MOE Key Laboratory for Biodiversity Science and Ecological Engineering, Institute of Biodiversity Science, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, 200438 Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Silviculture, Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Forest Aromatic Plants-based Healthcare Functions, School of Forestry and Bio-Technology, Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University, 311300 Lin'an, People's Republic of China.
Proc Biol Sci. 2023 Feb 8;290(1992):20221954. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2022.1954. Epub 2023 Feb 1.
Discovery rates of new plant species need to be accelerated because many species will be extinct before they are formally described. Current studies have focused on where new species may occur and their characteristics. However, who will actually discover and describe these new species has received limited attention. Here, we used 31 576 vascular plant species distributed and described in China as a case study to explore the temporal patterns of the nationalities of the taxonomists. We found that most recently described species are endemic species, and there has been an increasing proportion of species descriptions by resident Chinese taxonomists over time. The proportion of species described by resident taxonomists reached an average of 80.8% between 1977 and 2018. By contrast, species discoveries by non-resident experts, often non-endemic species, showed signs of levelling off. Our study underscores an urgent need for training of, support for and collaboration with resident taxonomists in megadiverse countries with a high potential of discovering undescribed plant species.
新植物物种的发现率需要加快，因为许多物种在正式描述之前就已经灭绝了。目前的研究集中在新物种可能出现的地方及其特征上。然而，谁将真正发现和描述这些新物种受到的关注有限。在这里，我们以中国分布和描述的 31576 种维管植物为案例研究，探讨了分类学家国籍的时间模式。我们发现，最近描述的物种大多是特有种，随着时间的推移，中国本土分类学家描述的物种比例不断增加。1977 年至 2018 年间，驻留分类学家描述的物种比例平均达到 80.8%。相比之下，非驻留专家（通常是非特有种）的物种发现呈现出稳定的迹象。我们的研究强调了在具有高发现未描述植物物种潜力的巨大多样性国家中，对驻留分类学家进行培训、支持和合作的迫切需要。
