Predicting the number of known and unknown species in European seas using rates of description

By Mark John Costello, Simon P. Wilson. 2011

83 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Aim In this paper, we compare species description rates to predict the numbers of undescribed species. These data are used to discuss the merits of various attempts to estimate species richness in the oceans. Location European marine areas. Methods Predictions of how many species may exist on Earth have lacked an inventory of how many have been described, except for a few small taxa. The ocean is a good place to start an inventory because it includes all but one of the phyla and most classes of life on Earth. The European Register of Marine Species (ERMS) was compiled by taxonomic experts, covered all marine taxa, and accounted for synonyms. Reflecting taxonomic history, Europe's species are the best described in the world. Results ERMS listed 29,713 species of animals, plants and protists, but excluded bacteria and viruses. An estimated 6500 described species were not included. The best prediction of the number of species remaining to be described was 5613. Plots of years when species were first described showed no decrease in the rate of description for any taxa except birds, mammals and krill. If taxonomic effort has increased, whether due to more resources globally or greater efficiencies of productivity, then description rates per unit effort may be declining and the number of undescribed species may be lower than predicted. However, apart from reduced rates of description during the World Wars, there were no changes in description rates that could be easily attributed to such factors. Conclusions There are about 36,000 species described from European seas, and we predict that 40,000 to 48,000 may exist. This comprises 15% of the estimated 230,000 described marine species. However, this area is well known compared with other seas and the proportion of species yet to be discovered will be higher elsewhere.

Subfields: Ecological Modeling, Genetics, Oceanography

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/957fdc41467beaec118ddc19aaca44c0e48f4775

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Ecological Modeling

In Genetics

In Oceanography

Citations in the corpus

European seaweeds under pressure: Consequences for communities and ecosystem functioning (2015, background): “We concur with Costello and Wilson (2011) in that, although previous hyper-estimates of marine species diversity are unlikely to”
The magnitude of global marine species diversity. (2012, background): “Europe has probably the best-studied sea area in the world, but one-third of its biodiversity may yet be undescribed [2].”
Fungal Diversity Revisited: 2.2 to 3.8 Million Species (2017, background): “Unlike the situation in many other groups of organisms ( 12), the number of good fungal species continues to rise steeply decade by decade, with no indication of leveling off.”