Celebrating the International Year of Biodiversity

M B Mostovski

doi:10.5733/afin.051.0108

Abstract

The United Nations declared 2010 to be the International Year of Biodiversity. It is one-year world-wide celebration of biological diversity and its importance for life on Earth. While biodiversity is frequently spoken about in the context of its conservation, no one would argue that protection of biodiversity relies strongly on knowledge of what we must conserve. Nonetheless, traditional taxonomy has often been marginalised among biological sciences by policy- and decision-makers, and left for old-fashioned museum eccentrics. Moreover, few high-profile scholarly journals these days accept long taxonomic revisions unless based on 'cutting edge' DNA sequencing or/and computer-generated phylogenetic trees. African Invertebrates, a journal of biodiversity research published by the Council of the Natal Museum, continues to contribute its mite to rejoice taxonomy and to celebrate the International Year of Biodiversity with a selection of research articles on molluscs, millipedes, spiders and insects.

Highlights

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Traditional taxonomy has often been marginalised among biological sciences by policy- and decision-makers, and left for old-fashioned museum eccentrics

Summary

Introduction

BioOne sees sustainable scholarly publishing as an inherently collaborative enterprise connecting authors, nonprofit publishers, academic institutions, research libraries, and research funders in the common goal of maximizing access to critical research. BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses. Your use of this PDF, the BioOne Complete website, and all posted and associated content indicates your acceptance of BioOne’s Terms of Use, available at www.bioone.org/terms-of-use.

Results

Conclusion