands of 6.9 billion humans are altering habitats at such a rapid pace that the resulting extinction rates greatly exceed the natural rates of loss. In many parts of the world, there is a fading echo of biodiversity. This demands a stronger response from governments to document life. Funding to establish more taxonomy centres in universities, for DNA analysis and for scientific expeditions, is crucial. Where funding and expertise are available, the results are impressive. Many amphibians given up as lost in India have been rediscovered and catalogued in recent years, particularly in the Western Ghats. Saving what remains of species diversity is vital, and greater understanding of what exists will help make that possible.
Keywords: taxonomy, Camilo Mora, earth, ocean, new species, Western Ghats, biodiversity, DNA analysis
A TRUNK-FULL TASK Sir, The idea of profiling,processing,and preserving for posterity if possible the species of Life on earth is as exciting as the task.The job requires planning and spending of time and money on warfooting. Though it is a daunting job,it is not an impossible one.The 'invisible' life in the forms of bacteria and virus also need our attention and as such it should be coded and canned.And undertaking this gurgantous task will be meaningful if only when such preserved knowledge is made useful and accessible to all.
The recent figures on biodiversity of the world is a eye opener to the human world. In spite of this alarming deforestation and degradation in accordance with development, there are several millions species still surviving. It throw light on survivability and adaptability of the organisms. However, just enumerating the biodiversity won't yield. Proper and stringent management measures should be taken up to conserve them.
Conservation should not be species oriented, it should be habitat oriented and gets fulfilled when protected areas(PA) network are created.
Yeah, there is a great bit of responsibility on each and every individual over the sustainance of the environment. And one thing that I doubt is that earth in some million years ago constituted some X% O2, Y% CO2 and ZX % flora and fauna lets say= 100 % things. According to me in this time where we live it is converted to some YA% O2, ZA % animal and fauna resulting in the gross 100% of total consistuents present in, around and on the earth. My hypothetical ideology cant be comfortably kept at a side? if its so then think that the rise in human population and pollution has its own essence in the depletion of the other spices. so in order to build some biome we have to control the other. (Energy cant be created nor be destroyed but can be converted into one state to other).
Taxonomy studies is still in the rudimentary stage and needs a lot of funding from the governmemt and other welfare bodies for its flourishment. More and more learning taxonomy centres should be coming up.
The hummongous increase in population and to sustain them has made inroad in both marine and earthly organism resulting in the ecological imbalance.Government has turned blind eye to this unseen problem either because of ignorance or asusual dont want the environmental activist to make it a political issue as they are already mired by Anna and its Lokpal Bill.
If the daring naturalist, Charles Robert Darvin, was capable of writing the 'Origin' within a space of ten months, what does prevent modern scientists from profiling, prcessing and compiling the interdependencies between animals, plants and the physical enviornment. Taxonomy is far from a developed branch of science, probably, by dint of lack of funds as you allege. The advanced cyber means makes it a child play to accomplish the task. The absence material gain may be one more factor that dampens research in this venture. The Western Ghats are a treasure trove in respect of species diversity. There are yet to be unwrapped species mysteries nestling in the biological fortress.
Life on earth has begun from the marine life itself. Any significant discovery within the unfathomable realm of marine-world will definitely add new adjectives to the life at large. The task of cataloging marine life is beyond expectation,but if it is done on war-footing,will give a novel understanding to generations for sustainable development on earth.
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