Description:
The taxon experts group includes researchers whose work focuses on a particular group of species (i.e. ants, dragonflies, mammals, butterflies, bees, crabs, fish, reptiles, amphibians, and birds), as well as the data team of Map of Life, who helps facilitate the connections between species names and other biodiversity attribute data. There are three major themes in the team's efforts:
1. Establishment and refinement of taxonomic backbones for each focal species group
2. Navigating taxonomic specificity and uncertainty in biodiversity and conservation assessment
3. Incorporating species-specific distributional and attribute data in macroecological analyses
Core members:
Emily Sandall (Lead), Aurore Maureaud, Doug Booher, Yanina Sica, Ajay Ranipeta, Maisha Lucas, Kate Ingenloff, Matt Rogan, Lia Vogas Ker Marrara
Guest members:
Julia Laterza Barbosa, Richard Li, Mario Ribeiro de Moura, Vijay Barve, John Wieczorek, Kevin Winner
Previous members
Charlie Marsh, Bort Edwards, Stefan Pinkert, James Dorey
Projects and point of contact:
Individual taxonomies
Generating master lists, country-checklists and collecting synonyms:
- Ants (Doug)
- Plants (Bort)
- Crabs and marine realm (Aurore)
- Butterflies (Stefan)
- Dragonflies and damselflies (Emily)
- Reptiles (Mario + Yani)
- Mammals (Charlie + Yani)
- Birds (Kate + Yani)
- Marine lobsters (Maisha + Aurore)
Cleaning of occurrence data
Taxonomic harmonisation, identification of taxonomic, orthographic and spatial errors:
- Taxonomic cleaning working group (Emily)
- Spatial cleaning working group (Stefan)
- Overall workflow - Charlie (lead), Yani, Stefan, Bort, Matt
Taxonomy in biodiversity and macroecological synthesis (perspective)
- Emily and Aurore (leads), Charlie, Yani, Maisha, Kate, Stefan, Doug, Bort, Walter (+ external collaborators)
Knowledge gaps in biodiversity data
Stefan
Marine biogeography and regions of the ocean seafloor
Aurore + Kate (+ external persons not in the taxon expert group)
Global synthesis of marine decapods: species ranges and macroecology
Aurore
Coverage metrics for invertebrate and plant data
Ruth (lead), Doug, Bort, Emily, Stefan
The role of functional dietary role in mediating latitudinal gradient of size in ants
Doug (+ external collaborators)